A FEMINIST NEW HISTORICISM READING OF THE PORTRAYAL OF HOT-SPRING GEISHAS IN YASUNARI KAWABATA’S SNOW COUNTRY

Dyah Rochmawati Dosen Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris – FKIP - Universitas PGRI Adi Buana Surabaya [email protected]

Abstrak Geisha adalah topik yang menarik tentang sejarah dan keindahan wanita Jepang. Geisha sering disalahartikan sebagai prostitusi namun seniman-penghibur (entertainer) tradisional Jepang. Bagaimana kehidupan dan permasalahan yang berhubungan dengan geisha menarik untuk diteliti. Yasunari Kawabata, sastrawan Jepang, menulis cerita tentang geisha dan kisah cintanya dengan lelaki yang dihiburnya dalam novel Snow Country (1947). Beliau pernah memenangkan hadiah Nobel. Artikel ini membahas potret kehidupan geisha dalam novel tersebut dilihar dari sudut pandang feminism dan new historicism.

Kata Kunci: Geisha, feminisme dan new historicisme.

Introduction and neutral mask of make-up is a flesh and blood woman with her own history, The word "geisha" is basically a disappointments and dreams. The secrets she compound of two words or characters - guards most closely belong to her own heart. meaning "art" and "person," respectively. The The hot-spring geishas are described so word gei (pronounced gay) means “art” in vividly in Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country Japanese. "Geinin" or " geiko" are two other novel still exist today, and authentic geisha versions of this. However, the most continue to entertain in elegant old teahouses appropriate translation of the word "geisha" is or hot spring inns. They dress, groom probably "artiste." As for the apprentice themselves and perform as geisha have for geisha, they're referred to as "maiko." centuries. Women who become geisha today Geisha have long been figures of are often drawn to the profession through an fascination in Japan and throughout the world. interest in the traditional arts and may remain For centuries, they have emerged from their in it only a few years. Once their country’s homes at dusk like butterflies from a cocoon most fashionable women, top geisha were the for a night’s round of teahouse engagements. supermodels of their day until “modern” came Social evenings have always been an to be defined as Western in Japan. important part of business in Japan, and the Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) was a presence of geisha reflects well on the host key figure in 20th Century Japanese literature who can afford such glamorous companions. among very few writers from Asia who have Neither wife nor prostitute, a geisha is managed to penetrate the West literature. He an artist who earns her living entertaining called universal attention to the importance of powerful men. A geisha is a trained dancer, Japanese literature by receiving Nobel Prize singer and musician, as well as a witty for Literature in 1968. This has made people in conversationalist. She laughs at her client’s the West aware that Japan made valuable jokes — and never tells his secrets. She creates contribution to the world of literature. drama with a simple flick of her fan. Kawabata brought Japanese literature to the Years of hard work and self-discipline international world of literature. For him, to be have transformed her into this refined creature, the first Japanese Nobel Laureate for but underneath her binding layers of kimono Literature would help bridge the West and the

37 East. The prize was a symbol of understanding 2. What are the causes of becoming a hot- and friendship between East and West spring geisha? (McManus, 1998). 3. Does it resonate with the Japanese people Seidensticker, the translator of Snow in light of their history? Country from Japanese, in Kawabata (1981: x) 4. Does the socio-political relevance of Snow has stated that the novel is perhaps Kawabata’s Country continue to the present day? masterpiece. Snow Country of which the original title is Yukigini was completed in New Historicism 1947. Snow Country (1947), a stylistic tour de New Historicist Criticism took shape in force, analyzes the love and loneliness of a the late 1970s and early 1980s as opposed to country geisha in a mountain hot-springs resort New Criticism and to the critical who has an affair with an urbane dilettante deconstruction. It is also new and differ from Tokyo. It is the story of the story of markedly from its former (old) historicism to Shimamura, a ‘wealthy sophisticate’ from view literature as a stable events which can be Tokyo and Komako, a geisha in a small, used as “background” of an era, or simply as a nameless village located in the snow country “reflection” that refer to material condition (as of Japan, which is the snowiest region on in early Marxism) of particular epoch of Earth. Komako is a girl who became a geisha literature. It is a movement considerably to help pay the medical bills of a young man inspired by Focault’s work and developed by who is dying named Yokio. He may or may Stephen Greenblatt, Louis Montrose, and not be her fiancé. Shimamura is an older, others (Hogan, 2000: 158, 166). married man with a family. He is described as Michel Foucault was a French social a dilettante, a wealthy man who lives a life of historian and philosopher of history and best idleness. Shimamura is a spoiled, somewhat known for his highly influential analysis of careless man, who spends his time pursuing power. He addresses a wide range of power hobbies rather than a career. Living in two relations in a broad range of social structures. different types of isolation, the two find their In his opinion, power is not merely the love ultimately impossible. strength of state, not merely brute force, but it The present paper is going to mainly is a relation in existing in all social structures focus on the portrayal of hot-spring geishas in and it is bound up with thought, study, and Kawabata’s Snow Country and whether or not systematic theorization (ibid: 179-180). those depictions reflect the values of women in Hogan (2000: 190) has further stated that Japanese society by using the New Historicism every work of literature is firmly bound to its criticism and the Feminist Philosophy as history and culture. New Historicism is theoretical lenses. It is a method based on the therefore a reading of political, legal, literary, parallel reading of literary and non-literary and other historical texts through one another, texts, usually of the same historical period a part of one history or as part of culture, such (Barry, 1995: 172). From the perspectives of as its ideological presuppositions, its political the New Historicism, literature must be read implications, its implied manifestations of within the broader context of its culture, in the cultural relations and traditions, its historical context of other discourses ranging over relations, to name a few. politics, religion, and aesthetics, as well as its Veeser (2007: 3) cited, “Greenblatt, economic context (Habib, 2005: 760); while Montrose, and other New Historicists have the Feminist Philosophy refers to philosophy insistently highlighted the "atrocities" visited approached from a feminist perspective. on lower class bodies, have lovingly detailed Specifically, the paper is attempting at the "colonial torture" lavished on the starkly answering the following questions: victimized, "broken, hapless underlings" who 1. How does the novel address the life of hot- people New Historicist prose.” The New spring geishas? Historicism involves the parallel study of

