Geisha
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Geisha, also known as geiko or geigi, are female Japanese performing artists and entertainers trained in traditional Japanese performing arts styles, such as dance, music and singing, as well as being
Profile of a Miyagawa-chō geiko (geisha) Kimiha wearing a trailing, formal black kimono (kuromontsuki hikizuri) and a chū taka shimada-style nihongami wig
A shikomi (left) accompanying the maiko Takamari of the Kaida okiya in Gion Kobu
Minarai Katsunosuke wearing a short obi and a large, colourful set of kanzashi hairpins
Ukiyo-e scroll depicting a Gion geisha, 1800–1833
Oiran
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Oiran is a collective term for the highest-ranking courtesans in Japanese history, who were considered to be above common prostitutes for their more refined entertainment skills and training in the tr
Geisha
…women] of pleasure") – a term used to refer to prostitutes as a whole – were classified and licensed, the upper echelons of which were referred to as oiran, a category with its own internal ranks, the highest of which being the tayū. Though women in the lower ranks of yūjo did not provide as much artistic…
An oiran sitting with a client and an apprentice. Ukiyo-e print by Suzuki Harunobu (1765).
Picture of oiran in 1917
The modern-day tayū Kisaragi of the Wachigaiya okiya of Shimabara, Kyoto on parade
An actress dressed as an oiran in parade wearing distinctive high platform shoes