Although in the West, people generally refer to any figurine or image of a traditionally dressed Japanese woman as a "geisha," the geisha, traditional female entertainers highly skilled in dancing, musicianship, singing, and witty conversation, were a small subset of Japanese womanhood. The geisha and the maiko, a geisha in training, are identified by their specific hairstyles and wardrobe. This lovely lady, clad in layers of elaborately embroidered kimonos, is not a geisha, but an oiran, or a grand courtesan. The clue is not only her ornate outfit and hairstyle, but her obi (sash) tied in a wide knot in the front. Originally, Japanese women all tied the sash of their kimono in the front, but in the 1600s, as the obi became wider and more elaborate, most women shifted the knot to the back for convenience. However, the high-ranked courtesan wore her obi knotted to the front, the better to display the costly material and embroidery. For like her bejeweled hair, multiple kimonos and opulent obi, the oiran was a pricey status symbol only the wealthiest men could afford and enjoy.
In 1642, the Tokugawa shogunate, in an attempt to impose order and morality, limited brothels and prostitution to isolated "pleasure quarters:" Yoshiwara outside of Edo (now Tokyo); Shimabara in Kyoto, and; Shinmachi in Osaka. Inside these pleasure quarters was a strict hierarchy of prostitutes, with the oiran (and her predecessor, the tayū) at the pinnacle. They were the glamor girls of the ukiyo or "floating world," in which men could temporarily escape from strictures of a highly regulated society by floating in gently swirling currents of beauty, passion, and pleasure. These were the women pictured in woodblocks or scrolls, flawless beauties with idealized interchangeable faces, cocooned in costly kimonos. With her highly ornamented hair, whitened face, layers of padded silk, and stylized poses, the oiran was an extravagant objet d'art, only a glimpse of the nape of her neck or a flash of a bare calf revealing there was a woman underneath, like a present waiting to be unwrapped
Although there are no contemporary writings by the women of the pleasure quarters, even the highly literate oirans, the crowded quarters were certainly less than pleasurable for the women forced to work there. Most were sold to brothels as children by their desperately poor families. If a girl showed unusual beauty and grace, she would be trained as an elite courtesan, learning not only how to play instruments, sing, and dance, but also to write poetry, do calligraphy, and be a witty conversationalist, all skills intended to make her more attractive (and therefore more profitable). Although the company of a courtesan was costly for an elite customer, the oiran herself profited little from the transaction. She was kept in continuous debt to the brothel, expected to pay for everything from her ever-more elaborate wardrobe to her entourage of attendants. Her only hope for freedom was for some enamored man to pay off her often enormous debts. Although her life was certainly more comfortable than that of the sex workers lower in the hierarchy, the oiran still faced the dangers of sexually-transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy, abuse by the men who owned her or paid for her, and the demands that she make her quota of customers, even when exhausted or ill. Most women working in the pleasure quarters died young.
Now, I know that some of you are thinking, "Yes, the figurine is lovely and the history is interesting, but where is the naughty part?!" Well, here it is. . . she lifts out of her lower garments, revealing that she is bare from the waist down. Made out of beautifully modeled and glazed stoneware, this figurine is 10 inches tall. There are no marks.
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