The Arts of the Geisha: Unraveling the Artistic Traditions and the Aesthetics of Iroke Through an Analysis of Their Music and Dance (2024)

Kelly M. FOREMAN : The Gei of Geisha: Music, Identity and Meaning

2009

The Gei of Geisha: Music, Identity and Meaning

2017

Bad Girls Confined: Okuni, Geisha, and the Negotiation of Female Performance Space

Bad Girls of Japan, 2005

Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal The Alienation and Manipulation of Geisha in Cultural Structures of Japan with Special Reference to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha

2017

Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha is an account of Geisha's life; a life of struggle, and surrounded by various artistic practices where Geisha have no time for themselves. Their life seems glamorous and exciting to the outside world, however, in reality, it is pathetic and an isolated one. The aim of this paper is to focus on the origin of Geisha tradition, which is considered as a cultural heritage of Japan. Simultaneously, the paper throws light on various issues such as the role of tradition, culture, history, economy, and prostitution which contribute to the marginalisation of Geisha in personal as well as social arenas. The paper also deals with the reasons which blur the distinction between Geisha tradition and prostitution. To facilitate the interpretation of Geisha tradition, cultural construction of gender roles has been taken into account.

Tzenova-Nusheva, M. (2016): 'Geishas - A Myth or Reality' A Lecture by by Marta Ilieva and Aneta Dimitrova' A Platform for Arts, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 62-71. [Sofia: Institute of Art Studies, BAS, ISSN 2367-7694. In English.]

Tzenova-Nusheva, M. (2016): 'Geishas - A Myth or Reality' A Lecture by by Marta Ilieva and Aneta Dimitrova' A Platform for Arts, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 62-71. [Sofia: Institute of Art Studies, BAS, ISSN 2367-7694.], 2016

Tzenova-Nusheva, Miglena. "Geushas - A Myth or Reality." A Lecture by by Marta Ilieva and Aneta Dimitrova.” In: A Platform for Arts, 2016 – 2017, No. 2, pp. 62 – 71, link. (Sofia: Institute of Art Studies, BAS, ISSN 2367-7694.) [Presentation of the lecture with comments by the author of the article - M. Tzenova-Nusheva.]

Japanese Orientalism: A Feminist's Perspective In The Study Of Arthur Golden's Memoirs Of A Geisha (1997) And Mineko Iwasaki's Geisha, A Life (2002

The representation of women in literature is one of the most important forms of 'socialisation', since it provides the role models which will portray acceptable versions of the 'feminine' and legitimate feminine goals and aspirations. Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha (1997), is based upon the life story of Mineko Iwasaki, a renowned Geisha during the 1960s and 1970s, and reveals the darker sight of Orientalism. This paper attempts to analyse Memoirs of a Geisha with its counterpart Geisha of Gion: The True Story of Japan's Foremost Geisha or Geisha, A Life (2002), putting forward an argument by comparing these two texts as cultural phenomena symbolizing orientalism of the East as a sexualized and eroticised object to be commodified by the West through the feminist perspective for centuries, the cases of women's exploitation have happened without any substantial solution to end it as yet. All around the world we come across many bitter stories of such exploitation experienced by women in society. Orientalizing of women often implied them as a means of objectification that appealed to the Western audience. This can be observed in the case of geisha, Japanese artists who entertained their guests with no sexual intent but instead became an object of desire and refined sexuality, an enticing exotic creature to the West due to the inaccurate representation. Fiction has the potential to be more entertaining than fact. This research paper aims to apply Edward Said's idea of Orientalism (1978) to study the fictional devices used by Arthur Golden in telling the geisha story in his fiction and what the real story is.

The Appropriated Geisha: Using Their Role to Discuss Japanese History, Cultural Appropriation, and Orientalism (for Education about Asia)

Altering Positions Through an Artistic Inquiry of Japanese Dance

Istanbul University Journal of Women’s Studies, 2023

Cross-gender acts have saturated Japanese performance history, with men and women using gender as a performative act. This practice-led article investigates gendered embodiment and gendered spaces through the Japanese dance and walking technique suriashi (which translates as sliding foot). It is practiced in traditional Japanese performing arts and in martial arts. Gender in traditional Japanese dance/Nihon Buyō is constructed physically through the positioning and moulding of the body, as well as through costume and cross-dressing. The original suriashi practice is performed in the dance studio or on stage, however my research asks whether suriashi could also be a method to act, as being active, or to activate, in other spaces outside the theatre. I exemplify gendered perspectives through a suriashi walk by myself and the drag queen Bruno the Bad Boy at the yearly Saiin Kasuga Shrine Festival in Kyōto. I propose that the suriashi style created to impersonate women is not only a gender construction, it is also a reminder of the continuous absence of women in Nō and Kabuki theatre, resulting from the 1629-1868 ban of women from stage, the adoption of Confucian cultural values, and teachings of Buddhism. Combining extended practice-based and situated knowledge with historical accounts, I elucidate the act of ‘becoming woman’ or ‘performing as woman’ in traditional Japanese dance. This helps to process a global conservatory performer training as well as processing gender issues in the contemporary society, explored through gender theories, performing Hélène Cixoux’s sexual difference and Judith Butler’s gender trouble.

The Otaku Condition: Representations of Reality, Female Corporeality and Sexuality in Japanese Art

2020

This paper offers an art-historical approach towards an intercultural analysis of male otaku visual content and culture. Specifically, through examination of Japanese visual art and culture, I will examine the core cultural aesthetics associated to male otaku visual content and culture. I contend that this core can be found within the male's desire to self-liberate by way of escaping into "fantasy" worlds consisting of commodified, eroticized, and corporeally 'unreal' Japanese females. The artists whom I will discuss throughout this examination are Kitigawa Utamaro, Takashi Murakami, and Mariko Mori. I will review how these Japanese artists have visualized the core tenants of otaku culture and aesthetics as well as the social implications surrounding the production of otaku culture and visual content. In detail, I will examine 1) the core visual origins of the otaku culture and aesthetics from the Edo period (Utamaro) 2) the return of of otaku culture and aesthetics beginning from the Edo boom period (Murakami) and 3) the Japanese female response regarding the social behavior associated to contemporary otaku culture and aesthetics (Mori).

Deconstructing Shirabyoshi–Female dancers of the Heian period as a Mirror of Today