Newbie Here! Nice to meet ya!

General
#1

Hi, my name is Peniel, but my friends call me baka Chi lol or just Chi for short. I am a very strange girl which I guess is a good thing, otherwise I probably wouldn’t be here on Bachido. Besides all of the weird things that I like, I have been in love with all things Japanese since discovering it in middle school. I was (and still am) especially drawn to geisha and maiko. Heck, for the longest time I wanted to be one! But according to my research of the tradition, that chance is slim to none because of my non-japanese heritage. I then was lucky enough to email the the only non-japanese to ever become a geisha! She told me that the only way my chances would even be slim was to learn everything I could that is required of a geisha. So I took up Japanese in high school, unfortunately the teacher was horrible so I didn’t learn much. So I decided to move on to the next thing until I could find a better teacher. The next thing would be to learn shamisen. I was already in love with the instrument anyway. I had been listening to the Yoshida Brothers and Rin’ (just to name my favorites). And now here I am. I hope to make a home and plenty of friends here at Bachido :slight_smile:

P.S. Sorry my post is so long!

#2

Chi,
On behalf of everyone here at Bachido, WELCOME!
This is truly an exciting community to join if you are interested in Japanese Culture and especially it’s music and instruments. Please join our many conversations and feel fee to share any cool experiences you may have as you travel your path and grow through music etc.

#3

Hello, Chi!!! Welcome to Bachido! Your choice of coming to Bachido was quite reasonable and a good decision.
By the way I am a Japanese member of Bachido who lives in Japan all the time.

#4

Oh dude, this post slipped by me before answering your other post.

Irashaimase and Welcome~!!

As Kevin has so eloquently put it; please do feel free to jump in and join us all for discussions and sharing of cool findings/experiences.

The best to you~

#5

Hello hello!

Welcome to Bachido :slight_smile:

#6

Thanks for all of the wonderful welcomes! Im so excited to be here and I can’t wait to get my first shamisen. I hope that I can become good friends with everyone! I will make sure to depend on everyone for any advice I need :slight_smile:

#7

Belated welcomes ^.^

#8

Thank you!

#9

Hi, Chi! I have lived in Japan for 35 years, studying nagauta shamisen and also the drums that often accompany nagauta. Through my teacher, I have met some geishas and even performed with some! My avatar picture shows Minako-nesan the last geisha of Yoshiwara. She was about 89 when that pic was taken, and she passed away a few years ago. Nagauta is a good base for learning about the geisha world. they also frequently perform other genres like kouta, tokiwazu and kiyomoto, but there are not as many teachers of these genres. Another possibility is classical Japanese dancing. Is there no Japanese community in Indianapolis? You might be able to find a teacher of dance and/or music if you contact a large university. Anyway, good luck, and feel free to ask me anything!

#10

How amazing! To perform with geisha would be a heavenly blessing! Just to meet one would be almost too much for me to bear. I wish I could live in Japan and try to get closer to their world and hopefully become a part of it. I fear I’ll die before I have chased or succeeded in this dream.

But unfortunately, Indianapolis doesn’t have a Japanese community nor very many exchange programs that I have access to. I have wanted to study so many geisha related art forms but unfortunately there are no teachers here and we barely have a Japanese population at all!

Anyway, I’ll try the university idea. And I will certainly ask you questions. Would you mind private messaging with me about all of your experience(s) with geisha and the flower world?

© 2020 Kyle Abbott