Top Story: 24. April 2009
Interview with Sayuki
By Editor in Chief, Jaakko Saari
Recently I got chance to interview the first western geisha in Japan, Sayuki. She is also a social anthropologist, writer, and film director.
How has the recent years been in Japan?
Be flexible. Forget all your previous assumptions and cultural categories and start with a blank slate.
It has been two years since I started commuting to Asakusa, but still just over a year since I debuted. It has been incredibly long in some ways, and has flown by in moments in other ways! I still feel very much a beginner in this world so I want to continue for some time.
But I also have a lot of exciting things going on that I want to see come to fruition. I have an initiative with one of the tea-houses whereby if you get ten people together in a group yourself, you can come to a tea-house for a much lower price than usual: from 15,000 – 20,000 yen per person. This has been really popular and I have a got a lot of people coming who wouldn’t normally have had the chance to come to a tea-house. Sometimes I have foreign businessmen in Japan entertaining their Japanese counterparts by bringing them to a tea-house, and the Japanese are very impressed!
I have a new initiative starting up now where even if you are just two or three people, you will also be able to experience a banquet with several geisha present for 25,000 yen each, which wouldn’t have been possible previously.
It is also always possible to call me alone or with my sisters out from Asakusa to events. Sometimes I go alone and entertain, sometimes I go with my sisters to entertain. Sometimes I go alone and give a talk at a university or Rotary Club and show footage of my life in Asakusa. I especially enjoy being able to go to different places in Japan to do this.
Anyone can book these plans in through my web-site www.sayuki.net.
What especially do you love in Japan, and find fascinated in?
In the geisha world that I am in now I love the aesthetics. Geisha life is built around the seasons and is very much about expressing the essence of the seasons, and in a sense, living in the moment. In the tea-houses are always displayed the most beautiful flowers of the season, the art work all displays priceless treasures or something fresh with a seasonal theme, the cuisine always has what is most delicious at that time in the year. And the geisha’s kimonos also reflect the seasons, but look ahead slightly. So in the last weeks of February we will wear plum blossom designs, and in the last weeks of March we will wear kimono with cherry blossom motifs. The music we play too has beautiful poetry reflecting the seasons. As it is April, recently I have been playing: “Yozakura” :
The cherry blossoms at night. Like drunken crows, the pleasure seekers meander happily. In the shadow of the trees, someone waits for me, feigning indifference. The fresh green branches of the willows wave lightly in the breeze.
What has been most difficult as westerner in Japan?
Many Japanese don’t seem to really understand what prejudice is or recognize it when it happens in Japan. For example, many are convinced that Japanese are very nice to white people. But this is not entirely true. Treating someone as special and different is not really nice; it is exclusionary. People who are living normally in a country generally just want to be treated normally. I am glad though, as someone who grew up partly in Japan, that I have been able to pursue my interests here, regardless of the color of my skin, and I hope that I have helped to destroy some prejudices along the way.
Did your family support you in your career as geisha?
My family have been very supportive in letting me do what I wanted to do, from allowing me to go to Japan at the age of 15 and taking in a Japanese girl for a year in place of me. In my life, but also in my film-making career, I have done quite a few unusual things so becoming a geisha wasn’t that much of a surprise.
Tell me a little of your book
I am currently writing my book “Sayuki: inside the flower and willow world” (to come out with Pan Macmillan Australia) and filming a documentary. I have been filming crucial moments, like my debut, that I wouldn’t be able to film again. But the bulk of the filming will be done in one piece at a later date.
What would be your advice for westerners who want to understand Japanese society and settle in Japan?
Be flexible. Forget all your previous assumptions and cultural categories and start with a blank slate.
Please tell me a bit about your kimonos. How long have you practised wearing kimono?
I wear kimono everyday that I have classes or events of any kind. For classes I wear komon everyday kimono. I was lucky to have been given a lot of kimono from friends, and some from older geisha as well, so I had a basic wardrobe to start with.
The kimono that we wear for banquets are from exclusive shops and all order-made, and they are very expensive: around 500,000 yen for the kimono, and the same for the obi. Because a lot of them are seasonal we can only wear each one for a few weeks of the year. I am able to use the kimono of my geisha mother, and her kimono are much better than mine. But I have slowly built up a collection of my own too.
This year I started wearing hikigi, the long trailing kimono, which is a whole new experience, as it is a real challenge to walk and turn in it and still look graceful. I want to wear it as much as possible from now until I am really comfortable in it.
I am often asked about where to buy kimono. For beginners, I recommend Tansuya, the chain of new and recycled kimono stores around Tokyo. The staff are very knowledgeable and can help you put together a good-as-new pure silk kimono and obi that go together properly for very reasonable prices.
One of my more unusual engagements as a geisha was being called out to help some foreign ladies buy kimono to take back home. I really enjoyed that as I love kimono and know quite a bit about it by now. I would be happy to do that again.
Thank you Ms. Sayuki for allowing us this interview. We wish you good success for future!
If you get ten people together you can come to tea-house for not more than 20,000 yen each person. Please check out her official website at: www.sayuki.net. Unfortunately we cannot convey any personal message to Ms. Sayuki. Please contact her through her official website.
Sayuki may be a Geisha, but she still makes the impression of a Henshin to me - I don't want to have a go on her, I hold her in high esteem for having achieved such an awe-inspiring goal (for which I also would kill, to be honest ^.^) but she is not Japanese and one can't fail to notice that. With which I don't want to say that she is a bad Geisha.
I would love to meet her sometime - if I ever get the chance before she retires.