The Geisha: the prostitute of Japan?
Hello everyone! I’m sorry i haven’t had a chance to write lately but i’ve been really busy with college. At any rate, i recently watch the movie Memoirs of a Geisha and am now reading the book. Although i consider myself a Japanese fanatic, or a weebo as one of my friends so delicately put it, i really didn’t know about one of the most cultural aspects to have somewhat survived in Japan – the Geisha. When most people, particularly Americans, think of a geisha, they immediately think that a geisha is the equivalent to a prostitute. However, based on the research done by the author of Memoirs, this was not the full truth. According to Arthur Golden, a geisha is a woman who entertains men with conversation, dance and music, but also has to sell her virginity to the highest bidder. After doing some research of my own, i found out that the geisha of Japan were actually very sophisticated and cultured women who practiced many arts, flower-arranging NOT being one of them. Furthermore, the practice of selling one’s viriginity, or mizuage, was not real. In fact, a mizuage actually consisted of a tea ceremony and a different hair cut to symbolize one’s coming of age.
After going into my research, i began to wonder why many people have the misconception that geisha are prostitutes when i can upon a startling find. Back in the hay day, or during WWII to be more precise, many American soldiers were stationed in Japan, and Japanese women (meaning geisha and prostitutes) were stumbling over themselves for a chance to be able to entertain these men and gain some sort of higher status – to clarify, geisha simply wished to continue to practice their art, not sleep with these men. Thus, the “geisha girl” was born. Geisha girls were actually prostitutes who dressed like geisha, BUT wore the traditional obi, or the band that held their kimono together in the front (for easy removal since it could take up to an hour to arrange an obi correctly for a real geisha), and they also fashioned their hair a different way.
With the girl on the left, you will notice her obi is tied in the box fashion, while the girl on the right has the sash fashion. It is important to note that both of these girls are prostitutes, which can also be seen from their hair.
When the soldiers began coming to Japan, prostitutes began dressing more similarly to geisha, with a few differences, as stated above. However, the American soldiers couldn’t tell the differences between the girls, as they probably only saw the white face make up as a distinguishing feature. Just to clarify, I’m for once not blaming Americans for their ignorance as i realize how difficult it can be to distinguish people from a completely different culture. To these Americans, they were probably trying to distinguish different types of foods, forget about the people. At any rate, the soldiers, in their unknowing-ness began calling these women “Geisha girls” and the word forever became synonymous with the word geisha. Even today, when foreigners see real geisha, they still call them “geisha girls.” I can bet you that if you go out onto the street and ask someone what a geisha is, they will either reply that they do not know, or that it is a prostitute.
I’d like to point out that a lot of this knowledge would not be available to me, and thus you, if it wasn’t for 1) Mrs. Mineko Iwasaki, who had to bear through many horrendous things because of Mr. Arthur Golden’s inability to follow a contract, and for her book Geisha, A Life, which although i have yet to read, made me realize how many of Mr. Golden’s details were incorrect, and 2) Mr. Okinawa Soba, whose flickr account made many interesting details about the lives of geisha and prostitutes available to me. Three of the URLs i used were:
I’d also like to point out just HOW difficult it is to find a picture of a formally and correctly dressed geisha, and a japanese prostitute. Well, I hoped this article brought some light upon the subject. Furthermore, I really don’t have much feedback from anyone about how i’m doing with these articles, and as i’ve never done anything like this before, i would very much appreciate any comments, feelings, questions, discrepancies, criticisms or whatever else it is that you can think of! In closing, I will leave you some pictures of ACTUAL geisha, and you can compare the differences for yourself. Thank you!
Geisha back (the neck was very important for geisha)
Geisha full back
Geisha (modern day)
Mineko Iwasaki as a young geisha in the 1960s
Tolerance in America: Does it still exist?
Sorry i haven’t written anything in so long, but i was out on vacation. I was gone for a wonderful 2 weeks in spain. I hoped to come back to not too many changes, but lo-and-behold, miss a lot i did. Upon coming back, i learned of the mosque issues running throughout America.
