![]() It was originally used by male warriors and proved popular in the era of cavalry, as the shape and length of the naginata made it convenient for unseating opponents on horseback. Naginata is a type of sword that is slightly hooked on the end and has a long handle. Lesbian overtones and feminine eroticism are said to be elements that attract the mostly female audience to Takarazuka. It can be said that this is what holds women captive to the beautiful and graceful world born in the Takarazuka.” This is because they are played by those who know a woman’s feelings best. “The male roles are able to be portrayed so well and with so much affection specifically because they are portrayed by women, fascinating and charming the female audience. The Takarazuka Revue website explains it thus: Women playing men’s parts, called itokoyaku, is the very appeal of Takarazuka. The Takarazuka Revue Company is the only performance troupe in the world where all the performers are women. The president of Hankyu Railways, Ichizo Kobayashi, was trying to bring in more business to Takarazuka, the city at the end of the train line. This all-female musical performance and theater was created in 1913 in the form of the Takarazuka Music School, its aim of which was to offer an alternative to kabuki theater. “Geishas are not submissive and subservient,”according to Iwasaki Mineko, in her book Geisha, A Life, “but in fact they are some of the most financially and emotionally successful and strongest women in Japan, and traditionally have been so.” ![]() There are, however, special deals for tourists that make the geisha more accessible since the exclusive world of these entertainers requires an introduction and other stipulations. Unfortunately, the chance to see these performing artists is rare these days as they command a high price and most people cannot afford to be in their company. These skilled entertainers which can still be found in Kyoto’s Gion district and outside of Tokyo in Atami, are educated and refined in the Japanese arts of dance, music, games and conversation. Japan’s geisha hardly need an introduction, as they are plastered on book covers, postcards and souvenirs everywhere. In addition to everyone’s favorite, the geisha, we introduce the world’s only all-female revue, naginata swords for women, itako female fortune-tellers and the mysterious naked sea nymphs: the ama pearl divers.Īmazon, University of Wisconsin Chazen Museum of Art In this article, we introduce five strictly female Japanese arts, a couple of which you may have never heard of before. Only later did Japan develop its own form of calligraphy which is still practiced today by both sexes. Calligraphy was brought over from China and both men and women practiced by copying Chinese letters. Still today many masters in these two disciplines are men. ![]() But tea ceremony and ikebana had connections to Buddhism and were started in Japan by Buddhist priests. Following that, most people might guess tea ceremony, ikebana (flower arrangement) or calligraphy. If asked which traditional Japanese arts are female-only, the first thing that comes to mind for most foreigners is probably geisha.
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