Rice bran, which was used by geisha to promote soft skin and hair (usually by bathing in the milky water left over from rinsing rice prior to cooking), protects from UV damage and is also an antioxidant and emollient.
Natural Ingredients
But geishas tend to base their skincare on simple natural ingredients such as rice, collagen, green tea, fish, and seaweed, all of which are core to the Japanese diet.
Japanese women follow the concept of hydrating and layering the skin with moisture through various products. Some of them focus on anti-ageing ingredients such as collagen to give you younger looking skin. Instead of gel and foam-based cleansers, Japanese women use cleansing oils to wash their faces.
Since candlelight was not bright enough, Geishas painted their faces white to enhance their skin tones and to contour their faces, making their faces more visible and recognizable. Other reason why they painted their faces white is to hide their true feelings and facial expressions.
“It's very good for your skin.” Like the teachings of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a geisha's skincare routine has a very inside-out approach, with a combination of diet and lifestyle changes. They make topical beauty treatments that often mirror what they ate.
Eat a Balanced Diet
Jan says that in Japan, it is believed that the first step to beautiful skin is what you put inside your body. "The Japanese diet is full of vegetables and fish, and extremely low in meat and sugary foods," he says. "Japanese women also believe green tea is a source of clear, beautiful skin." Dr.
The popular method of bihaku is to use cosmetics that stop the production of melanin. Traditionally, uguisu no fun was used to lighten skin tone, although today it is considered a luxury item. The most popular products often contain sake and rice bran, which contain kojic acid.
Some geisha would sleep with their customers, whereas others would not, leading to distinctions such as kuruwa geisha – a geisha who slept with customers as well as entertaining them through performing arts – yujō ("prostitute") and jorō ("whore") geisha, whose only entertainment for male customers was sex, and machi ...
No, as prostitution is illegal in Japan and the geishas are cultural performers who are deeply respected. Geisha never sleep with their clients as it goes against the rules of the organizations they belong to.
Geiko are allowed to have children and Maiko aren't necessarily “forbidden” (you can't ever forbid people from getting pregnant in genereal) from having children, but it's very very rare today. Maiko are 15 to 21, sometimes 22, and the vast majority of them doesn't want to have children yet anyways.
Seaweed Based Products. Eat seaweed every day to fight fine lines and wrinkles. Japanese women eat seaweed on a regular basis because it's packed with natural skin care benefits. Seaweed is a great anti-aging food and contains a wealth of vitamins and minerals hard to find in other foods.
Many Japanese people take a bath more or less every day. In some parts of the world, people may refer to showering as “taking a bath,” but not in Japan. In Japan, simply showering does not count.
Exfoliation helps remove dead skin cells and improve skin texture. Japanese women do not use harsh scrubs or products for exfoliation. Instead, they use gentle exfoliating gels to remove the dead skin cells.
Relying on double cleansing (or cleansing and exfoliating, rather), essences, lotions, moisturizers, serums, and facial massages, Japanese beauty is all about nourishing skin with a gentle cleanse, multiple layers of hydration, regularly masking, and, of course, sun protection.
Geisha and kabuki actors used white makeup known as oshiroi that contained zinc and lead, which likely caused many issues such as skin diseases. Uguisu no fun was used to thoroughly remove this makeup and to whiten the skin. Buddhist monks also used the droppings to polish and clean their bald scalps.
Geisha cannot get married. The rule of this profession is “being married to the art, not a man”. If they want to get married, they have to quit the job. Once they quit, it's usually impossible to come back, however they can debut from the beginning in a different city, under a different name and rules.
But Geisha Can Get Married
Geisha aren't allowed to have a boyfriend. But in the course of work, of entertaining patrons with Japan's highest forms of cultural entertainment, a patron may become fond of a particular geisha.
In Japan, geisha are very highly respected because they spend years training to learn the traditional instruments and dances of Japan. Although some western media portray geisha as prostitutes, that's just a myth.
To inflame a doctor's lust for Sayuri (for the impending bidding war for her virginity), Mameha intentionally cuts Sayuri's leg high on her thigh (off camera). Mameha tells the doctor the cut came from a scissors accident; he stares longingly at her leg before stitching it up.
It's a very little known fact, but Japan's original geisha were actually men known as taikomochi. It's hard to believe given the level of femininity ascribed to geisha culture; however, the history of the male geisha dates all the way back to the 13th century.
How exactly does one train to become a geisha? It turns out, the process is a long and arduous one, taking maybe as long as medical school!
Unlike in the past when geishas were plentiful they are currently on the decline year by year. There were roughly between 40,000 to 80,000 geisha in the early showa period (1926-1989) But currently, numbers have dwindled to around 600 to 1000 geisha scattered across the 40 districts of Japan.
Since ancient times, Japanese women have considered that a white complexion is synonymous with beauty, to the point that there is a saying that this color serves to cover any imperfection.
It's no secret that Irish people are some of the palest – if not the palest – people in the world. When the hot weather hits, and temperatures soar, the Irish feel it the most on that pale skin from the land of the Celts.
The desire to be beautiful is as old as history. In Japan, beauty has long been associated with a light skin tone. During the Nara Period (710–94), women painted their face with a white powder called oshiroi, and in the Heian Period (794–1185), a white facial color continued to stand as a symbol of beauty.