38 literary text and non-literary texts which make Discourse is not just a way of speaking or use of some historical data (Barry, 1995: 172). writing, but the whole ‘mental set’ and ideology which encloses the thinking of all Feminist Philosophy members of a given society (Barry, 1995: Philosophy is considered to be the 176). One of the most influential American ‘mother-subject’ of all subjects, such as Mathematics, Physics, Economics, and so on. philosophers who have argued that literature to All happened from within philosophy, some extent contributes to, and maybe including the study of Literature. Philosophy constitutes philosophical inquiry is Martha deals with some questions known to humanity. Craven Nussbaum. She has claimed that some Philosophy and Literature share a concern for literary works are absolutely necessary to the great and small truths of human existence. philosophy, or more precisely, moral Both can enrich each other. Literature philosophy. Her view is that in literary aesthetically assimilates and transmits narrative life is represented as something in a Philosophy; while philosophical themes style which sets up certain reactions in the contribute to the structural unity of literary reader which are suitable for understanding works and also to widen the scope of literary truths about life, knowledge and wisdom about theory, such as formalism, new criticism, humanity and society. Reading literature, structuralism, psychoanalysis and so forth particularly novels, exercises one’s perception (Skilleas, 2001: 1-12). When one is reading a and abilities to judge people and situations so work of literature, what he or she is actually as to act adequately and to feel the appropriate reading is both a work of oratory, an essay, emotions in given circumstances (Skilleas, philosophy or scripture and a work of 2001: 129-130). literature (New, 1999: 1). New (1999: 120) has suggested that The forms of social and political literature can state or imply various philosophy that have been the most prominent propositions. Works of fiction can sometimes in the literary study have tendency to put a be said to convey moral, political, religious, or great emphasis on how social groups any other truths. Sometimes they do set out to privileges some other groups at the expense of covey such supposed truths, and sometimes others. One aspect of this study is the analysis they succeed. of the nature and history of class relations, for Thus, literature contributes to expand instance, relations between sexes, relations one’s emotional and cognitive capacities. between different racial or ethnic groups. The Literature does indeed have the capacity to examination covers both the domination itself expand their horizon and to make them and the means by which the domination is understand motivations and world-pictures preserved (Hogan, 2000: 158-159). different from their own through the Another aspect of the analysis which has presentation of its characters in their complete perhaps been more central to the study of significance equipped with emotional literature is the analysis of ideology which is engagement (ibid: 139-140). the ideas that operate to maintain and extend Feminism is probably the most social hierarchy of class, sex, race, and so important influence on social and political forth, outside of repression. They may have a literary in the last half century. The term function in sustaining oppressive hierarchies. ‘feminism’ covers a range of feminism. This is intended to produce political effects: to Despite such differences, most feminists agree foster a more profound understanding, critical that women’s basic physical rights to health, of capitalism and its racial stratifications , to nutrition, and so forth, as well as their right to promote a broader range of aspiration, exercise control over their own sexual and including aspirations to transform the social reproductive lives have been deprived by men. structure itself, and so forth (ibid.: 160, 163). In the course of human history, most men have