I don’t understand how it is that people can at all deny others religious freedom, ESPECIALLY in the so called “the land of the free”!!!! Forget the issue of New York City, WHY is it an issue ANYWHERE else in the country to build a mosque??? Are Muslims not people? Do they not have rights? What right do we have as fellow human beings to say Islam is not a valid religion? Are we so ignorant and close-minded that we can not realize being terrorists and being a Muslim are two COMPLETELY separate and unrelated things?! The IRA are supposedly known terrorists and are THEY Muslims?! I don’t think so! Yet, they have attacked innocent British and even SPANISH citizens FAR more than any Muslims have!!!! And even IF they were terrorists, would ANY terrorist be idiotic enough to set up a terrorist HQ in a mosque – a KNOWN Muslim center?! If they are, then they can’t be much of a threat can they???
And why is building a mosque in the middle of NYC even an issue? Everyone keeps saying its to “respect the victims” of 9/11, but aren’t the Muslims the BIGGEST victims of 9/11? The entire world for the last 9 years has been CONTINUOUSLY attacking and secluding the world’s Muslim population, for a completely idiotic and completely misunderstood base. If ANYTHING, the entire Muslim population deserves a HUGE apology and should without a doubt be allowed to build a mosque wherever they want, ESPECIALLY in NYC near Ground 0 where WE, as America, should be respecting the biggest victims – the Muslim community.
Congratulations!
Congratulations California! In response to the article i wrote a few days ago about gay rights, and going along with the buzz everyone else has been talking about, i would like to congratulate California on the first CRITICAL step towards homosexual equality – PROP 8 has been REPEALED! I am so proud (now) to call myself a Californian, when finally some part of america has REALIZED that denying homosexuals the right to marry is not only hypocritical, but as aforementioned, is another Christian excuse to not allow gays rights. I for one, am incredibly happy that Prop 8 has been repealed!
The Guam Rail – No, It’s not a train
Alright, back to the progression of enhancing the availability of endangered animals! This time, we’re featuring the Guam Rail – a cute little bird, unable to fly, and extinct in the wild since the 1970s and 80s. Out of the 11 species of this bird that are native to Guam, 9 are extinct on their native island and is now only seen in few US zoos. Although attempts have been made to reintroduce the bird into the wild, those darn cats continue to prey on these innocent little birds…as well as the contribution of accidental deaths. Unfortunately, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, in its infinite efficiency and competence (but what do you expect from a government service?), listed them when they were already extinct on Guam. Unfortunately, before cats became a problem, snakes were devouring the Rails, and after reintroduction, the snakes continued to prey on them, making chances of survival incredibly dim. Luckily, new technology has allowed a perimeter to be set up around the Rails that does not allow snakes in, which has increased the amount of birds surviving in the wild. However, it is thanks to the efforts of Zoologist Bob Beck that we have the few Rails we have today!
Gays: It really IS that simple
What i don’t understand is that in this day and age, how people can still be so close-minded to deny ANY person rights, that are inclusive to everyone in america. We claim that there is a separation of church and state, yet every where you look, and controversial topic is immediately justified by some ridiculous bible quote! I’m not at all saying that every religion shouldn’t be respected, but for a society that prides itself on not being religiously based, like Iraq or Iran, we sure use Christianity for the basis of many of our arguments. The “should gays have the right to marry” question has been around for a while, but now a completely ridiculous argument has popped up! – should the “don’t ask don’t tell” rule be repealed. That rule should have never been in existence and here they are asking whether gays should be allowed to serve our country? What on earth makes anyone think that gays or lesbians, or even bisexuals are anything less than us? Are they for some reason sub-human; are they below of us because God made them one way and not another? That’s right, if you can use religion as a basis then why can’t i? If God made every living thing the way they are, the way the creationists, or any other religious believer believes, and he made them that way for a purpose, and ALL creatures are God’s creatures, then why should there be any prejudice at all? And above all, WHY have GAYS always been the target of unfair prejudice? The Ancient Romans and Ancient Greeks pursued homosexual tendencies, yet nobody says that the Greek or Roman Empires DESERVED to be destroyed. In fact, every man was allowed to take part in the Senate. If you ask me, it seems that over the last 2,000 years, man has become LESS understanding and MORE prejudice, NOT the other way around. Personally, i find that an embarrassment to the human race in general, that instead of PROGRESSING, we have REGRESSED over the last couple of millennium. Essentially, to me it is OBVIOUS that gays should not only be allowed to serve in the army if they so choose (God knows we need as many recruits as we can get these days), but they should also have the freedom to choose who they want to marry, and get the EXACT same rights as ANY other free American citizen.
