Of all the points of entry into gravure, we are well used to women side-stepping into the industry from other jobs like music idols, fashion models, ring girls, race queens, and convention booth companions. But geisha?! Rino (莉乃) is a 22-year-old from Shizuoka who moved to Kyoto at 16 to become a maiko, or apprentice geisha. She worked in the old capital as a maiko in the Miyagawacho district until the age of 20. She has now made her debut in the rather less glamorous but more modern world of gravure with a shoot for Weekly Friday. And in a very competitive industry in which new idols ...

While Japan is always keen to promote its traditional culture to the world, the truth about it is sometimes complex and not altogether positive. Geisha are one of the most iconic images associated with Japan, especially Kyoto. But in very simplistic terms, geisha were and remain not so different from modern-day hostesses in that they get paid to entertain patrons who were/are typically male, older, and wealthy. There is, of course, still a culture of geisha today in places like Kyoto. One ex-trainee geisha (known as a maiko) has caused a stir by sharing some of the more unsavory facts about ...