39 been deprived those rights often due to race critique, cross its limits and thus reach beyond and class, nationality, sexual preference, its traditional domain as well. intellectual capacities, physical disabilities, or less systematic factors, such as personality or History of Geisha appearance (Hogan, 2000: 167-170). Geisha, or geigi or geiko are traditional, The impact of feminism on literary criticism female Japanese entertainers whose skills over the past thirty-five years has been include performing various Japanese arts, for profound and wide-ranging. A host of related instance classical music and dance. Geiko is disciplines have been affected by feminist another name for geisha. It is usually used to literary enquiry, including linguistics, refer to geisha from western Japan including philosophy, history, religious studies, Kyoto. An apprentice geisha is called maiko. sociology, anthropology, film and media A maiko is paid half of the wage of a full studies, cultural studies, musicology, geisha. geography, economics and law (Plain and A geisha usually put on white and thick Sellers, 2007: 15). Goel (2010:403) has further make-up and red lipsticks. They also wear cited: elaborate kimono and hair of maiko. These are “Feminist literary criticism is he rebellion the most recognizable image held of a geisha. of the female consciousness against the The make-up and kimono they wear features male images of female identity and whether they are a maiko or older and mature experience. The concept of female identity geisha. The older a geisha, the simpler style shows us how female experience is she wears to show her own natural beauty. transformed into female consciousness, A woman entering the geisha community often in reaction to male paradigms for does not have to begin as a maiko having the female experience. It is an ideology that opportunity as a full geisha. A woman above opposes the political, economical and 21 is considered too old to be a maiko and cultural relegation of women to positions of becomes a full geisha upon her initiation into inferiority.” the geisha community. However, those who do go through the maiko stage can enjoy more Feminist philosophy is defined as prestige later in their professional lives. philosophy approached from a feminist In the early stages of Japanese history, perspective. It employs the methods of there were female entertainers called saburuko philosophy to further the cause of the feminist (serving girls). They were mostly wandering movements and attempts to criticize or re- girl whose families were displaced from evaluate the ideas of the traditional philosophy struggles in the late 600s. Some of these girls from within a feminist framework. The sold sexual services; whereas some with a feminist philosophy does not claim to search better education made a living by entertaining for knowledge for its own sake, but rather for at high-class social gatherings. After the the sake of a political goal: resistance to, and capital was moved to Kyoto in 794, Japanese elimination of, the subordination of women Geisha culture began to emerge. (Gardner, 2006: xxiii). Traditional Japan embraced sexual Lai (2006) has suggested that New delights and it is not a Shinto taboo that men Historicism should be reconciled with the could be unfaithful to their wives. The ideal mainstream postmodernism, which is more wife was a modest mother and manager of the diverse, affirmative and ethico-political than home. By Confucian custom love had the formalistic and pessimistic theory secondary importance. For sexual enjoyment advocated by Greenblatt. There is the and romantic attachment, men did not go to possibility of a feminist new historicism to their wives, but to courtesan. Pleasure quarters show how New Historicism can revitalize its were then built in the 16th century.

40 Outside of which was considered to be World War II brought a huge decline in illegal and “play women” called yữjo were the geisha arts because the majority of women then classified and licensed. The highest yữjo had to work for factories and other places to class was the geisha’s predecessor, called work for Japan. The geisha name also lost oiran, a combination of actress and prostitute. some status during this time prostitutes served They performed erotic dances and skts, and American military men. In 1944, everything in this new art was dubbed kabuki, meaning “to the geisha’s world including teahouses, bars, be wild and outrageous”. The dances were and houses was forced to shut down, and all called kabuki and this was the beginning of employees were put to work in those factories. kabuki theater. About a year later, they were allowed to Near the turn of the 18th century, the first reopen. The women who returned to the geisha entertainers of the pleasure quarters called areas decided to reject western influence and geisha, appeared. The very first geishas were revert back to traditional ways of men, entertaining customers waiting the most entertainment and life. Compulsory education popular and gifted oiran. The forerunners of laws passed in the 1960s made traditional female geisha were the teenage odoriko geisha apprenticeships difficult, leading to a (dancing girls) expensively trained as dancers- decline in women entering the field. The for-hire. In the 1680s, they were hired in the simultaneous growth of Japanese industry, private homes of upper-class samurai, though which opened other opportunities for women, many had turned to prostitution by the early further contributed to the decline of geisha 18th century. The first woman to be known to industry. have called herself geisha was a Fukugawa prostitute, in about 1750. She was a skilled Theory of Prostitution singer and shamisen-player named Kikuya Edmund and Korn (2002: 181-187) have who was an immediate success making female cited that prostitution is low-skill, labor geisha extremily popular in 1750s intensive, female, and well paid. Prostitution is Fukugawa.They became more widespread a multibillion dollar business that employs throughout 1760s and 1770s, many began millions of women worldwide. Prostitution is working only as entertainer, rather than the “act or practice of engaging in sexual prostitutes, often in the same establishment as intercourse for money.” But a prostitute cannot male geisha. simply be a woman who sells her body since The geisha who worked within the “that is done every day by women who pleasure quarters were essentially imprisoned become wives in order to gain a home and a and strictly forbidden to sell sex in order to livelihood” Prostitution has an unusual feature: protect the business of the oiran. While it is well paid despite being low-skill, labor licensed courtesans existed to meet men’s intensive, and, one might add, female sexual needs, machi geisha served as artists dominated. Earnings even in the worst-paid and crudite female companions. By 1800, type, streetwalking, may be several multiples being a geisha was considered a female of full-time earnings in professions with occupation, though there are still a few male comparable skill requirements. Most people geisha working today. Eventually, the oiran would agree that sleeping around does not began to fall out of fashion. By 1830s, the amount to prostitution. evolving geisha was emulated by fashionable Prostitution has a poor reputation. Once a women throughout society. Some women woman is identified as a prostitute, her ability would have sex with male customers, whereas to marry is reduced. Humans not only mate but others would entertain strictly with their art also marry. Men prefer their wives to be forms. Prostitution was legal up to the 1900s, faithful (for instance, from a desire to raise so it was practiced in many quarters biological children); whereas Women rarely throughout Japan. pay men for commercial sex, possibly for the

