What is geisha? The loose translation is artist or artesian, but a geisha is not just an artist per se even though she is highly skilled in many forms of artistic expression such as calligraphy, music, dance, ikebana, chashitsu, among many other skills she must learn before she is perfect. The geisha is herself the art. The perfect woman. The perfect blend of all things beautiful until she herself becomes a living, breathing, moving work of art. She is everything a man desires; she is demure, she is beautiful, she is intelligent, she anticipates every need and fulfills those needs without question or without hesitation, and she does so with such remarkable grace and poise that to see a geisha move, you may think you had become lost in a dream.

There is a correlation between the spirit of geisha and submissive women. The whole idea of submission is transcending your power consensually to someone else, and with the true nature of submission being something self actualized, geisha training becomes the ideal path towards that perfect state of submissiveness. A very wise friend shared with me something truly very simple, but also something very real and true; a submissive wants to submit.

While each relationship I believe has its own boundaries and rules, the rules for geisha are far more rigid. With geisha, the power has been surrendered to something larger than any one man or woman, the surrender is to herself. When a woman accepts the spirit of geisha into her soul, she begins to unravel and unlock things about her femininity and sexuality which will bring her the highest level of pleasure by connecting her to her unrealized submissive identity. This doesn’t mean geisha or submissives are weak or weak minded, they are not. What it means is that for a true submissive, one who wants to submit, the clearest path to this level of perfection is by studying as a geisha, and by accepting the spirit of all she represents.

I had the occasion to have an email conversation recently with a Master Tatu, a sensei of kinbaku which is Japanese rope art. Some call this rope bondage, but that’s a somewhat crude description, because successful mastery of these techniques requires study, patience, and discipline. It is indeed an art. Through our conversation he invited me to his website where I discovered some written thoughts on the spirit of geisha which were originally authored by a woman named shin-san. With his permission, I am going to borrow some of those thoughts and ideas here, and hopefully expand upon them to make them my own.

A woman is a geisha in her spirit and soul long before she begins her training. It is part of who she is, part of her natural state of being. It is what gives her peace. It is in her heart, soul, and every fiber of her being, even if she is not fully aware of these things.

It is in the way she moves; with a natural grace, a ballet of motion. It can be seen in how she bows, how she enters a room, how she kneels, how she tilts her head, and how she lowers her eyes. It is in her soft spoken manner; a voice which is never raised, yet sings louder than the crane.

A geisha sees her life as a work of art, dedicated to anticipating every need even before you know you want it. It is sensual seduction expressed in the purest form.

A geisha is self sufficient, wanting nothing, being tied to no one, yet she passionately yearns to serve and fulfill your every desire.

These ideas represent the spirit of geisha. As I have explained them here, this is also how they relate to my own sexual submission. Tho true geisha do not love; they see love or any other emotion as a useless, messy waste of time, yet where I became the lazy geisha was in allowing myself to love, and dedicating this perfection, these highest ideals of submission to one man.

In Japan, the services of a geisha are expensive, as they should be. You are being entertained by a woman who has dedicated her life to her art. Geisha are not wives, they are not courtesans, nor are they prostitutes; but to possess a geisha is every man’s dream because what she represents is an ideal of feminine perfection.

As I have accepted the spirit of geisha in my own life, I have trained myself in the ways of this art, for one man. My perfection and mastery of what pleases him is my life, and I am his geisha.

My most humble thanks to Master Tatu and shin-san for providing the soil in which I could grow these seeds. Please visit Master Tatu’s website, Kinbaku Shibari D-s Arts.