History’s Mysteries: The Romanov Mystery
While watching the old Anastasia movie with my best friend today, we stumbled upon the numerous conspiracy theories, Anastasia impersonators, and of course, Rasputin stories. After my interest was OFFICIALLY peaked, i began intensive research into the Romanov history. Now although i have always known that most conspiracy theories are bologna, this one seems legitimate. Being the history buff that i am, i knew that it was not actually Anastasia who was suspected to be alive, but her sister Maria (depending on which source you’re going to listen to). What i didn’t know was that their brother, Alexei, also had a missing body. When i looked at the MULTIPLE stories of Romanov children impersonators (which were always Maria and Anastasia, Maria and Alexei, Anastasia and Alexei or just one of them by themselves conveniently enough), i started to notice that the stories almost ALWAYS revolved around these 3 children. Though i was easily able to discount several of the impersonators, such as Anna Anderson, and other women who claimed to be Anastasia, some of the stories gave me serious doubts about the validity of the “DNA testing” done on a few of the bodies found at the mass grave near where the Romanov family was imprisoned. Firstly, it is still in debate whether it was Anastasia or Maria’s body found next to Alexei’s (away from the rest of the family), even AFTER several DNA tests. Furthermore, even though there are conflicting accounts, there is no way anyone other than the guards there could have known that those 3 were the last 3 to “die” in their family. There are even reports that as their bodies were being carried away, that Anastasia and Maria woke up screaming (though they were brutally murdered again). This brings the question to light as why ONLY Anastasia, Maria and Alexei have stories about their survival, as opposed to their sisters Tatiana and Olga. Why did neither have even ONE story of their survival. Furthermore, there are several accounts of people helping a “young boy and girl [who appears to have been his sister] escape.” There are accounts of a soldier helping Anastasia escape, another one where Anastasia is caught at a train station and executed and another yet where Anastasia and Maria run away to a convent in the Ural Mountain until they died.
I have picked the people who, if anyone’s story is true, i believe theirs is. The first is for Anastasia. If anyone is Anastasia (and its not the nun in the Ural Mountains) then i believe it to be Eleonora Albertova Krüger, who in fact insisted she was not royalty, but many things pointed to her being royalty, along with her brother “George”, such as the fact that she had a dog named Maron, not a normal name for the Polish she claimed to be though she was originally registered as a Russian; Maron being an anagram for Roman for Romanov. Not only did she and her brother both have an uncanny resemblance to Anastasia and Alexei, but she was also fluent in multiple languages and told her students stories of beautiful palaces she had lived in. George and Nora also refused to admit they were siblings, even though he seemed to come to meet her out of the blue. Furthermore, he had tuberculosis, which can apparently have symptoms similar to that of hemophilia. For me, Suzanna Catharina de Graaff, was discredited by the mere fact that Anna Anderson, a known psychotic woman, identified her as her sister. Though somewhat unfair to make this judgment, it stands (plus her arguments didn’t even make sense).
If George is not Alexei, then i am convinced it would have had to have been Eugene Nicolaievich Ivanoff, who had such similarities to Alexei, that it would have been almost impossible to replicate (such as he knew how to sew as well as was fluent in several languages and of Russian descent). He was also a hemophiliac.