41 same reason that women sell to men Hence, slave-like conditions; though other studies prostitution and marriage are largely paint a similar picture of prostitution as well incompatible for women. Empirically, paid. unmarried women are overrepresented among prostitutes. Although some prostitutes marry, Research Method it is a fair guess that, on average, they do so on less favorable terms than they would have Dealing with the achievement of an done otherwise. Also, some women prostitute intended goal in answering the research themselves while married. However, in many problems, the present study employed a cases these women are separated from their descriptive qualitative research method. The husbands or their marriage may have ceased to word qualitative implies an emphasis on exist in anything but form. processes and meanings that are not rigorously Married men are underrepresented among examined or measured in terms of quantity, clients; they nonetheless constitute the bulk of amount, intensity, or frequency. Qualitative demand married men also consult prostitutes. research involves an interpretive, naturalistic This begs the question why married men go to approach to its subject matter. It is applied to prostitutes (rather than buying from their investigate things in their natural settings, wives, who presumably would be low-cost attempting to make sense of, or interpret providers considering that they can sell non- phenomena in terms of the meanings people reproductive sex without compromising their bring to them. It involves the studied use and marriage). collection of a variety of empirical materials, Prostitution has been associated with such as case study, personal experience, poverty. Low potential for female labor market introspective, life story, interviews, earnings is often taken to be an important observational, historical, interactional, and reason why women go into prostitution, and in visual texts (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994: 2). any society a higher proportion of poor women This research used library research prostitute themselves. Slavery is a more through documentation techniques to collect common feature of prostitution than other low- the data, because the data of this research were skilled professions. In times and places in written documents. The data employed in the which forced labor has been used, prostitution present study were the sentences and was no exception. Examples include slaves in utterances which are composed in dialogue Roman and Greek antiquity and the so-called and description, for example about characters, comfort women held by the Japanese army setting of time, setting of places, etc, in during World War II. Yasunari Kawabata’s novel Snow Country Prostitution has been organized according (1947). Meanwhile, the supporting data are to similar principles across different times and additional data which have close relationship cultures. At the bottom we find street with the source of data. In this research, the prostitution, followed by brothels, bars, and supporting data are taken from the other clubs. Call girls and escort agencies occupy sources; related journals of literature, e-books, the middle to high slots and kept women the and internet references. top rungs. Higher-end prostitutes are better looking, younger, and healthier; charge more In addition, the collecting data method per client; and spend more time with each. includes several steps, as follows; intensive Typically, both earnings and working close reading, noting the data, highlighting, conditions are better more up market: clients extracting data from the novels are chosen in are fewer, venues more agreeable, and client doing this research from the beginning up to screening more selective. Received wisdom producing the result of this research. The data has it that prostitutes are trapped in either analysis in this qualitative research employs economic or emotional bondage or work under some flows of activities: data reduction, data

