Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. AN AUSTRALIAN woman has become the first Westerner to be allowed to enter the mysterious world of Japan's geisha. Fiona Graham, ...

KYOTO, Japan — On the quiet streets of Kyoto you will get a glimpse of them. Dressed in Kimono. The familiar white makeup. Walking quickly. That is the extent of what most people see of a geisha.

Geisha training is unglamorous, routine work day in and day out. Photo / Getty Images Mentor fully understands how difficult it is to raise today's young girls to full-fledged maiko. In the geisha ...

The woman, originally from Melbourne and now going only by her professional name Sayuki, first came to Japan at the age of 15 on a school exchange programme. True to tradition, Sayuki won't reveal her ...

It's an unlikely job for a white girl from Melbourne, Australia. Fiona Graham is the first ever fully trained non-Japanese geisha. She entered the unusual line of work - a 400-year-old tradition - ...

With her perfectly lacquered hair, painted face and a submissive demeanor meant to please the men she entertains, the Japanese geisha has the reputation of being a lady of uncertain morals. Delicate, ...

The powerful image of the geisha - scarlet lips across an alabaster-white painted face, a glossy black wig and ornate kimono - has been associated with Japanese culture since the 17th century. Yet, ...

Westerners think they know all about geishas, those delicate Japanese women with their virgin milky white faces accented by a jarring pop of red lipstick, their feet sitting in clacking wooden sandals ...

Arthur Golden’s 1997 novel “Memoirs of a Geisha” is an addictive read: an involving, almost Dickensian tale of a young woman’s rise from poverty in a fishing village to fame as a Kyoto geisha in the ...