98 Year Old Geisha

Pictures of Kokin graced newspapers across Japan after her 98th birthday this year.

But Kokin wasn't too thrilled with the festivities focused on her age, for she is a geisha, elegant entertainers of traditional music and dance usually feted for their grace and pretty looks.

"I was given a red blanket and cushion, but I've put them away somewhere," Kokin told Reuters in an interview, referring to the gifts traditionally given to the elderly.

"It was mortifying," added Kokin, her small frame wrapped in an olive-green kimono with a pink sash and her hair styled.

Her hands wrinkled and her hearing faltering, Kokin nonetheless takes pride in being Japan's oldest practicing geisha, preserving a tradition which is fast losing its popularity in the modern age of hostess clubs and karaoke.

Born Kayo Kaburaki on September 24, 1909, Kokin became an apprentice geisha as a young teenager in Tokyo and almost quit not long into her career at the time of World War Two.

"When I became a geisha, the war intensified. I thought of quitting and marrying someone, but he was sent to Sumatra.

"He never came back."

Since then she has worked hard, training in music and dance during the day and livening up dinner parties at night.

Contrary to perceptions that geishas are prostitutes, they are entertainers trained in classical arts who also pamper the elite by pouring sake and engaging in witty conversation.

Long ago, she recalls, geishas were the object of constant affection among men with the aesthetic ideal of "iki", which included playfulness, who hired the entertainers by the time it took for an incense stick to burn out.

"I would be cooling myself on a bench in the summer with nothing to do, and someone would ask me if I was free and offer to pay for one incense stick.

"People would ask for me, even if it was just for an hour."