42 display, and conclusion drawing (Miles and one…There was something about her Huberman, 1994: 12). manner of dress that suggested the geisha, but she did not have the trailing Analysis and Discussion geisha skirts,… she wore her soft, unlined summer kimono.” (18) A. The Figure of Hot-Spring Geishas in Kawabata’s Snow Country This shows that the way a hot spring geisha wears is different from other geishas in As previously mentioned, Kawabata’s other regions. The time setting of the story was Snow Country portrays vividly the life of a the cold winter season. In the season a geisha hot-spring geisha through Komako, one of its usually wears lined kimonos. However, main characters. The following section Komako did not wear lined, but unlined presents the hot-spring geisha figure in summer kimono. They way she was wearing Kawabata’s Snow Country through a New signified that she was a geisha. She also wore Historicism reading: an expensive obi, though it did not suit her 1. The Appearance of a Hot-Spring kimono. Shimamura caught a glimpse of Geisha sadness in the dress she was wearing. She also A geisha’s appearance changes through had the short, thick eyebrows sloping gently her career from the girlish and heavily-made down to enfold the line discreetly. Besides, the maiko to the more somber appearance of an line of her eyelids neither rose nor fell (32). older established geisha. Different kimono, Yoko, who sometimes served as an hairstyles, hairpins, and even the length of “apprentice” geisha, wore even inexpensive eyebrows signify different stages of a young kimono, unlike other maikos in other regions girl’s development or maturity. The whole who had more exotic appearance. She was idea is perfection. They cannot charge guests wearing “mountain trousers” and an orange- to look at imperfection. red flannel kimono (109). Having looked at the A geisha always wear kimono. An appearances of both of Komako and Yoko, apprentice geisha wears highly colorful Shimamura who came from Tokyo considered kimono with extravagant obi. Obi is the sash them as “ordinary amateurs” (17) and they worn over the kimono, women’s are usually could hardly be as good as all that (71). wider than that worn by men. It is considered Thus the hot spring geisha’s appearance is to be an important fashion accessory. The obi different from other geishas’ in other cities, is always brighter than the kimono she is such as Tokyo and Kyoto. The impression she wearing to give a certain exotic balance. In gave was all one of cleanness, not quite one of addition to the heavy dangling obi, pocketed real beauty (32). It indicates that the hot-spring sleeves called furi is wrapped to avoid geishas belong to the lower class geishas. Even tripping. though the hot-spring geishas are trained to be The color, pattern, and style of kimono is skilled geishas, it seems that they are less dependent on the season and the event the professional that other geishas are. geisha is attending. In winter, a geisha can be 2. The Motives of Being a Hot-Spring seen wearing a three-quarter length haori lined Geisha with hand-painted silk over their kimono. There is a close link between poverty and Lined kimonos are worn during colder prostitution (Edlund and Korn, 2002: 181). seasons, and unlined kimonos during the This means that those who become prostitutes summer. mostly have economic motives. They chose to Snow country portrays the appearance of a be prostitutes to earn their living. hot-spring geisha through Komako. In the geisha society, a maiko is bonded “There was something the woman gave under a contract to her okiya. The okiya was a wonderfully clean and fresh supplies her with food, board, kimono, obis

43 and other tools of her trade. Her training is Besides, the hot-spring geisha must go on very expensive and her debts must be repaid to entertaining week-end guests, and the pretense the okiya with the earning she makes. This that she is an artist and not a prostitute is often repayment may continue after the maiko a thin one indeed. She may marry a old guest becomes a full-pledged geisha, and only when or persuade him to open a restaurant for her. her debts are settled is she permitted to move Like all geishas, they are trained in the art out to live and work independently. of Japanese dance and music. There are the The similar thing happened to Komako. In three elements of the training. The first is the the novel, Komako, who was born in that snow formal arts training which takes place in country, but she had been put under contract as special geisha schools. The second element is a geisha in Tokyo as she found a patron who the entertainment training at teahouses and paid her debts for her and proposed to set her parties. The third is the social skills to build up as a dancing teacher. Unfortunately, she the social network needed to survive as a died a year and a half later (18-19). Since her geisha and it is done on the streets. son, Yukio, was suffering from intestinal The geishas begin their study of music tuberculosis, she became a geisha to help pay and dance when they are very young and his doctor’s bill (55, 60). continue it throughout their lives. The dance of Yukio had as a matter of fact not been the geisha has evolved from the dance born in the snow country. It was his mother’s performed on the kabuki stage. The dances are home. His mother had taught dancing down on accompanied by the traditional Japanese music the coast even when she was no longer a in which the primary instrument is the geisha, but she had had a stroke while she was shamisen. This shamisen, originating from still in her forties, and had come back to this Okinawa, is a banjo-like three-stringed hot spring to recover (55). instrument played with a plectrum and often His mother once thought that it would be accompanied by flute. It has a melancholy a good idea for Yukio and Komako to get sound. Some geisha would not only dance and married. But she only thought it and never said play music, but would write beautiful, a word. They were in fact never engaged. melancholy poems. Other painted pictures or Komako said that it was not to help anyone composed music. that she became a geisha, but she did it This can indeed be found in the novel. because she owed a great deal to his mother Komako, as a hot-spring or mountain geisha, and was urged to do what she could (67). entertained the guests in the hot-spring inn. Many guests came during the skiing season 3. Hot-Spring Geisha vs. City Geisha (14). When the winter was over, the season for There is a complex geisha ranking system. climbing mountains in the spring green came The five geisha districts known as hanamachi (16). It would keep Komako and other meaning “flower towns” in Kyoto are in the mountain geishas busy (17). highest ranks. At the opposite end of the sytem In a mountain village, the arrangements are hot-spring geisha. These geishas work in between a geisha and her keeper were so spa resorts and are viewed by most Japanese as easygoing (27). However, it was up to the no better than common prostitute. They geisha whether she would stay the night or not. normally cater to far less exclusive patrons, If she stayed without permission from her and are much less expensive. house, it was her own responsibility. If she has “If the hot-spring geisha is not a social permission the house took full responsibility, outcast, she is perilously near being one. notably if there should happen to be a child or The city geisha may become a celebrated some sort of disease. musician or dancer, a political intriguer, The house that kept geishas would even a dispenser of patronage.” (vi) generally have a faded shop curtain that advertised it as a restaurant or a tearoom. The

