OUIL402 PP1: Research: Geisha

I started off by watching Memoirs of a Geisha, which I absolutely love. The scenes and setting are so atmospheric and the costumes and makeup are amazing. I think the actresses manage to portray an atmosphere of hierarchy but loyalty well and personally I think it really gave me great insight into the world of a Geisha.

However some critics comment on the inaccuracy of some of the costumes and hair styles and other details. To a westerner this may not seem important, however after researching into the ways of the Japanese Geisha I have learnt that it is this perfection to detail that separates them and makes the Geisha the work of art that she is. It is an intensely intricate and detailed way of life which is hidden from outsiders. It is amazing that the author of Memoirs of a Geisha managed to get this information and to find out the inner workings of the lifestyle. So because of this and the beauty of the film, I think it overcomes the incorrect details, however the inaccuracy of them do hold some disrespect to the portrayal of Geisha.

Here are some quotes from the film...

• 1. Sayuri Narrator: After all, these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind.
  
  
• 1. The Baron: Mameha asked me to show you my kimono collection. It's quite venerated. My grandfather and father collected kimonos. I've given a number of valuable kimonos to Mameha; I like to give presents to beautiful girls.
  
  
• 1. Sayuri: The heart dies a slow death. Shedding each hope like leaves, until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains. She paints her face to hide her face, her eyes a deep water; it is not for Geisha to want, it is not for Geisha to feel; Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances. She sings. She entertains you - whatever you want. The rest is shadows, the rest is secret.
  
  
• 1. Mameha: You cannot call yourself a true geisha until you can stop a man in his tracks with a single look.
  
  
• 1. Sayuri: No geisha could never hope for more.
  
