How geisha dress: hair, kimono and makeupHair, kimono and obi, white makeup

Geisha wear nihongami (traditional Japanese hairstyles built around a mage, a gathered topknot at the back). The okami of Miyakodori says there are three shapes of topknot. A hangyoku (Tokyo's word for an apprentice geisha, who is already a geisha) wears momoware. When she becomes an ippon (a fully fledged geisha), she changes to takashimada. Later still, some change to a shape called tsubushi. From the front, the front hair looks the same. The difference is the shape of the topknot at the back.

The okami says a takashimada becomes heavy to wear, so some geisha switch to the lighter tsubushi as they grow older. Hair and kimono also have to suit each other: with a finely patterned Edo komon kimono, she says, a shimada does not look right.

Yuta Kawamura, the owner of Miyakodori, says that at ozashiki (private parties with geisha) today the takashimada is the norm, and some geisha wear tsubushi. Despite the name (taka means "high"), a takashimada today is usually of middle height. No one now wears a shimada between takashimada and tsubushi in height. The bunkin takashimada worn by brides is a different hairstyle.

Hangyoku and ippon are both geisha

According to Yuta Kawamura, in Asakusa today both hangyoku and ippon basically wear their nihongami as a wig. Whether a geisha wears a wig and whether she appears in nihongami or in yohatsu (the geisha world's word for a hairstyle that is not nihongami, gathered up to suit a kimono) are separate questions.

There is no fixed rule for the tachikata (the geisha who dances). At an ozashiki for guests coming for the first time, she almost always wears nihongami and white makeup. She would rarely appear in yohatsu for them. For regular guests, she often wears yohatsu without white makeup, because many regulars like her that way.

The okami says that if a guest asks for nihongami, the geisha will come properly dressed for it. The jikata (the geisha who plays the shamisen and sings) appears in yohatsu, without white makeup.

The jikata's hair and makeup

Yuta Kawamura says that when a geisha wears the black hikigi (the black formal kimono with a trailing hem, below), her takashimada carries three ornaments of bekkō (tortoiseshell): a kushi (comb), a kōgai (a bar that runs through the topknot from side to side) and a kanzashi (an ornamental hairpin). The comb sits on top, toward the front of the topknot. The kōgai passes through the topknot and shows on both sides. The kanzashi goes in on the side of the front hair.

A red and white motoyui (a cord that ties the base of the topknot) is tied at the base of the topknot. The knot is small and tight, and the ends that reach out to the left and right are long. Most people pronounce the word "motoyui"; in the geisha world it is "mottoi".

At New Year, every geisha, hangyoku and ippon alike, wears a kanzashi of rice ears, and she basically keeps wearing it for as long as she wears the black kimono. A hangyoku's hair carries bright flower ornaments, while an ippon keeps her kanzashi and comb plain. Tama-kanzashi (hairpins topped with a bead) of coral or jade are still worn today.

The okami of Miyakodori says that the black crested kimono a geisha wears once she becomes an ippon is the most formal thing a geisha wears. It carries five crests: on the left and right of the chest, on both sleeves and on the back. The okami explains that five crests mark a kimono as formal for anyone, not only in the geisha world. Each geisha puts the crest of her okiya (the house she belongs to as a geisha) on it.

In January, geisha wear the black hikigi. Black is worn until around the middle of January, and then, still within January, they change to the irogawari (literally "change of color"). The irogawari is a hikigi that is not black, with three crests, on both sleeves and on the back.

A book on the Tokyo geisha world says this outfit, a black kimono with five crests, a white collar and a woven obi tied in the yanagi style, was settled as the formal dress of Tokyo geisha in Shinbashi during the Meiji period (1868–1912). When the Meiji government made black the color of formal dress, the geisha world followed. After the Second World War, the book says, this dress spread to geisha districts all over Tokyo.

• ▶ Video (Miyakodori on YouTube)The black hikigi at New Year

The time of the change from the black hikigi to the irogawari is approximate.

A hikigi has a long hem that trails over the tatami mats when the geisha walks. Yuta Kawamura says the black hikigi is an ohikizuri (literally "trailing") kimono, far longer than the usual length. The hem should narrow toward the floor. When a hem spreads out, people in the geisha world say it has "become an andon" (a paper lantern), and they consider it wrong.

A hikigi is heavy and hard to walk in, so it is worn by geisha with experience. Basically every geisha has one made. Those who were hangyoku for a long time sometimes have one made when they become ippon. A geisha who started straight away as an ippon finds it hard to have one made. Some geisha own a hikigi and some do not. A 2003 book on Asakusa geisha also says a hikigi was something a geisha had made after gaining experience, and that a newcomer who trailed her hem straight away would look presumptuous.

