The Waiting Years....Fumiko Enchi (What about the male geisha??)

The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi:  Close read of page 20, paragraph 2, Zenko’s thoughts about Tomo

Zenko, a male geisha, when confronted with the task of finding a suitable concubine for Tomo’s husband Shirakawa, feels notable disdain for Shirakawa; “Privately, he was wondering with disgust just what part of the provinces had produced the kind of man who would have his legal wife search for a concubine for him.”  However, he did not hold the same disdain for Tomo. 

To better understand this passage, and much of the sexual complexity of this book, I investigated male geishas and geishas in the late nineteenth century in general.  Geishas were originally men; they got their start as taikomochi (or houkan), or feudal attendants.  To the feudal lords of Japan, these men were dancers, storytellers, tea ceremony experts, and even military strategists.  Eventually, as war became less common, these men needed to find work elsewhere and they became entertainers, kind of the “warm-up act” for popular courtesans of the time.  Courtesans entertained their customers by singing, dancing, playing music and reading poetry; some also indulged clients with sex.  The taikomochi that entertained clients of courtesans would come to be known as “geisha”.  To make a long story short, since women are traditionally more popular with men, and men in Japan were the patrons of these establishments, the male geisha eventually became nearly extinct.  (To read more about it, visit www.tofugu.com/2012/12/03/how-women-ruined-the-lives-of-male-geisha-everywhere/)

In researching the geisha, I found out that since very early on in Japanese history, men were not expected to be faithful to their wives.  “Pleasure Houses” were filled with licensed “entertainers”; prostitution was illegal outside of these establishments.  Some of these women would sell sexual favors, some would only entertain through singing and dancing and such, and some were specifically for platonic companionship.  Historically, if a Japanese man wanted sexual enjoyment or romantic attachment they did not go to their wives; they visited the pleasure houses.  The Japanese wife was the spouse that took care of the children and the household, not her husband’s love life. (Look up “geisha” on Wikipedia for more info and a timeline of geisha history.)

When Zenko met Tomo, it was a time of change for Japan and the geisha; they were both witnessing the slow transformation and eventual death of traditions and Zenko and Tomo shared that feeling of “pride” at following closely to the “old ways” no matter how awkward.  The discomfort caused Zenko by Tomo’s husband having her find his concubine is only temporary as Zenko is probably no stranger to arranging these relationships.  Tokyo culture hadn’t completely surrendered to looking down on men being publicly unfaithful to their wives and this instance was the ‘same old, same old’ just done in a different way.  In a way, they also shared the turmoil of watching their roles change; Zenko was in a profession that was becoming women-centric, while Tomo was about to face a change in her role in her home and with her relationship with her husband.