  
• 1. Sayuri: How could you?! You don't know what you have done!
  2. Pumpkin: But I do.
  3. Sayuri: I do not understand. Why did you have to bring the chairman?
  4. Pumpkin: Because I know how you feel about him. A long time ago, you took something from me. The only thing I ever truly wanted. Well, now you know how it feels.
  (Here she is talking about when Sayuri became the choice to inherit the Geisha house over Pumpkin; this shows how important and powerful and free becoming this role means.)
• 1. Mother: I'm entitled to do as I choose.
  2. Hatsumomo: But you promised the okiya to Pumpkin!
  3. Mother: Look at her, still a virgin maiko. [Pumpkin gets up and runs off]
  4. Hatsumomo: Pumpkin! [Hatsumomo tries unsuccessfully to pull her back]
  5. Sayuri: Can't you adopt us both?
  6. Mother: Quiet Sayuri. Now I'm no fool. Pumpkin would only be Hatsumomo's puppet. How long will it take before you kick us out on the street.
  7. Hatsumomo: I have given you my life.
  8. Mother: Yes your impudence, your foul temper.
  9. Hatsumomo: Who paid for the silk on your back. The rice in your bowl. The tobacco in that pipe of your!? WHO?!
  10. Mother: Don't exaggerate! You have not even had a danna.
  (Shows the seemingly unfairness that the geisha's must give all their earnings to their Geisha mother sometimes even after they have paid off their debts.)
• 1. Sayuri: This is how it was in this tiny world of women. Friend turned against friend. And now the two greatest geisha in Miyako at war over me. Hatsumomo at my back, Mameha calling, offering me the chance to be one of those elegant women I'd seen on the bridge, floating in the silk kimono, the chairman at my side.
• 1. Mother: Besides I can always sell Chiyo to Mrs. Tatsuyo.
  2. Mameha: With your eye for beauty and nose for talent, surely you can see what a terrible waste that would be.
  3. Mother: If you are not the kind-hearted geisha i know you to be, I might think you were scheming against Hatsumomo.
  4. Mameha: Then I'm grateful, Mrs. Nitta, that you do not have a suspicious mind.
  5. Mother: Perhaps you can peak my interest with...
  6. Mameha: Yes?
  7. Mother: Your offer?
  8. Mameha: I will cover Chiyo's schooling, all her expenses, until after her debut.
  9. Mother: Now I am confident you are teasing.
  10. Mameha: I cannot be more sincere. If Chiyo hasn't paid off her debt within 6 months after her debut...
  11. Mother: No, impossible, too little time!
  12. Mameha: Then I will pay you twice over.
  13. Mother: What? No geisha could ever...
• 1. Hatsumomo: It's that kimono. She remembers how you destroyed it. Now she wants to get even.
  (Shows how important and significant Kimono were. They were also incredibly expensive and her set of kimono held the geisha's reputation.)
• 1. Sayuri: Along with the snow, came a most unexpected visitor.
  (Nature always reflects the truth/ goes hand in hand with the atmosphere and Japanese people)
• 1. Mother: Dr. Muri is very expensive. You seem to be racking up quite a debt. Huh? Kimono destroyed, geisha school, rice and pickle, train ticket, Mr. Bekku. All this on top of the money I paid to Mr. Tanaka. And for what? And now I hear that your sister has run away. She didn't wait for you. And now she can never come back. You must forget that you ever had a sister. Hmm? [grabs a small package and gives it to Chiyo] We are you only family now.
  2. Auntie: [Chiyo opens it and pauses. Auntie grabs it and reads] 'Dear Satsu and little Chiyo, As one who was once an orphan child myself,' this humble person is sorry to inform you that "six weeks after you left for you new life in Miyako, the suffering of you honor mother came to an end. And only a few weeks afterwards, your honor father departed this world as well. 'This humble person is 'confident, both your honor parents have found their place in paradise...[reading drifts out]
  (The geisha houses were the geishas only home and only family, a sisterhood with a strict hierarchy.)
• 1. Hatsumomo: Hmm, what is it? 20 yen? 30?
  2. Mother: This can't be the right amount.
  3. Mameha: I trust you agree. I have won the wager. Sayuri's made history. No mizuagi has ever been sold for more, not even mine. 15,000 yen.
  (bids for Sayuri's virginity, sometimes if the geisha's reputation were good enough, the geisha could pay off their debt to the Geisha mother just through this one payment -rare though)
• 1. Hatsumomo: What did Mameha do? Speak to the director, in private?
  2. Sayuri: Not every geisha uses that kind of currency.
  (Embarasing Hatsumomo suggesting that she is like a prostitute; a huge insult to a geisha)
• 1. Hatsumomo: Who is responsible for this?! [slams the poster on the table]
  2. Mother: Ask Mameha.
  3. Hatsumomo: I'm asking you okasan.
  4. Pumpkin: How come Sayuri gets to be the lead?
  5. Mother: It's your own fault. You should practice more.
  (Perfection is never reached in Geisha art forms, you can never practice enough. Hugely competitive and hugely dedicated and talented. Sayuri has received a lead role in a dance performance here.)
• Sayuri: Your honorable sister says, 'Cut your leg.' You cut your leg. She says, 'Follow me.' You follow. My life had turned into a game, and only she knew the rules. (Your older geisha sister lays down the law. You learn everything from her as part of your training, and you cannot dishonor her name.)
• 1. Sayuri: I humbly beg to differ. What is sumo, but a dance between giants. What is business, but a dance between companies. I'd like to know about every kind of dance.
  (Sayuri shows how art is entwined in every aspect of life, it is impossible to escape and therefore impossibly important. She is presenting herself as an equal to talk to in this.)
• 1. Hatsumomo: Sometimes, the smartest remark is silence.
  2. Sayuri: What better advise to follow than your own.
  3. Mameha: Sayuri.
  4. Hatsumomo: I was a maiko myself once.
  5. Sayuri: Of course, but it's been such a very long, long, long, long time. [Everyone laughs]
  (Not only was beauty important, but skill in conversation, charm and wit.)
• 1. Mameha: As for the kimono, I am no fool, Chiyo. Hatsumomo, cannot tolerate competition.
  2. Chiyo: She's jealous of you?
  3. Mameha: Not me I'm afraid. Someone closer to home.
  (Dark side; the competitive nature between geisha sisters for power in the business.)
• 1. Mameha: Rise. [Chiyo gets up off her knees] Not like a horse.
  (A geisha is an artwork, must move beautifully.)
• 1. Sayuri: When Mameha granted me my new name, I felt little Chiyo disappear behind a white mask with red lips. I was a maiko now. An apprentice geisha. From that moment, I told myself, when I make tea, when I poured sake, when I danced, when I tied my obi, it will be for the chairman. Until he finds me. Until I am his.
• 1. Mameha: [in voiceover] Remember, Chiyo, geisha are not courtesans. And we are not wives. We sell our skills, not our bodies. We create another secret world, a place only of beauty. The very word 'geisha' means artist and to be a geisha is to be judged as a moving work of art.
  (My favorite quote and most important for my project)
• 1. Sayuri: At the temple, there is a poem called 'Loss' carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read Loss, only feel it. (Loss is part of the geisha world, you loose your family, your freedom and your choice in love.) 

