Sisters Teachers in School

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4.4.5.2 Sisters

There was a relationship in geisha between an apprentice geisha with the full-fledged geisha. It was called sisters. The apprentice would be the ―younger sister‖, while the senior geisha would be the ―older sister‖. This was one of the most important times for an apprentice geisha life, since she must watched and learned many things from her ―older sister‖. From the several ways how to pour a tea for her patrons, how to walk properly without stop, how to do a good conversation with the patrons, and many more. We can see from the following quotation: By the time a girl is finally ready to make her debut as an apprentice, she needs to have established a relationship with a more experienced geisha. Golden: 1997, 128 The older sister helped to decide all important decision for their younger sister as long as it ‘s for her younger sister success. It was included mizuage ceremony, danna, and promotion from apprenticeship into full- fledged geisha.

4.4.5.3 Teachers in School

Teachers for geisha were very important. Because from them, they learned the arts and sometimes the teacher gave recommendation for their favorite student. Hence every geisha, especially the apprentice obeyed and put a lot of respect on them. But if it was the opposite, and the geisha especially apprentice geisha, did not have any respect on their teacher, they suffered because the teacher 70 would decline to teach anything to them. We can see from the following quotation: ―Don‘t waste your time to be courteous to me‖ Teacher Mouse squeaked at her. ―If you hadn‘t slept so late this morning, you might have arrived here in time to learn something. ‖ The girl apologized and soon began to play, but the teacher paid no attention at all. She just said, ―You sleep too late in the morning. How do you expect me to teach you, when you can ‘t take the trouble to come to school like the other girls and sign up properly? Just go back to your place, I don ‘t want to be bothered with you.‖ Golden: 1997, 57 Mameha understood about this and she encouraged Sayuri to give respect and do all of their commands without any objection in the school. We can see from the following dialogue: ―Slowing the feet is a way of showing respect,‖ she said. ―The more you slow up, the greater the respect. You might stop altogether to bow to one of your teachers, but for anyone else, don ‘t slow more than you need to, for heaven ‘s sake, or you‘ll never get anywhere…‖ Golden: 1997, 157 Geisha gave her respect to someone that they met in street by bowed her body, the deeper the bow, the greater respect that the geisha gives to the person. On this case, most geisha usually stopped and gave deep bow to their teachers if they met them when walked in the street. 4.4.6 Geisha Equipment 4.4.6.1 Shamisen