Geisha's+Role+In+Tokugawa,+Japan

__**In The Beginning**__ Before the Edo Period (1603-1867) women used to wear their hair long and straight down their back, but when the impression of Geisha hairstyle grew, more and more women started to wear their hair tyed up in geisha-style with combs, ornaments, and knitting-needle-like hairpins. The way a women wore their hair and the way she presented herself, showed her class and marriage status. When women immitated the hairstyles of a man, it usually meant that she was marriaged or soon to be married. Hair played a significant role in status. There were many different hairstyles that women can wear that stand for different statuses. For instance, the Osafune hairstyle, with the hair sticking out and pointing down like insect antennas was worn by fashionable wives or mistresses. The butterfly-like Yoko-hyogo was worn by courtesans. Girls wore their hair like geishas in a hairstyle called Momoware. Unmarried women wore shimadamage hairstyle. The Taka-Shimada style, worn by brides today, was originally worn by the high-ranking servants of samurai. __**Yamanba and kintaro sakazuki**__ The picture above was made in the 18th century by Kitagawa Ichitarō. The picture shows a women who appears to be a geisha, she is holding a baby, and the baby is drinking out of a saucer type dish. The source of this woodblock print was from Kitagawa Utamaro 1806 death. Kitagawa Utamaro was acclaimed to be one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints. He studied women, the study called Bijinga which means "beautiful person picture." Geisha's played a big role in Tokugawa, Japan they were included in a lot of the woodblock prints that were made during The Edo Period. They showed up in the woodblock prints usually entertaining samurai outside an In (a hotel like place) or outside tea houses. Geisha's are random in most Ukiyo-e pictures. But, the prints show that they were in a high class. Like the samurai.

__**//Ase o fuku onna// (Woman wiping sweat)**__ The print above was made in 1798, printed between 1918 and 1923 by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806), shows a head-and-shoulders portrait of a young woman wiping the sweat off her face with a cloth wrapped around her. Geisha's were hard workers in their time. Geisha's life was complicated because they were required to be perfect and flawless. If one rumor was spoken about them, their whole career could fall. Geisha's that fail at their profession, end up as prostitutes or maid like workers.

The print above "Flowers of Edo, represents a young woman's narrative chanting to the Samisen." In the woodblock print it shows things that are very common in japanese paintings and prints, which are the cherry blossoms, the geisha, the caligraphy and the subscript that pops out on the side.

The print above "One Hundred Stories of Demons and Spirits" By Kitagawa Utamaro was made in the early 19th century. This woodblock print represents the japanese ghosts in the late 18th cnetury early 19th. Mainly the ghost named Yurei, which are the ghosts of those who at the moment of death were deprived of the time to repose themselves. So, Yurei are the lost souls of Japan.

The print above "Three known beauties" By Kitagawa Utamaro, with the date unknown is of three geisha's looking around in different directions. The two geisha's in the foreground seem to be staring at each other in an intense scene and the one in the background hoovering over the two is looking to the left at something unknown. The geisha's look flawless, like geisha's are supposed to look.

A number of people think that the women who appear in the wook block prints standing around or close to a group of men are prostitutes but, that's not the case. The women in the paintings are called Geishas which literally means “person of the arts." Geisha's were professional female entertainers, quite distinct from prostitutes and were a completely self-regulating community. When a women is training to become a Geisha she trains for five to seven years, and she is usually at the age of five or six, she trains in the arts of poetry, dance, music, and banter. When a women finally became a Geisha she is considered high-class because of her profession. The tradition of being a geisha was brought on by generations of geisha's, who trained other geisha's and so on. The geisha profession has slowly calmed down, and it is on the down low in present day.