I watched some documentaries on Geisha's; historically and modern day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP1BBw3IYco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjhBEgwFP2M

The latter one I made a lot of notes from and below I have written them up as they hold a lot of important information that will inform me for this project:

OUIL401 COP End of Module Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL401 Context of Practice	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Alice Dear
I have developed many skills throughout this brief; time management; which I have effectively applied through learning to split my time wisely in order to have a decent amount of time dedicated to each aspect of image making- research, visual research, idea development and creating the final outcome; my mark making skills have also improved, particularly in my final piece where a lot of time was invested in careful marks and details that would portray the figures as part of a set yet identifiable as individual figures; also my decision making skills as I have had many different ideas and options throughout this brief yet I have had to make precise decisions in order to direct my work to a strong message. I found this hard as many aspects interested me however deciding on my specific topic made the rest of my work a lot easier to organise. I also had to decide on what parts of reference images I wanted to use and how they could fit together to form the Union Jack best, I focussed a lot when making this piece and the decisions I made along the way led to all of the many illustrated figures working together.
I have used a lot of collage in my sketchbook for this brief; it has been an approach/method I have developed as it informed my concept development process. Collage meant that I could use real life material to support the facts behind my art work on binge drinking; I used advertisements for clothes and alcohol, and then drew over the top of them, for example drawing bruises and strangling hands onto the models. My drawings were conveying the dangers that the advertisers do not want you to see. Collage meant that my concept could be taken further as it allowed me to combine the ideal of the advertisement; the fun celebratory atmosphere, versus the dangers; the unprotected and possible unwanted sex, fights etc. I also began to use ballpoint/biro pen more which allowed me to concentrate on my approach to mark making and pen stroke as the pen was very sensitive to pressure. My concept development process was also informed by the range of media I used in my sketchbook which allowed me to explore how certain tools worked most and least effectively.
I think the strengths in my work are confronting real issues, my sketchbook contains some dark parts of our binge drinking culture such as unwanted pregnancy from unprotected sex when drunk, abuse from an intoxicated abuser or being vulnerable to it from too much alcohol. Violence to your body, your health and your mental health, from others and yourself is heightened when intoxicated and binge drinking (drinking a large amount in a small amount of time) is common and normal in British culture particularly in the young; so it was crucial that I confronted these issues when visually researching the topic. I think drawing in details is also a strength of mine as I am able to concentrate on perfecting these small aspects of my work. Figures and portraits are something I naturally head towards, I could always improve however they are definitely one of my strengths and I created my final piece based on the human aspect of alcohol which capitalised on this strength. To capitalise on these strengths further I will continue to study the human form and push myself to create more intricate and detailed work.
I need to draw more possible format ideas and layouts as well as keeping in mind scale and how it can affect the message I am trying to convey. I don’t think I explored enough aspects of binge drinking in my work however it is a huge subject and endless issues are continually found linked to the topic. Creating more mind maps and exploring ideas that way would improve this in future. I also think I failed to look at other artists work in detail enough, I looked deeply into Hogarth and other 18th Century print makers in my essay and throughout this brief however I failed to look into my contemporary illustrators who look into binge drinking in today’s culture. In future I will spend some of my time researching into other artists working on the exact same topic as me in order to see how else the topic can be approached; I have stepped away from this in the past as I want to create original work and get scared I will be too influenced by other artists.
If I were to do this again I would: ·         Create it to a larger scale; the Photoshopped version of the mural version would have worked more effectively as I would have been able to create more in depth story lines in the set of illustrations creating the flag. This would draw in the viewer further and allow them to interact with the image more. ·         Made my set of illustrations of the figures that make up the flag more interlocked with linking story lines or signs and symbols. Although they were from separate sources I could have made them relate to each other more. ·         Put some more shocking and dark imagery in the piece amongst the satirical figures. This would have represented the dark reality of binge drinking, the only reason it’s lacking slightly is because it was extremely difficult to gather reference images to support the drawings. ·         So another thing I would do differently would be to take more of my own photographs. This would give an originality to the work and also allow my piece to turn out with more of the dark images I intended- I could set up artificial scenes which I could depict as whichever dark scene I needed; there are few to none secondary images of these scenes. ·         I would also experiment with exploring more ideas in my sketchbook and trying out new media. I would have loved to create a print like Hogarth for this brief however as I was unsure on my final resolution I did not have enough time to carry out the print making process as it would have had to be very carefully created with so much detail. In future I would definitely attempt this though as it would create a further link to Hogarth and the parallels in his work of Beer Street and Gin Lane, and it would also enable me to create multiple sets.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
		1	2	3	4	5
Attendance						/
Punctuality						/
Motivation						/
Commitment						/
Quantity of work produced					/
Quality of work produced						/
Contribution to the group						/
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

A copy of your end of module self evaluation should be posted to your studio practice blog. This should be the last post before the submission of work and will provide the starting point for the assessment process. Post a copy of your evaluation to your PPP blog as evidence of your own on going evaluation.

Notes