Jan Bardsley is Professor Emerita of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of Maiko Masquerade: Crafting Geisha Girlhood in Japan (University of California Press, 2021); Women and Democracy in Cold War Japan (SOAS Studies in Modern and Contemporary Japan, Bloomsbury, 2014); and The Bluestockings of Japan: New Women Fiction and Essays from Seitō, 1911-1916 (University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 2007) for which she was awarded the 2011 Hiratsuka Raichō Award by Japan Women’s University. She is co-editor with Laura Miller of Manners and Mischief: Gender, Power, and Etiquette in Japan (University of California Press, 2011) and Bad Girls of Japan (Palgrave, 2005) andJan Bardsley is Professor Emerita of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of Maiko Masquerade: Crafting Geisha Girlhood in Japan (University of California Press, 2021); Women and Democracy in Cold War Japan (SOAS Studies in Modern and Contemporary Japan, Bloomsbury, 2014); and The Bluestockings of Japan: New Women Fiction and Essays from Seitō, 1911-1916 (University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 2007) for which she was awarded the 2011 Hiratsuka Raichō Award by Japan Women’s University. She is co-editor with Laura Miller of Manners and Mischief: Gender, Power, and Etiquette in Japan (University of California Press, 2011) and Bad Girls of Japan (Palgrave, 2005) and co-producer/director with Joanne Hershfield of the documentary, Women in Japan: Memories of the Past, Dreams for the Future (2002). T...more
Learning about maiko customs takes us to many delightful Japanese things and their charming uses. Like the maiko’s thoughtful “stroke of a pen” notes that build friendships in the hanamachi.
In her book Maiko Manners, Kyoko Aihara emphasizes how training by her arts teachers and her okiya mother develops the maiko’s poise. The apprentice also learns ways to use pretty Japanese products common in t