44 shop that sold candy, tobacco or groceries suggested a beggar who has lost all might have its one geisha. Its owner would desire.” (42) have his small farm besides the shop and the geisha (27). Their relationship seemed on edge as Shimamura was also attracted to Yoko, who 4. The Personal Relationship with Male Guests was taking care of Yokio, the music teacher’s It is true that a geisha is free to pursue son. He was very ill and Yoko took a good personal relationships with men she meets care of him for Komako. Shimamura’s heart through her work. Geishas are expected to be was bouncing between Komako and Yoko. It single women and those who choose to marry was definitely a wasted effort. must retire from the profession. It was also “Shimamura felt, he woud drawn into a traditional in the past for established geisha to remote emotionalism that would make take a patron or danna. A danna was typically his own life a waste…” (43) a wealthy man, sometimes married. This sometimes occurs today as well, but very Thus, the relationship which a hot-spring rarely. A geisha and her danna may or may not geisha, and any other geisha, may have with be in love, but intimacy is never viewed as a their male guests tends to be an uncertain and loose relationship. Any effort to make it reward for the danna’s financial support. The traditional conventions and values within such happen to a life-long commitment, such as a a relationship are very intricate and not well sacred marriage, will be surely wasted. Those understood, even by many Japanese. who choose to marry must retire from the That kind of love affair may also happen profession. to a hot-spring geisha as that is a hot spring 5. Hot-Spring Geisha and Prostitution and people are here for a day or two and gone. There remains some confusion about the The relationship of Komako, a hot-spring nature of the geisha profession. Geisha are geisha, and Shimamura, who was once the regarded as prostitutes by many non-Japanese guest she entertained, was portrayed in the people and Japanese themselves. However, novel. It was an uncertain relationship as legitimate geisha do not engage in paid sex Shimamura is a married man with some with clients. Their purpose is to entertain their children. customer by dancing, reciting verse, playing “An affair of the moment, no more. musical instruments, or engaging in light Nothing beautiful about it. You know conversation. Geisha engagements may that-it couldn’t last.” (22) include flirting with men and playful innuedos, however, clients know that nothing more can For Shimamura, as that was his first taste of be expected. It is up to the guest, after all, the snow country winter, Komako was when he wants to let geisha go (31). someone who met his need for a companion. The similar thing happens in the novel as He came to the hot spring trying to decide Shimamura realized what would happen to where he would go to escape the summer heat. Komako and him. It was therefore friendship more than anything “In any case, he had revised his view of else that he felt for the woman (19). her, and he found, surprisingly, that her Unfortunately, Komako did not feel the being a geisha made him even more same way. She was deeply in love with him. difficult for him to be free and open with Having met Shimamura, who came from him.” (43) Tokyo, she thought that she would have a chance to go to the city as she had been Prostitution was legal in Japan until longing for the city (43). 1958, which is another reason that people may “There was something lonely, be misinformed about geishas not offering sex something in it, something that rather to customers. Moreover, many of the

