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Paper short abstract

Sexualized stereotypes often obscure the geisha’s artistic role. By examining how preservation efforts in Morioka can inadvertently reinforce gendered perceptions, this paper argues that prioritizing gei (artistic skill) is essential for the tradition’s sustainable future.

Paper long abstract

Recent scholarship has increasingly identified geisha as highly skilled artistic practitioners. However, the dominant interpretation continues to place geisha primarily in a sexual and gender context. Even when recognized as cultural bearers, their artistic labor is frequently overshadowed by established narratives that emphasize appearance, femininity, and male-centered social relations. By critically examining these enduring gendered modes of understanding, this paper advocates a fundamental shift in perspective that foregrounds practice, skill, and artistic labor and proposes an alternative framework that positions geisha as practitioners and custodians of living performing arts. This approach challenges dominant models that obscure embodied expertise, rigorous training, and processes of cultural transmission.

This theoretical reframing is urgently needed, given the contemporary crisis confronting geisha districts throughout Japan. In the 1930s, approximately 80,000 geisha were active in more than 600 districts nationwide. Today, fewer than 500 geisha remain in only 30 to 40 districts, placing local performing traditions at serious risk. In response, many districts have intensified recruitment and training initiatives; however, these efforts often reproduce gendered assumptions that undermine long-term sustainability.

The case of Morioka, Iwate, exemplifies these tensions. While local institutions have promoted recruitment as a form of cultural preservation, a 2025 controversy surrounding the introduction of an upper age limit and public remarks invoking male preference for younger women revealed how deeply sexualized lenses continue to inform such initiatives. Rather than supporting geisha as artistic practitioners, these discourses risk reinforcing representations that value youth and femininity over artistic expertise, discouraging sustained professional participation.

By integrating theoretical critique with the Morioka case, this paper demonstrates that representational paradigms actively shape contemporary preservation practices. It argues that reconceptualizing geisha as practitioners of gei, grounded in skill, discipline, and embodied knowledge, is not only an analytical necessity but also a conceptual precondition for the sustainable future of geisha arts.