Books record a time when the trailing hem left the everyday ozashiki. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, Tokyo geisha put their shimada up into yohatsu and stopped trailing their hems, as restraint in keeping with the times. After the war, one book says, the trailing hem became dress only for New Year and for dances. In a 2009 book, the novelist Hiraiwa Yumie wrote that unless the occasion is special, wearing yohatsu and a hem that does not trail had become normal. Yuta Kawamura says that in Asakusa today many geisha trail their hems at everyday ozashiki too, especially the tachikata.

Each book describes the Tokyo geisha world at the time it was written.

Yuta Kawamura says the obi worn with the black hikigi is tied in the yanagi-musubi ("willow knot"). The knot looks like a cross, and that, he says, is what makes it stylish. With this black hikigi, the obijime (the thin cord tied over the obi) is basically not worn.

A 2003 book also describes a geisha's formal dress as a black crested hikigi with the obi in the yanagi knot, and says that in the Kansai region (around Kyoto and Osaka) the obi is tied in the otaiko style instead.

With an everyday ozashiki kimono, the obijime is still a braided cord (kumihimo). When going to an ozashiki, the rule is to take off rings and watches.

The okami of Miyakodori says a hangyoku wears a furisode (a kimono with long hanging sleeves) with kataage, a tuck sewn at the shoulders. It is the same tuck put on children's kimono for Shichi-Go-San (the festival for children aged three, five and seven). A Tokyo hangyoku wears her kimono in the hashori style, with the length taken up at the waist so the hem does not trail, and she ties her obi differently from an ippon.

Outdoors, a hangyoku wears pokkuri (tall wooden clogs). The okami says the sole has a hollow with a bell inside, so the clogs jingle as she walks. Yuta Kawamura says the pokkuri are a whitish color; geisha do not wear black ones.

A hangyoku's collar may be red, or sometimes white. Outdoors, an ippon basically wears zōri sandals, and sometimes geta clogs. Inside the ozashiki room, hangyoku and ippon alike wear pure white tabi socks.

The okami of Miyakodori says the makeup worn with nihongami uses three colors: white, red and black. Today's makeup adds color upon color, but the old makeup, she says, worked by subtraction, showing each woman's character in how much she thinned the red. "You may take away, but you hardly ever add," the okami says.

The red is red only, never pink or beige. There is no eye shadow and no false eyelashes. Seen from the side, eyelashes curling up under nihongami look wrong; they may suit yohatsu, but not nihongami.

The eyebrows are drawn lightly in black or brown, with red laid over and blurred with a brush. They are drawn low and crescent-shaped, never sharply. A touch of red at the corners of the eyes gives allure, the okami says. A hangyoku puts on her red the same way as an ippon.

The okami of Miyakodori describes the steps. First, binzuke oil (the hair oil used for nihongami, the same oil sumo wrestlers use in their hair) is spread well with the hands and put on the face and neck. Over it goes eri-oshiroi (white powder for the face and neck), mixed with water or toner, and it is patted on. Some geisha use a pure white pancake made for the stage instead, with a white foundation under it. Which one a geisha uses depends on what suits her skin.

The white was once spread with a thick, soft brush. Today a sponge is used.

When she was a working geisha, the okami finished her face in about 10 to 15 minutes and was told she was quick. She thinks geisha today take under 30 minutes, though a slip of the brush can stretch it to one or two hours. Yuta Kawamura says getting ready, including dressing, takes 30 minutes to an hour in all, and around an hour and a half for a trainee. Hōkan (male entertainers who work at ozashiki alongside geisha) do not wear white makeup.

The hōkan

• ▶ Video (Miyakodori on YouTube)Putting on white makeup

The okami of Miyakodori says that when the neck is painted white, the shape of the nape is deliberately left unpainted. This is called mitsueri. It is done so that when a guest sees her from behind, or when she turns her back in a dance, her neck looks long and slender.

Real napes differ from person to person, so when it is drawn by hand, one side is made shorter and the other a little longer, to look natural.

A geisha can hardly draw mitsueri on herself, so the hakoya (the person who dresses geisha and attends them) draws it. When there is no one to help, some geisha paint the whole neck white without it. The okami says it really should be drawn.

The okami of Miyakodori says that before electricity, an ozashiki was lit by large candles called hyakume rōsoku, so geisha may have painted their faces white to make them stand out in the dark. She says this is what she has heard, not something she has looked into. She also thinks that, with fewer things available then, the white was not as bright as it is today.

A 2003 book tells of a guest who brought hyakume candles and held a party with geisha lit only by their light reflected off the shoji screens. He found that white makeup looks its best in flickering candlelight. Because the light was dim, faces came naturally close when sake was poured, and people could talk in whispers.

• ▶ Video (Miyakodori on YouTube)Why do geisha paint their faces white?
• ▶ Video (Miyakodori on YouTube)A geisha of the 1950s and 60s on why the face is white

The reason for white makeup is recorded as the okami's guess.