Second Life Geisha Gardens: Get your Geisha On

by Tenshi Vielle, Fabulous Fashionista

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting a place in Second Life via Cherry Tokyo called the Geisha House. If you wish to experience a great, culturally subversive build in second life, definitely check this place out.  When I teleported in, I was immediately amazed with the build, but what was even better were the costumes, props, and mannerisms of the Geisha who were performing that afternoon. Pre-scripted dances and objects along with seamless avatar control allowed for a wonderful, distracting, enchanting performance.

I had a brief interview with the proprietor, Ayumi Khorana, after the performance.

Did you create this build? How long did it take, and what was the inspiration?
I started work on Waterfront Japan in December 2006, the very first thing I made was the old bridge and pathway up to the Geisha House.  How long is a piece of string, it isn't finished yet so its difficult to say how long did it take, but with the original Geisha House I guess it was opened just before Christmas 2006. The style, the culture, the clothing all of these things were part of the inspiration.

How long as the Geisha House been around in Second Life?
This Geisha House opened around Christmas 2006, I believe but don't know for sure that it was one of the first, It is certainly one of the most long lived as we see other houses come and go regularly.

What is required to become a Geisha here?
I have a simple motto that can be seen on some of the boards around the house. 'Honesty & Honour' that is all I expect of the Geisha that work here. Too many people in SL have no respect for the people they meet here and due to the secret identity nature of everything they do seem prepared to happily play dirty tricks and do evil deeds to each other. To be a Geisha here takes 'Honesty & Honour' thats all I require.

How often do you (re: the geisha) perform?
We have regular scheduled performances every thursday and sunday at 12 noon PDT and with the recent appointment of Minna Kurka as performance manager I'm hoping we will have a few more unscheduled performances advertised too.

How authentic do you become with the performances?
The authenticity of what we do is governed in the most part by the quality of the dance animations, the sound of the instruments we play and of course the look of the kimono's, hair and skin that we wear. I'm not sure how totally authentic each part is on its own but for me and for most of our visitors the total adds up to something that has the look and feel of a genuine Geisha Performance.

What is the general public response to this area?
Most certainly it is a positive response, I am always receiving IM's from people who are just looking around saying how much they like it here. The Geisha Performances have a lot of regular visitors who come week after week to see us.

On a general note I believe that our Geisha House is fairly unique in SL in that 1. It is not combined in any way with some sort of brothel and 2. No charges are made to become a Geisha or Maiko here. All of us do this because we enjoy it and everything is funded by donations from our visitors.

Make time to visit the Geisha House in Second Life for their performances, Thursdays and Sundays at 12:00pm SLT.

Comments

[Kahni Poitier]

Very, very cool. I'll be visiting shortly.

[Aluviel Nakamura]

Dont forget the fabulous shopping at Ayumi's Waterfront Japan!!
Diverse Shops for all your needs!

[Maria Leveaux]

I had a similar Idea some Time Ago got the Sim kiyoshi, but it never panned Out. I'm delighted that someone has Put forward the True meaning of what it is to be Geisha

Maria.

[Second Lulz Vigilante]

Only a few comments so far to this article. Mainly because it has no muckraking or cybersex. Anything even remotely artistic or truly philosophical is wasted on the average SLer.

[Katiroth]

Definitely a lovely article, I have to visit that place soon. Thank you for covering this!

[Tenshi Vielle]

@Second Lulz: Was that as close to a compliment as you can get?

[Second Lulz Vigilante]

@Tenshi Vielle

I could probably get closer. But my mood is kind of sour thanks to my kids in RL. They've been complete savages this weekend.

[Tenshi Vielle]

@ Second Lulz: I can relate. >_>

[SqueezeOne Pow]

AWESOME!! I've been hoping something like this would come around someday!

I find it offensive (broadly, even) when you look up Geisha and see it listed with BDSM, callgirls and all that shit. It shows those people's absolute ignorance and disrespect for legitimate culture.