Geisha, traditional Japanese artist-entertainers.

Geisha is a traditional Japanese artist-entertainer and one of a symbol of Japanese culture. They entertain customers through several of performances, for example, singing, dancing and playing instruments. ‘Gei' means arts or performances, and ‘Sha’ means people in Japanese. Geisha were most popular in the 18th and 19th centuries in Japan.

There are two basic types of geisha. One is called “tachikata” who mainly do traditional Japanese dance (mai). The other is called “jikata” who mainly sing or play instruments.

On December 5,2009, Geisha in Awara Onsen (hot spring) area in Fukui held a special event for the tourist to make them familiar with Geisha performance. Geisha in Awara Onsen have more than 120 year-old history. It uses to be very popular and there were more than 250 Geisha. However, now the number decreased grammatically up to 20, because people lifestyles have been changed.