A former Maiko’s tweet accusing Geisha culture of sexual exploit of underage girls went viral.

27 comments

1. Kiyoha, 23 yo former maiko spoke up about what she went through during her days in Kyoto. She was forced to drink at the age of 16 and her geisha house owner made her take a bath with one of her customers. Most of the maiko are 15-19 yo and they aren’t allowed to have smartphones to cut out all the connections from outside. Most of them barely get paid, and even if they do it’s below minimum wage.

   Edit: I finally figured out how to post pics on this subreddit [English ver](https://imgur.com/gallery/fvDm8er)

   [Very first web article about this topic](https://unseenjapan.com/abuse-in-the-geisha-world-former-maiko-speaks-out/)

   Update: One Japanese magazine (Josei-Jishin) apparently DMed her to cover this topic! Only one so far but it feels good to see that not all the Japanese media is rotten.

2. I translated her tweets about how Maiko are treated into English ver but I am not sure where to post on reddit. Any ideas?

3. I always thought the maiko thing only stayed for historical and entertainment purposes, not actual high class child prostitution… Very disappointing to hear.

   When I heard that there’s a school for maikos that parents pay to send their children to, I assumed it’s an actual private school with extra maiko lessons, I guess that was naive of me.

4. I know the book Memoirs of a Geisha isnt the most accurate thing,but this stuff has been going on for a long time unfortunately. This needs to end,its disgusting.

5. Foreigner often say that kyoto maiko is prostitution as a joke. And japenese get angry saying it’s culture and there is nothing fishy.

   It’s just that foreigner aren’t gullible and naive as fuck (but we are when it concerns ourselves ofc) , aside people that purposely don’t want to see the darkness of society, when a job is about fresh young meat having contact with older men, even a blind can see the road and where it leads.

   Honestly just like for Hollywood and me-too I am not surprised, just like western people and especially American did a group syncope about their entertainment industry and the wake up was harsh even though we all knew but didn’t want to admit it, Japanese have the same logic concerning their cultural nightly activities.

6. Fkn disgusting.

   Unfortunately nothing will come of it unless Japanese people make a big thing of it.

7. Interesting. When is it going to come to light that most anime is socially acceptable pedophile fodder?

8. [removed]

9. “They just play cards and entertain…”

   “They just play cards and entertain old rich men… they can play musical instruments…”

   “They just drink and entertain old men… and bathe together…”

   “… there’s nothing sexual about it… it’s just cards and musical instruments!”

   “The age of consent has a 13… are you imposing modern culture on Japan!!”

10. This is horrible to read but I’m not surprised.

11. this is really disgusting!!

12. I didn’t even know maiko can be that young. It’s worse than 風俗.

13. I wonder about the safety of this girl after she posted this…

14. ~~This was a false account.~~

    ~~(not saying the maiko problem isn’t true, but “her” story was false)~~

    Sorry read some tweets of hers that seemed weird but I guess she was real.

15. For what I’ve heard the situation the maiko/geiko live in it’s quite different depeding on the tea house and the okaasan. Some are nicer and treat them well, they have smartphones and stuff. But others are very toxic/abusive places and some the girls quit pretty soon after their debut. I have met a few maikos at job related stuff and It always feels like I’m talking to a child, it’s quite creepy that all these old men find that desirable. Geikos feel more mature and I get the appeal, they can be great entertainers and they are better dancers after practicing for so many years.

16. She’s talking about something that happened at her Maiko school. Why is everyone acting like it’s automatically something that happens at ***every*** Maiko school in the country ?

17. This is a typical Geisha culture from 250yrs ago

18. No surprise here. It is well known that physically weak dudes with small d*cks are generally after underage girls.

    It’s the only way they can feel some form of ”power” over them. They could never handle a real woman.

19. That’s awful but not surprising alas…

20. Kind of like jpop schools

21. What’s the expression for something that’s more obvious than ‘open secret’?

22. I love geisha parties and yeah maikos can be cute but just allowing them to interact with customers gives me the wrong vibe… Especially because people who hire only maiko aren’t doing that because they like the make up.

    I’m disappointed but not surprised.

23. So I grew up in the Memoirs of a Geisha era, and spent a lot of time reading on the (true and romanticized) lives of them. I try to withhold judgment because cultural relativity, but I don’t believe for one second that geisha are not expected to cater sexually in some way to clients. It just does not add up, and the history is so muddy, especially pre-war, that it seems laughable to me that anyone would believe otherwise. I am absolutely open to being corrected, but it just seems like a bizarre semantic game.

24. I had dinner with a Maiko once (Mameroku) and I thought it was weird that she was drinking even though she was underage at the time (I think she’d just turned 19). I figured there probably had to be special rules for them, but I guess I was wrong?

25. Sadly, I can’t imagine a world where this ISNT the case. 16 year old girls being put in a room with numerous rich, drunk business men and expected to quite literally be beautiful and desirable?

    Are we all pretending this isn’t a perfect storm?

26. i never understood the whole thing with maikos and kamuros. it’s literally just glorified grooming and even if it’s disguised as “nothing indecent is involved they’re just entertaining guests” why are adults seeking entertainment from minors?

    a lot of countries are not without faults every country had a weird tradition that can’t fly in today’s society, but we adapted and just because we stop practicing doesn’t erase it as a tradition that existed in our history. kids don’t have to be put in danger for the sake of “keeping the tradition alive”

27. Reminder that the age of consent is still 13 there in some circumstances. This isn’t shocking, nevertheless it’s still awful