45 professional prostitutes who catered to the willow world). Despite the often harsh realities occupying soldiers after World War II styled of this world, a geisha could gain an education themselves as “geisha”. Modern geisha still of sorts, acquire an art, make her own money, live in traditional geisha houses. Many establish an independent identity, run a experienced geishas are successful enough to business, pursue romance, and sometimes find choose to live independently, even though. A true love. geisha might have lived in a variety of Women in the geisha society are some of circumstances ranging from complete the most successful businesswomen in Japan. independence to a state of virtual captivity. In the geisha society, women dominate and run However, the patronage of a courtesan was everything, whereas men have a limited role. considered natural, necessary, and not The geisha system was founded, in fact, to unfaithful. Extramarital affairs on the part of promote the independence and economic self- the husband were the norm, but of course, sufficiency of women. Becoming a geisha was women were not afforded this luxury. Wives a way for women to support themselves were, in a way, more caged than the geishas without submitting to becoming a wife. were (Thayer, 2008: 17). Many times a patron The women depicted in the novel were or danna was a married lover, who also had similar to the female-dominance society the means to support her. He pays off any previously mentioned. Komako, for instance, debts she might have with her sponsoring she supported herself by being a geisha. Next, house or okiya and makes a commitment to the music teacher or Komako’s patron was support her financially, including provision for once a geisha. When she was retired, she an apartment or house. In exchange for this became a music and dancing teacher. Yoko support, a geisha becomes essentially a made a living by taking a care of Yokio. mistress, staying with her danna when he “I take care of myself. Think of all the wishes, accompanying him on trips, and money I could make if I really tried…I perhaps even bearing his children. He would know about how much it takes each pay for her kimono, rent, hairdresser month for an installment on the loan, appointments, and her music and dance and interest, and taxes, and my own lessons. Even today, if a geisha’s danna keep…” (107) requests her presence at a party, she cancels all of her conflicting engagements and attends to Aside from the actual entertainment of the him. client—typically involving flirting, sake drinking, and music—many geisha were The hot-spring geisha portrayed in the indentured to their okiya, the “teahouses” in novel exist as a spirit and as a personality, and which they lived, and like the courtesans, very little to least possible as a body and we constantly accrued debts for their kimono, have nothing erotic in the novel even in a makeup, room and board, etc. sexual scene. Moreover, in this female-dominance society there is the separation of female realms 6. Hot-Spring Geisha and Matriarchal in a husband’s life. Wives and the women of Society the “floating world” are two sides of the same The geisha culture is the only business in coin. On the one hand, a husband requires one Japan that is run exclusively by women for the woman to produce and raise an heir, manage pleasure of men and has been successful for the household, and dutifully respect him, but many centuries. In this society, where a for love, he has to go to the courtesan and the woman’s place was either in the home or in geisha (Thayer, 2008: 18). the brothel, the geisha carved out a separate niche, creating a community of women that 7. Geisha in Today’s Japanese Society became known as the karyuaki (flower and For many years the world of the geisha,

46 often referred to as the flower and willow The prostitutes and courtesans within the world, has perplexed and intrigued people Yoshiwara represented a dichotomous around the world. The most common image of existence: social outcasts on the one hand yet a geisha is a white faced, red lipped, kimono countenanced by society on the other, and as clad, glorified prostitute. the posterity of the noble court tradition, the Despite the criticisms of the West, the so- courtesans were the retainers of a time of called “flower and willow world” became and poetry, beauty, and ritual. By the Edo period, remains the heart of Japanese cultural the public was looking to courtesans in the tradition. Japan and the world currently view Yoshiwara for entertainment, culture, and the geisha as the retainers of “Japaneseness.” fashion. Instead of actually being repositories of In the Yoshiwara, wives and the home tradition, they are the maintainers of it they maintained were irrelevant and (Thayer, 2008: 6). symbolized the opposite of everything that the The ways that prostitution developed in pleasure districts sought to provide. Gesiha— Japan, however, provide an interesting were the complementary opposite of the wives comparison with how people outside Japan of the men who patronized them. They played view prostitution. They have denied their the two roles as “complementarity without existence and reality and projecting a form of antagonism” and a “feminine division of socially acceptable sexual repression onto labor” (ibid: 16). them. Throughout Japan’s history, however, In Japan, courtesans provided sexual Japan has been exceptional for its frank fantasy and also sexual favors when they acknowledgement of the existence of chose to do so, while the geisha took the role prostitution in all forms (ibid: 7). of entertainer. But the division was never The Japanese government, instead of totally clear-cut. Outside of the urban pleasure focusing on the pleasure quarters as a source quarters, in towns that were not large enough of negative social influence, recognized them for walled-in “floating worlds” in which as legitimate areas of relaxation and release courtesans’ business could be threatened, from humdrum everyday life. The geisha who also functioned as prostitutes were government, however, believed that these required to have licenses for both prostitution pursuits of pleasure were characteristics of and entertainment. Courtesans, for the only the middle class. In order to keep this majority of their existence, were popular and class from getting beyond its control and to beautiful enough to choose their own remind its subjects that it controlled every customers. Once the geisha eclipsed them in aspect of their lives, the emperor’s—and popularity, however, many courtesans who eventually the shogun’s—government were desperate for money accepted many more restricted prostitution to walled-in areas on the clients than they would have only fifty years outskirts of major cities. The most famous and prior. Because the geisha established herself decadent of these government-licensed from the start as a complement to courtesans’ prostitution districts was the Yoshiwara in services and not an alternative, however, she Edo—modern day Tokyo. This district was was always a free woman who could choose moved outside of Edo’s city walls in 1656, and her own lover. Coincidentally, the geisha’s afterwards became the flagship red-light sexual freedom made her even more appealing district of the nation. Within the walls of the to men (ibid: 23). district, prostitution developed its own society, The heart of the geisha life lay in two influencing and shaping the world outside. The Japanese cities, Kyoto and Tokyo. One, Kyoto, women contained in these districts ran the is a snapshot in time of the geisha of the past; gamut in class and served a clientele who living in the hanamachi with their geisha could vary greatly in social status. (ibid: 11) family, learning the arts, and preserving the

