ye you are right! When i think about it its just changed not got worse!

true, through out the centuries all hanamachi's have changed in some ways. like from candel light to electricity.... from very hard to join/ train to easier to join/train.....

Ye...well we cant stop change! I guess its a good thing!

yes,of course,otherwise we wouldn´t have EVOLUTION

But these changes must be for a better level.In terms of hanamachi,i always read that the artistic quality is not as good as in the past.I can´t speak for myself because i´m not a client,i just imagined that,as some people has already said in this thread,to be less restricted doesn´t mean to fall the standarts.According to what i´ve been reading in the web,unfortunally,it has been in this way .

i think it may also have to do with the fact that, beofre girls more often then now, were born into that life, or started to train at younger ages. since the traditional age to start training was 6 years 6 months and 6 days.thats a big factor to me that these girls haven't been training since they were young children. they were training since they were teenagers. and beofre they would have a few years to train and practise beofre their debut. now the girls only get 10-13 months training beofre they have their debut.

10-13 months? where?

I´ve always read that maikos take around 5 years to debut

editing grammar mistake

I have learnt the same sakamoto-san but i thought it was like 3 years nowadays! Toshi-san, are you sure?


Anyway.....I think it makes it harder too because ofcourse the okasan's of the okiya dont let a girl join untill she has finished secondary school! So they dont have as much time as they used to!


About the debut thing, i think that it used to be years but now it has shortened to so little.

Maybe,but the interested girls could have dance classes,shamisen classes as well as any other required classes,while attempiting secondary school.

i heard the same as toshi-san, 10-13 months is the average time, after they joined an okiya as a shikomi. 3-5 years is the maiko-time i think ^_^

but i think it is essential that the girls have learned an instrument, traditional dance or something like that before and the girls have to have talent. or the shikomi-time must be very hard O_o

Yep! I change! I just read over aload of my books and i agree with toshi-san too! I think i was thinkin about the time a maiko takes or something....i just confuse myself alot!

lol, yeah, i ment 10-13 months now training as shikomi, compared to the olden days when you would start training when you were like 6, and then debut when you were 12 give or take a few years.

oh, i just wish i was part of it though!!!

Ye. Alot of people think it would be a easy life-style, but really, they have no idea hoe hard it is!!