saké “rice wine”; served hot in winter and chilled in summer.
sakko hairstyle worn for the last month before a maiko graduates to become a geisha.
samurai warriors who served the warlords of old Japan; highest class in the Tokugawa ranking system.
-san “Mr.” or “Ms.”; polite suffix normally added to names.
sancha teahouse waitresses-cum-courtesans in old Japan.
san-san-kudo “three times three, nine times”; ritual exchange of cups of saké in a wedding ceremony or maiko’s ceremony of sisterhood.
sensei teacher.
seppuku ritual suicide as practiced by samurai; the English term “hara-kiri” is incorrect.
shamisen literally “three taste strings” or “strings of three tastes”; three-stringed banjo-like instrument played with a plectrum, associated with kabuki and geisha.
shikitari tradition, custom.
shikomi “in training”; first stage in a geisha house, before minarai; the new entrant acts as a housemaid, goes to school, and takes her first classes in music and dance.
Shint “The Way of the Gods”; native Japanese religion. Shinto places of worship are usually red-painted and referred to as “shrines” to differentiate them from Buddhist temples.
shirabyshi “white rhythm”; song and dance performance characterized by a strongly marked rhythm and popular in the twelfth century; the word is also used to refer to the dancer/prostitutes who practiced it.
shgun “generalissimo”; military ruler of Japan during the Edo period, nominally under the emperor but in reality all-powerful.
shogunate the shogun’s government.
sui ideal of “chic” or “sophistication” in seventeenth-century Kyoto and Osaka.
tabi white linen socks with the big toe separated.
taikomochi “drum-bearer”; jester or male geisha.
tamago “egg”; used to refer to shikomi, the first stage of maiko training.
tatami rice straw matting, several inches thick, inset to make the floor of a traditional Japanese room.
tay highest rank of courtesan in Kyoto in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
tokonoma alcove which forms part of a Japanese room and always contains a flower arrangement and a hanging scroll; the position of honor, where the guest is seated, is in front of the tokonoma.
torii portal marking the entrance to a Shinto shrine, made of wood, painted red, and shaped rather like a Stonehenge henge.
tsu a sophisticated man about town, a connoisseur.
tsuzumi a small hourglass-shaped hand drum.
ukiyo “the floating world”; a Buddhist term meaning “the transience of all things,” adopted to refer to the world of the courtesans.
ukiyo-e “painting of the floating world”; woodblock print of the courtesans of the pleasure quarters.
waka classical Japanese poetic form of thirty-one syllables.
ware-shinobu maiko’s first hairstyle.
yakko-shimada sweeping, elegant maiko hairstyle worn for the New Year celebrations.
yakuza Japanese Mafia.
yukata simple cotton kimono used for informal occasions or as a dressing gown-cum-nightwear.
Also by Lesley Downer
On the Narrow Road
The Brothers: The Hidden World of Japan’s Richest Family
WOMEN OF THE PLEASURE QUARTERS. Copyright © 2001 by Lesley Downer. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, address Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Downer, Lesley.
Women of the pleasure quarters: the secret history of the geisha/Lesley Downer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Geishas. I. Title.
GT3412 .D68 2001
792.7’028’0952—dc21 00-049409
A slightly different version of this book was published in 2000 in the United Kingdom by Headline Book Publishing Ltd. under the title Geisha.
eISBN: 978-0-7679-0972-3
v3.0
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