For Tatiana we have Larissa Feodorovna Tudor, who herself never claimed to be of royal descent but had an unexpected amount of wealth upon her death (possibly from the diamonds sewn into her dress upon escape?), and her conflicting information (like what age she actually was at her death (27, 28, or 29)), and the fact that there was actually no immigrant with her name who entered the country (was she snuck in? that would make sense). She also had an uncanny resemblance to the Grand Duchess.
Finally, for Olga we have Marga Boodts, we have simply because at least 5 relatives identified her undeniably as Olga and even gave her financial aid and housed her. I hold family recognition at the highest level which fuels most of my argument for her. Unfortunately, one of her supporters was also a strong supporter of Anderson, which slightly discredits her but not enough with all her other supporters.
With Maria there didn’t seem to be any credible impostors, though i’m sure there are several unknown and credible ones.
In conclusion, although the bodies of all the Romanovs’ were found, there has been doubt for almost 100 years that they really died, and with all these rumors that sprouted up simultaneously and without anyone having been able to know that there were TWO bodies missing, it seems possible that some of the Romanovs did manage to escape. In fact, my own theory is that whatever siblings escaped, their bodies were replaced with a close relative of theirs, which would have tested out with DNA. With Alexei, they may have pronounced that it was him simply on the fact that the DNA was similar and that they knew the remains were of a boy of approximately 12-15 years old (not enough proof if you ask me). Until each of these individuals DNA is tested against Romanov blood, i personally, will never been 100% sure if there are any remaining Romanovs.
The Barbary Lion
Alrighty! We have another post on a critically endangered animal! This one, the Barbary Lion, has been extinct in the wild since 1922!!! How some poor animal goes that long without any public notices or any activism is beyond me! This creature is simply astounding! It was originally found in Northern Africa, but serious hunting of this up to 600 lbs for males and 400 lbs for females creature endangered the creature to the point where the last one was shot in the Atlas mountains in Africa in 1922. Fortunately, though previously though extinct, several of these majestic creatures have popped up in zoos and circuses around the world. Unfortunately, there is some dispute as to whether these lions are pure-breeds or not.
An organization called WildLink, has teamed up with Oxford University to create a project called the Barbary Lion Project, where they will take these half-breed lions and selectively breed them to bring the Barbary Lion back! It sounds complicated and somewhat horrible, but I assure you that the animal rights activist in me finds that it’s more important to bring back a species if there is a possibility over anything else!
The program has been somewhat a success. Recently, six Barbary lions were released to Aquila Private Game Reserve in South Africa, two hours from Cape Town, to restore the Cape lion. As of March of 2010, two cubs of a Barbary lion couple have been moved to the Texas zoo in the city of Victoria.
But WildLink has become unavailable and the project is on hold until funds can be raised!!!! If you would like to donate, email “SaveTheLions@aol.com” OR go to this website: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/donate.php.
Activism at the Front!
In an effort to continue my…efforts…i am starting a new section! This section is going to talk about a less than commonly known endangered species (as opposed to the ocelot and siberian tiger, though they are not any less important), in an attempt to renovate interest and gain support! 😀 Hopefully, this will allow people to see the huge amount of not only animals, but plants as well, that will die without help! I’m not going to ask you to donate at all, but i will place a link that will LET you donate if there is one, if you so wish, though most can be accessed through the WWF or the World Wildlife Fund 🙂
Our first animal is the Socorro Dove, which i personally find adorable. It has been extinct in the wild since 1972!!! There are less than 100 left, even in captivity, and it is a native to Socorro Island, an island south of Baja California. On October 30, 2006, the Socorro Dove was successfully bred at London Zoo. The bird was named “Arnie”, after Arnold Schwarzenegger, with reference to his famous line “I’ll be back” (on Socorro Island). However when Arnie was sexed he turned out to be a she. It is hoped that the descendants of Arnie and her relatives can someday soon be reintroduced into the wild.
Hopefully, this type of article generates some interest! If you have any suggestion at all, about anything, please, feel free to let me know! Thanks readers!
