60 housing a bookshop on the ground floor and two apartments
overhead. Golden, 1997:427 Many Japanese cultures were on the verge of extinct. One of the
sources was many artists and people who know the culture were dead because of the war. So it would be hard to teach and to search a new generation to
maintain the Japanese cultures. Geisha also got affected, and slowly the geisha number in Gion was decreased, and there was nothing government can
do to avoid it.
4.4 Geisha Culture
On this discussion, the writer divided Geisha culture into 7 points. All of them were supported by quotation and explanation.
4.4.1 Belief and Faith system
Geisha were very superstitious lot. They believed in mystic, fortune-telling, zodiac, bad omen, and etc.
4.4.1.1 Almanac
Almanac was like book that contain or crammed with many complicated charts and obscure characters. Geisha always used this before
they decided to done something. They also often used this to decide small matter like buying a new pair of shoes or which direction they must avoid if
they went out on that day. When Sayuri met Mameha on her apartment, Mameha explained to
Sayuri about the importance of almanac. She believed all bad luck that Sayuri
61 get into, was because Sayuri never checked her activity by using almanac. We
can see from the following quotation: ―It‘s no wonder, all the misfortunes you‘ve experienced,‖ Mameha
told me. ―Do you mean to say that you tried to run away without
checking if the day was auspicious? ‖ Golden, 1997: 126
Based from the quotation above, we can concluded that all geisha
believed on mysterious being and supernatural things. The almanac was an example. Whenever they go, they must checked their almanac first before
made the decision.
4.4.1.2 Gods
Geisha often went to the temple to pray to the Gods, or when there is a special occasion happened.
The special occasion such ceremony held when a Geisha announced to the Gods that they adopted a new sister. In this case, Mameha did that
when she adopted Sayuri as her little sister. We can see from the following quotation:
Auntie accompanied me to Mameha ‘s apartment, where I expressed
my gratitude to Mameha and pledged to honor and respect her. Then the three of us walked to the Gion Shrine, where Mameha and I
clapped our hands and announced to the gods that we would soon be bound as sisters. I prayed for their favor in the years ahead, and then
closed my eyes and thanked them for having granted me the wish I
‘d pleaded for three and a half years earlier, that I should become a
geisha. Golden: 1997:166
62 It was same like almanac, geisha believed on God. They visited the
shrine whenever they doing something important, such as Sisters Ceremony, praying for good luck, and etc.
4.4.1.3 Love
