February 18, 2013 • 33 mins
Okichi's story is filled with embellishment and hazy details. Sent to serve Townsend Harris, the first U.S. Consul to Japan, she was shunned after Harris left. Yet Okichi is now honored with an annual festival and has become a national symbol.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Fry and I'm stared Out, and today we're
talking about a topic that's kind of near and dear
to my heart and probably near and dear to the
(00:20):
heart of anybody who has ever studied Geisha or even
Reni Japanese culture, because it comes up a lot. I
first learned about this story in Jody Cobb's book about Geisha,
and Jody Cobb is a woman who was the only Westerner,
to the best of my knowledge, to ever be fully
indoctrinated into Geisha culture. And because in the West we
often equate geisha, we think of them as like sort
(00:43):
of high class call girls, but that's not really accurate
at all. They're really artists, kind of like Mr misperceptions
about the Ottoman Harem on those right, Like they were
really um women of great culture and really artists in
their own right and performers um And it was not
completely void of a sexual element, but that really wasn't
(01:05):
what that culture is about. And so that book really
opened the eyes, i think, to a lot of Westerners
about it, and also to the story of Okichi, who
is really one of these sort of great tragic figures
of Geisha culture. And when you told me what you
were thinking of researching I it didn't ring a bell.
(01:25):
But once I started reading about her story, I thought, oh,
of course I've heard this before. And part of that
is just because it has a strong fairy tale element
to it, except in the worst possible way. You know,
a tragic tragic story. Um, but it will probably be
familiar to a lot of listeners even if the name
(01:46):
isn't familiar right away. Yes, well, and even if the
story itself doesn't ring familiar to them, the themes of
it do, because it really is as you said, it's
it's like your classic kind of tragic romance story. Uh.
There are a lot of elements that are very common,
and that's not really accidental, will discover because a lot
(02:06):
of this is an embellished tale that you know has
grown in reputation and and the details have been fleshed
out here and there along the way, and it fellished
for romance and become another thing than it probably was.
It has, so we're gonna sort of do a classic
stuff he missed in history class, take on it. Then
and examine that story, the story that you're likely to hear,
(02:31):
the legend, the legend, and then what historical basis there
really is for it, right, the sort of less exciting
and thrilling but still interest you know, the tale um
to see how it how it changes in interpretation every year.
So for quick background, Okichi was born in December eighty
(02:55):
one in Shimoda, Japan. Her parents, the psychos, were ichibay
and his wife Marco, and they were fishermen. I mean
they were in a fishing village. Shimota is the southernmost
port city on the Easy Peninsula, so this was a
time when Japan was not open to the outside world
and that plays into this story pretty dramatically. But according
(03:18):
to the legend, which is how we're gonna kick it off,
Okeechi was incredibly beautiful and was sold into a geisha
house when she was twelve years old. And um, I
guess if you've read this, this book about sort of
the history of geisha, is that a normal age to
be entering the geisha house? Yes, I mean, and and
(03:40):
when we say she was sold into the geisha house,
that in and of itself has some connotations that sound
really bad. But for a lot of these families, having
a daughter that couldn't contribute to the work of the
day to day like needs of a fishing family, they
couldn't afford to keep those children and raise them well
and give them the things that they felt that they needed.
(04:01):
So it was really, in many impoverished family's eyes, a
better thing to be, like, go to this life of opulence,
where you will be given every she'll become a woman
of you know, great grace and beauty. Um. So, while
it sounds really creepy, and it, I mean it is,
it's unsettling to think that a family would be like,
we're going to give you to these people. Not uncommon.
(04:23):
And as far as age, I'm trying to remember because
it has been a little while since I've read that
whole book through um, but I mean I have heard
accounts of kids much younger than that, even where it's
just from the get go they kind of don't even
have the resources to really get their kids through that
early formative stage. Well, in the amount of training that
(04:44):
a gay show would have to go through it too,
you would start very early if you're learning music and
dance and things like that that take a lifetime of practice, uh,
and the bio. There's a biography about Okichi which is
all referenced in a lot of other literature about her,
called Butterfly in the Wind, and it's by Ray Knura,
(05:06):
and it's interesting because it's written very much in the
style of a novel U, So in terms of historical basis,
I question it a little bit um And she writes
a lot uh in a very prose fiction style where
she talks about the inner feelings and the inner thoughts
of of the characters of the story, where you know,
there's really probably no historical um documentation that could lend
(05:29):
sources to that, but it is a good read and
it it's fundamentally, you know, kind of a um, a
really fleshed out, in depth version of the o'keechee legend
that gets told over and over. So keep that in
mind as we go forward. As we mentioned earlier, we're
in the according to legends, And if you go off
(05:50):
to to do more research on this yourself too, and
you pick up the book and think, wait a minute,
a historical novel, Yeah, it definitely does not read as
a textbook, so it really is kind of a novelization
of the story uh, And in this book we're told
of Okichi meeting even though she is in uh in
(06:11):
the geisha culture at this point, she meets a man
Sudu Matsu. In the aftermath of a storm that hits Shimodin,
a lot of people had to evacuate, and she meets
him during that evacuation. City kind of get out of
the cloistered geisha training environment thanks to this story. Well,
and at that point she was already working as a geisha.
