Mizuage, Officially, Isn’t What It Used To Be
When a maiko is around twenty years old and has proven her skills, she is ready to become a geiko, a full geisha. To mark this transition, she undergoes a ceremony, called erikae, or “turning of the collar,” today. Historically, however, the coming of age event, called ‘mizuage,’ is a momentous occasion marked by changing her maiko’s collar.
Maiko removed the embroidered red collar and replaced it with a white one to indicate her more mature status. She visited the tea houses and her benefactors to hand out gifts and announce her new status, much like she did when she became a maiko. The mizuage is a geisha’s graduation, a rite of passage from innocent apprentice to grown woman. But according to a hushed legend, for geisha in the pre-World War II era, this transition from maiko to geiko came with a very heavy price.
