Memoirs+of+a+Geisha+News

It seems as though everyone is affected by the recent tsunami that struck Japan about a month ago. Here is a report on the geisha Chikano Fujima, age 83 that was affected by the recent tragedy:

  =Japan steel city's 'last geisha' defies tsunami =   AFP/File – Tsuyako Ito, the last working geisha in the Japanese steel city of Kamaishi, shown here on March 25, …    by Shingo Ito – Mon Mar 28, 12:21 pm ET   KAMAISHI, Japan (AFP) – Tsuyako Ito, the last working geisha in the Japanese steel city of Kamaishi, is no stranger to disaster -- having survived devastating US air raids in World War II and three major tsunamis. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"But this tsunami was the worst of all," the 84-year-old said of the monster wave that engulfed towns such as Kamaishi, along Japan's eastern coast on March 11. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The tsunami struck as Ito was preparing to go to sing and play the traditional three-stringed shamisen for guests at a luxury restaurant. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The wave gutted her house, sweeping away all the prized tools of her profession. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"Kimonos, bands, two shamisen, hair accessories -- everything has gone. How can this happen?" she said. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Home is now a futon sleeping mat in a local school gymnasium, where Ito fled with around 100 mostly elderly residents from her neighbourhood. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"But I still have my performing skills and spirit. This is my pride," she said. "Even a tsunami cannot take them from me." <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">One of Ito's earliest memories is of a natural disaster. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"My mum ran, carrying me on her shoulders, a long, long time ago in another tsunami, when I was a baby," she recalls. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">After the early brush with death, she began her geisha career at the tender age of 12 in Kamaishi, a once bustling steel city 450 kilometres (280 miles) north of Tokyo. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"I started geisha to support my family after my dad fell ill, but I found it a lot of fun," said Ito, whose geisha name is Chikano Fujima. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The spiritual home of geisha is Japan's ancient capital Kyoto, where the tradition took hold in the 18th century before spreading to other major cities. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">A skilled singer, dancer and musician, Ito used to be one of 100 or so geisha working in Kamaishi, where Japan's largest steelmaker Nippon Steel still has its furnaces. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The city was a thriving industrial hub in the post-war years but went into decline in the 1980s, as the steel mills grappled with a series of recessions and increased competition from foreign rivals. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"So all the geishas have gone now. I'm the last and only geisha left," Ito said, shrugging her shoulders, but adding: "I have no regrets in my life. My master told me work hard, so that you can have something that no one can take from you." <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">A number of her regular patrons -- nearly all far younger than her -- were among the 1,250 dead or reported missing in the city so far since a massive 9.0-magnitude quake sent the wall of water surging across the region. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">She described the tsunami as "a dreadful memory", recalling the moment when "I found a car and a dead body in my house". <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"The hardest thing was that a lot of my fans passed away," she said. "My heart was broken." <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The confirmed death toll across the entire region stood at more than 10,000 on Monday with nearly 17,000 missing and 3,000 injured. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">But despite the devastation around her, and notwithstanding the loss of her kimonos and instruments, Ito said she still has the urge to perform. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"I even want to sing and dance for everybody here (in the shelters)," she said. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">She plans to continue working until the retirement age of 88 that she had set for herself. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"I want to please everybody with my performance once the city's restoration gets under way," she said. "I want to be active. Although I have no geisha friends any more, I will still play and dance. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"And If I'm still alive in three or four years' time, when I'm 88, and if my guests still want me to perform, I'll hold my retirement performance. <span style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"Until then I will get on with my life," she added.
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