Intelligent Politicians
the intelligent politician…does it exist anymore? After hearing Michael Steele’s comments the other day on “America didn’t choose to go into the [Afghanistan] War; Obama did”, i’m not so sure anymore. It seems that people don’t care about their political system anymore; “Hey, if it sucks, i can’t do anything about it , but somebody should!”. Unfortunately, that kind of “winning” attitude just doesn’t help. Many years ago, people used to vote on the representative for ANY position not based on WHO they were, or what their party was, but what their platform was. Now it seems that any Tom, Dick, and Harry can get into a Senate seat, or a Governor’s seat, and nobody could care the less. With George Bush (cause the FIRST term wasn’t bad enough) and now Michael Steele, it seems that it doesn’t matter who the hell is running the country, as long as the party of their choice has the majority. I’m sure that not even 30% of Americans would be able to name the first 4 successors to the presidency, forget the platform that each REPRESENTATIVE (not the party) has. People seem to also have forgotten that a representative and their party are not synonymous. Sure, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a republican, but we all know better. Yet, he was elected almost based solely on the fact that he WAS a republican (not to say there’s anything wrong with republicans)!
My point is essentially that i suppose that representatives can only be as intelligent as those they represent and if those they represent include people who say that “Obama started the Afghanistan war” …well then, it seems there is no hope for America after all. HOWEVER, this should not be the case, as the constitution clearly states that the Electoral College representative may override the vote of their region (another thing that needs to change) if they feel it appropriate. To do that, they should have concerns not of their party but of the nation, and they need to be intelligent to do that. What does it look like when the chairman of the GOP makes a statement as erroneous and clearly uninformed comment like this?
To summarize, it would seem that the ideal of an intelligent politician is becoming just that – an ideal. And if this continues, there will be even MORE of a reason for the rest of the world to call us the stupidest nation on the planet.
How it all began…
As i mentioned in my bio, this website/blog was set up to define the “opinions of the new age student”. Of course, i’m not over-generalizing and saying that everyone my age has the same opinion as me. In fact, this site was established as a response to the adults of today who misunderstand the youth of today, either by saying that we don’t work as hard as they did, aren’t as intelligent as their generation, or even that all we do is sit in front of the t.v. all day, not doing anything constructive with our lives. However, it is in my strong opinion that if anything, the youth of today are MORE aware of their world than the youth of yester-year, albeit it in different ways. With different issues and different technologies present in the world today, today’s youth approach problems that may have been handled one way (i.e. petitions against a law by going door-to-door) in ways more appropriate to our time (i.e. facebook-ing or emailing the petition to everyone we know and making it a chain mail). With the utilization of all this technology, although it does require us to “sit on our butts” most of the day, it is by no means unproductive. Why, just yesterday, i received an IM informing me that a child had been kidnapped by a vehicle with the description and license number. Within literal minutes, i received another text informing the kidnapper had been apprehended. This would not have been at all possible if the world did not utilize the technology available at their fingertips. And for all you parents you insist that your children text too much, have you ever considered half of those texts are related to homework assignments, important events (like when to show up to a college orientation) or even these child-abduction texts? “Back in the day”, if you forgot to do your homework, with no cell phones, you would have to call the house phone, but who calls after 9 in an effort to not disturb the rest of the family? Homework = failed.
At any rate, in a side rant about technologies, i meant to say that it is imperative that not only the adults of today understand that kids today aren’t uninformed idiots AND that we DO NOT share your opinions on everything (as opposed to whether the internet is beneficial or not, we know argue which ways the internet is most useful (internet banking versus. online classes)), but that even the youth of today open it mind to new opinions whether they be a republican listening to democratic views or vice versa. For the more informed a person is on the other side of the argument, the more affirmatively they can decide which side they agree with. And of course, this blog will hopefully point out the problems we have today, such as the racism article earlier or the politician article i will be presenting next. Either way, i hope this article effectively conveyed what i hope to gain from this blog, and that you, as the audience will continue to support my efforts! Thank you readers!
The Opinions of a New Age Student 