47 way of the geisha. The other, Tokyo, is society is minor and, except for the attention struggling to retain the dwindling geisha arts they get from camera-wielding tourists, largely where technology advancement threatens to unseen. take over. The hot-spring geisha and her world as References vividly depicted in the novel continue to fascinate people around the world as part of Barry, Peter. 1995. Beginning Theory. their image of a mysterious and timeless Machester, U.K.: UP Japan. Prostitution is of course referred to as the "oldest profession," and the history of the Edmund, Lena and Korn, Evelyn. 2002. A geisha stretches back several centuries. But Theory of Prostitution. In Journal while many people assume that geisha is just a of Political Economy. Vol. 110, no. Japanese word for a prostitute, the somewhat 1. The University of Chicago. more romantic word 'courtesan' is probably closer in nuance, though even that is Gardner, Catherine Villaneuva. 2006. misleading when their history is considered. Historical Dictionary of Feminist The word geisha itself literally means 'person Philosophy. Maryland: Scarecrow of the arts' - indeed the earliest geisha were Press, Inc. men - and it is as performers of dance, music and poetry that they actually spend most of Habib, M.A.R. 2005. A History of Literary their working time. Criticism from the Plato to the Present. M.A., Oxford, Victoria: Conclusion Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

In conclusion, the geisha figure is an Kawabata, Yasunari. 1981. Snow Country important part of Japanese civilization and (Translated by Edward G. tradition. The geisha tradition has been Seidensticker). New York: G.P. alternately glorified by the Japanese society Putnam’s Sons (Perigee Books) and outlawed by the Japanese law as a form of prostitution due to the evolving duality of the Lai, Chung-Hsiung. 2006. Limits and Beyond: geisha as both artisan and courtesan. Also, the Greenblatt, New Historicism, and a geisha tradition involves force, fraud, and Feminist Genealogy. In Intergrams, deception. 7.1-7.2. Retrieved from The geisha have come to symbolize those http://benz.nchu.edu.tw/~intergrams/ very traditions that are now regarded as 071-072/071-072-lai.pdf on 28 integral to Japanese cultural heritage. The January 2012. geisha’s existence, by extension, reflects and demonstrates the status of Japanese culture. McManus, Barbara F. 1998. Reader-Response Yasunari Kawabata's 1947 novel Snow Criticism. Retrieved from Country revived interest in an aspect of Japan (www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/A that is so intrinsic to the Western stereotype lley/7564/snowcountry.html).on 10 and yet so far removed from the reality of October 2011, at 11: 39 p.m. daily life here. This is what is being represented by Komako in the novel. It is not New, Christopher. 1999. Philosophy of by chance that Yasunari Kawabata has chosen Literature: An Introduction. a hot-spring geisha for the heroine and the London and New York: Routledge. dark snow country for the setting of this novel. Geisha do still exist and ply their trade, of Skilleas, Ole Martin. 2001. Philosophy and course. But the role they play in modern Literature: An Introduction.

48 Edinburg: Edinburg University Press,Ltd.

Thayer, David Sumner. 2008. The Development of Geisha and Their Present Status as Symbol of Japanese Culture, Tradition, and Feminity. Unpublished Thesis. Boston: Boston University Academy.

Veeser, Aram, H. 2007. Re-Membering a Deformed Past: (New) New Historicism. In The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Vol. 24, No. 1, Cultural Studies and New Historicism. (Spring, 1991), pp. 3- 13. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org Mon Jul 2 16:52:40 2007

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