Mizuage
Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:Nihongo3 was a ceremony undergone by apprentice Template:Transliteration (Template:Transliteration) and some Template:Transliteration (apprentice geisha) as part of their coming of age ceremony and graduation.
For Template:Transliteration, who had often already lost their virginity, a patron would pay for the exclusive privilege of being a new Template:Transliteration's first customer;<ref name="Yoshiwara">Template:Cite book</ref> for Template:Transliteration who underwent Template:Transliteration, it formed part of a number of ceremonies and occasions used to mark graduation into geishahood, including symbolic changes in hairstyle and official visits to benefactors. Before the outlawing of prostitution in Japan, Template:Transliteration who underwent Template:Transliteration would see patrons and benefactors bid large sums of money for the privilege of taking their virginity, a sum of money the Template:Transliteration (the geisha house an apprentice was affiliated to) would take entirely.
In the present day, a Template:Transliteration's graduation is known as Template:Nihongo3, and is entirely non-sexual, though some older sources – such as the autobiography of Mineko Iwasaki, the geisha that inspired the character Sayuri in the novel Memoirs of a Geisha by author Arthur Golden refer to the non-sexual graduation of Template:Transliteration to geishahood as Template:Transliteration.<ref name="Iwasaki">Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Transliteration, and courtesans as an extension, exist in a wholly non-sexual capacity in modern-day Japan; Template:Transliteration re-enactment parades are performed by actors, and Template:Transliteration perform their profession's traditional arts without the inclusion of sex work. In both capacities, the Template:Transliteration of both Template:Transliteration (who are merely actors in a parade) and Template:Transliteration (for whom the role is a profession) do not engage in sex work as part of a 'graduation' out of apprenticeship.
History
Template:Transliteration has been long connected with the loss of virginity of a Template:Transliteration,<ref name="Ditmore">Template:Cite book</ref> because some Template:Transliteration did undergo ceremonies to lose their virginity.<ref name="Dalby Geisha">Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Transliteration for a Template:Transliteration would also include monetary sponsorship by the Template:Transliteration patron, intended to support and promote the Template:Transliteration's debut to geisha status. Through this sponsorship of the apprentice, a patron would essentially purchase the right to take the Template:Transliteration's virginity.<ref name="Yoshiwara"/> The Template:Transliteration patron would often have no further relations with the young woman in question.<ref name="Dalby Geisha"/>
In the modern day, Template:Transliteration is a contentious issue, both within the geisha communities of Japan and elsewhere. The practice was outlawed following the introduction of the Anti-Prostitution Law in 1956, categorised under the "traffic in human flesh". Many geisha who came of age before the passing of the law went through the experience of Template:Transliteration, and though most geisha had no choice in the patron who took their virginity, with some instances of geisha being sold more than once,<ref name="Downer">Template:Cite book</ref> the practice of Template:Transliteration formed an important initiation into womanhood and the role of an independent geisha; according to the research of anthropologist Liza Dalby, though this process was generally not pleasant, for many, it was perceived as a natural stage in growing up, with trainees in the same age cohort who had not graduated viewed by their peers as having been somewhat left behind.<ref name="Institution of">Template:Cite thesis</ref>
Post-1956
Mineko Iwasaki, former high-ranking Gion geisha, detailed her experience of Template:Transliteration in her autobiography, Geisha, a Life. Describing her experience of graduation to geishahood with the term Template:Transliteration, Iwasaki described her experience as a round of formal visits to announce her graduation, including the presentation of gifts to related geisha houses and important patrons, and a cycle through five different hairstyles before graduating.<ref name="Iwasaki"/> This set of graduation experiences is generally referred to as Template:Transliteration in the modern day.
Dalby relays the change between pre- and post-1956 attitudes to Template:Transliteration within the geisha community through her first-hand accounts with the geisha mothers of Ponto-chō:
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All modern Template:Transliteration and geisha have full control over their personal choices regarding sex, and most Template:Transliteration begin training, attending banquets, and interacting with customers aged 18 – though they may start living at the Template:Transliteration as a Template:Transliteration (maids) for a few years before graduation to Template:Nihongo3 and then Template:Transliteration status.
Though customers attending geisha parties and banquets generally expect some level of convivial and low-key flirtation, a Template:Transliteration is likely to be considered off-limits as a younger and more vulnerable participant to such gatherings. Template:Transliteration are instead treated with generosity by guests cognisant of their relative inexperience at geisha parties.<ref name="Dalby Geisha"/>
In literature
Arthur Golden's novel Memoirs of a Geisha portrays Template:Transliteration as a financial arrangement in which a girl's virginity is sold to a "Template:Transliteration patron", generally someone who particularly enjoys sex with virgin girls, or merely enjoys the charms of an individual Template:Transliteration.
Former geisha Sayo Masuda describes Template:Transliteration in her 1957 autobiography Autobiography of a Geisha as sexual exploitation. Masuda describes being sold multiple times by her Template:Transliteration to men, ostensibly for the purposes of taking her virginity, under the pretence that she had not yet lost it. The transaction was explicitly a sexual arrangement, far removed from the ceremony of graduating into geishahood, netting the Template:Transliteration a large profit. Despite her personal experiences, Masuda argued against the outlawing of sex work in Japan, explaining that it provided a way for women to make an independent living when chosen as a profession, and through criminalisation, would merely be driven underground.