The Master’ Gaze on Women in Hanamachi

Our latest series is titled “The Masters’ Gaze on Women in Hanamachi.” The focus this time is on women working in “Hanamachi”—where various forms of pleasures were provided by women—in many different capacities, some as prized and gifted entertainers, others as proprietress of tea houses, and yet some others as call girls.

Emergence of Hollywood film Memoirs of Geisha (05) has made more people than ever being interested in the exotic world of geisha. But long before it attracted international attention, masters of Japanese cinema had been fascinated by the geisha world, with its rich drama, its ups and downs in life, and its condensed relationships.

This film series will be accompanied by a lecture by TSUNEISHI Fumiko (Film Curator, National Film Center).