Geisha reflection post

Yukina moved from northern Japan to Koyoto in order to follow dream of being a geisha. Before this, the young woman had never lived in a big city; this was also the first time she lived away from home. I was shocked that it was her first time away from home and that she was willing to quit school in order to take chance at becoming a geisha. I was also surprised that she aspired to be a geisha based upon a woman she had seen on television. She lives in geisha house in the older district of Koyoto. At the beginning of the process, Yukina looks forward to a long time before she can meet customers; she must also and respect the elder girls of the house by doing choirs and other things for the girls. It was interesting to learn how the hierarchy exists and functions within the geisha house. Maiko is the term describing a trainee geisha; these trainees endure four months of no contact with family and friends, which seems a harsh way to prove one’s dedication to a house. Furthermore, I found it fascinating that there is designated big sister for the trainee in order to help and mentor them which shows the sempai to kohai relationship in this part of Japanese society. Yukina must learn how to serve tea and all the small things that go along with that art form of being a geisha. I was surprised at the depth of rules and idea of what is graceful during the serving of tea. Although many Japanese had never met a maiko or understand what it means to be a member of this profession, the image of the geishas is tainted by old traditions of selling virginity.

If she passes the test of becoming a geisha, she will be paying back her house for her training for the first 5 years. She is given a new name for her work and new lifestyle; Yukina is given the name of Kikuyu; she didn't have any say in her name as her housemother picked it out for her.  Moving away has made her distant with her own real sister, who is jealous of her ability to go out and try to accomplish what she wants. The idea of perfection in movement of dance, along with the amount of money and effort that goes into getting dressed for a party, was pretty shocking, furthermore, the sacrifices that these girls are willing to make and having to decide that at such young age is rather surprising. The fact that this lifestyle must make it very hard to have romantic life with someone would also be hard for the potential geishas. A geisha is committed to her big sister for life and this relationship is compared to bride and groom. This surprised me, as I had never heard about this aspect of geisha culture before. She now is representative of her big sister and must work hard to maintain both of their reputations. This seems to be lonely lifestyle, at least during their maiko study. Her friends are even unsure of the rules surrounding sex geisha and show how, although part of Japanese culture, their rules are not well known by the population.

She passes her exam and has to deal with the stress of missing home and not being able to talk to her family.  She is now allowed to go out entertaining with her sisters. The white make up of the geishas stems from the use of candle light in that the white acted a reflector for the light.  It takes about 2 hours them to get ready in order to go out. Formal presentation to the Koyoto Society as maiko is a very important event in the life of the geisha and was very significant for Kikuyu.

movie reflection: departures

Emmett Moore

Reaction to movie: Departures

This movie is about young man who is living with his wife in Tokyo, Japan. The man is named Daigo Kobayashi and he works by playing a cello in orchestra that is until the orchestra, that he is working for is disbanded. This happens just after he purchases a very expensive cello that is on the same level that the pros use and now he must find a way to continue to make the large payments on the cello. This leads him to move back home to small town, where his mother raised him after his father left them. He is embarrassed about losing his position in the orchestra and ashamed about by going into debt over the cello that he had hastily bought after joining the orchestra, he also feels that he lacked the talent and ability to continue that career. So when he moves back to the town he is ashamed to tell the people, he knows what actually had happened to him. This shows the shameful nature in Japan if one does not succeed at chosen path and how he really has trouble dealing with this issue for most of the movie.  Also the idea of moving home in order to live in his old home was something that I was able to connect too but that will often happen here in the united states as well if this kind of situation occurs to someone. I think the same sense of failure would be felt by anyone who didn’t accomplish all that they hoped for in the career path only to have it cut short. Daigo then must find work in the town in order to pay of his debt and support him and his wife, they move into his mothers old home and he begins his job search. He finds a job ad in the paper entitled departures, which led him to believe that it was travel agency. When it actually is a job as encoffineer, who help prepare the dead and take care of the ceremony this is semi-taboo profession and is culturally shunned by the Japanese. I think this also true in the united states that the death profession is seen as off-putting and is uncomfortable talk in western culture for the most part. Although I don’t think we have the same reaction as the Japanese because we do not have their sense of clean versus dirty which this profession some what conflicts with due to its inherent nature, of cleaning and preparing the dead. Although the profession does allow him to see the more emotional side of people in a culture that has sometimes trouble-expressing emotions helps him to untangle his own complicated feelings about his life. When he first accepts the job and his wife finds out she leaves to go stay with her parent but after some time returns to him and begins to understand why he chose to continue with it. When his father dies his mentor allows him to bring one of his best caskets for his father, which was great honor to give to daigo, and really shows how close they have come from their experiences together.  I think this movie does great job of showing how death is extremely difficult for Japanese people to deal with but in the end that they are able to overcome the grief and how that experience changes them.

reaction paper # 2

Reaction paper #2                    Emmett Moore

We have cover many topics so far in the class this semester, so I am going to talk about what intrigued me most and was also new information for me and something that I had not know about before taking this class. I was surprised to learn at how the Japanese business structure works and the organization and idea behind large Japanese corporations who often have very strong loyalty to their employees. This stems from the fact that wages in japan increase more with the longer the person has been employed by the company and not always for skill, which I find very surprising compared to the western business model of role advancement which is primarily based upon skill level and education of an employee. Although this would help to explain the amount of loyalty the company receives from their employees, also the fact that these companies are often close groups of friends in some sense, since much business is conducted in formal dinning settings with other employees after work, which helps to create a more informal bond between employees. These companies also often provide many other benefits to their long-term employees including pensions, bonuses, hobby clubs, and even housing, thus becoming a key structure in their social lives as well. These companies there for have large to play in Japanese society and are often seen as the focus of many their own lives.

This leads me into my next topic I was surprised in learning about is how the education system works in japan and the amount of pressure but on children in japan to study and perform well on test that often determine their life paths in many senses. Its through these exams that children are able to gain entry to the schools of japan are used through out most grade levels in order to determine placement and ranking thus these test often define where a student can go to school. So a lot of importance is put on study for these exams not only in school but also in school after a school just for test taking, which is called cram school, which most of the students will partake in, in order to do better on the exams. This means there is not a lot of time for other activities and often puts large amounts of pressure on students to do well from their family and themselves. This can result in breakdowns some of which have been violent in the past; Japan is currently dealing with one of these issues stemming from the stress of the exams system. Its called Hikikomori which is were a person will lock themselves in their room and refuse to leave, I was quite shocked by this because although we do have loners in our society, I don’t not think this is as common in the west as in japan where new social services have popped up in order to deal with the issue. Many believe it stems from the stress that the exams system puts on trouble and I would have to say I would agree. It seems that student life in japan would be very competitive and time consuming all to prepare for test that might not accurately define ones ability but will decided their path in education which is a major factor in over all life quality in japan stems from their level of education and where. This is also true in the united states but too a lesser degree I believe, although it does benefit people to go to certain schools in order to gain access to certain programs or internship tend to have easier time is not always defined but what school you went too and the grades you received there. Which allows for mobility in the United States after school is over then I feel one would have in japan after schooling is over.