I can't I'm trying to remember if she was still
in the apprentice stage where she was working alongside another
(06:33):
or she had already ascended to be in her own
right fully fledged geisha. But uh, you know, in kim
what I was telling of the story, ok is troubled
because the opulence of the geisha world and this sort
of indulgence of it is very unsettling to her. She
sees it as, you know, not really how a person,
(06:54):
how a person should live, and she really dreams of
like a simpler life. She wants to be a wife
and a mother. And so when she meets Sudu Matsu,
who is very kind to her and unlike the gentleman
that she's been entertaining. He doesn't want anything from her.
He's not you know, she's not paid to make him
make conversation with him. He just wants to be with
her and care for her, and he doesn't care that
(07:15):
she had been a geisha. So she thinks all her
dreams are about to come true. Okay, though, we know
that I'm not gonna get down quite exactly as you
might think, because in eighteen fifty three, Commodore Matthew Perry
of the U. S. Navy first landed in Japan, and
by eighteen fifty four he had sailed to Okeeche's hometown,
(07:37):
Shimoda Harbor, with a varying number of chefs depending on
the account you read, which just pretty startling because that's
like a historically significant event. I mean, it's huge. But
even so, in different historical texts that are cited by
their texts, different numbers of the ships he brought, I
mean they change up in four four, and some it's
(08:00):
evan and some it's nine. But the most important part
is not the number of ships, but what he was
there to accomplish and to demand. Really, he demanded that
Japan established trade in diplomatic relationships with the US, because,
as you had mentioned earlier, Japan was a closed society
and had been where its history. Uh So this was
(08:23):
a that's a huge shift in in in world history really,
but also pretty important in Okichi's life. Yes. Uh. Now,
in some tellings of the story, the dates get real floppy. Um.
And some tellings of the story, Okeichee was seen by
(08:45):
Townsend Harris, who became the U. S. Consul in eighteen
fifties six. And so already there's something dicey there because
that's after these these treaties were being discussed. Remember this part,
this is going to be the first thing we get into,
and we're getting into some legend debunking. Yeah. So there
is one version of the story where towns and Harris
(09:07):
sees her when she's seventeen. She's leaving a bathhouse with
a friend of hers, uh, and he thinks she's quite lovely.
She doesn't interact with him during that, But then later
on people come into her life and say, by the way,
we need you because this gentleman thinks you're beautiful and
if we can give you to him, it might grease
(09:28):
the wheels of this whole negotiation process. I mean things
go a lot smoother for us because they were not
going well at all. Um. Other accounts though, have Okachee
not being seen at the bath house. All. Um, she
was chosen by government officials because exactly she'd be a
good candidate. I'm sure he'll like her. Um. So in
(09:51):
some versions too, they offer up something for her taking
on this role, and that is a job for her beloved,
who was just a ship's carpenter, you know, a very
simple sort of working man. Um. They offered to make
him a samurai, high profile, high class position. Other accounts, though,
(10:12):
say that he was just moved out of the way,
especially it was given a job in another town. Yeah,
it wasn't a here as a reward if you do this,
it's just getting him out of the way. And um
that's because depending again on accounts, they might have been engaged,
they might have even been married. He was. Accounts differs.
(10:33):
Some say they were already married, some say they were engaged,
some just say they were in love. But he seems
like a man who needed to be removed from the
equation to make it all easier. Um. And in some
cases that's told as though it was offered up as
a negotiation tactic with Okichi and Sudu Matsu, like, we
will make your lives easier financially if we can give
(10:55):
Okichi to this foreigner, and in others it's much harsher,
and they just kind of gave her to the and
they just kind of pushed him off into something else. Yeah, So, however,
that ended up going down. Treaties were signed in Shimoda
in June of eighteen fifty four. The two signers in
question where Commodore Matthew Perry for the U S and
(11:18):
Degaku Hayashi for the Shogunate. And the agreements did have
a major effect, as we keep saying on on world history.
They opened up Japan to international trade. So it seems
from our legend at least that maybe Okeechee got the
job done. Yeah, but even the job that she was
(11:42):
given is a little bit in question. Um. And also,
you know, so as a little brief sidebar, four months later,
I believe after um Matthew Perry had wrapped up his
business there there were Russian ships that also came so
right around the same time. It's not especially impactful in
(12:04):
this story, but it's interesting because it does kind of
point out how it started to Domino very rapidly that
Japan opened up to the US trades, and then there
was a Russian consulate almost immediately after that that opened
as well. So it was such a hugely shifting time
for Japan. I mean immediately after having been a close country.
(12:26):
Within five months they were trading regularly with two other countries,
already major countries. Um so Oguchi, though, did live with Harris, who,
as we mentioned, went on to become the U s
consul uh for a time. Again, depending on the story,
three years, three days, the number three seems to be
(12:47):
important for pretty pretty vast different, pretty big difference for
how long you live with somebody um and then all
sorts of versions of the legend of what she did
while she lived with him, whether she was some sort
of assassin. This is a dramatic movie version of the
tales to kill him undercover gaish i guess, but ends
(13:10):
up being loyal to him, ends up saving his life.
In other versions, she's sent to Harris by the shogunate
as a spy, so not somebody to to ease this
um this treaty negotiation at all, but to to see
what the US representatives were up to yeah, And there's
a great deal of debate and discrepancy and accounts of
(13:30):
whether or not their relationship was consummated. Um. She has
been described as his lover, as his housekeeper, as his nurse. Um.
There are people that believe that she served until the
American Consulate closed as like the local mistress for the consulate.
I mean, it's all very It goes from everything from
(13:51):
a like a chaste caring nurse to a prostitute basically
consulate prostitute, and every version in between, you know, embellish
at will apparently is how that one went. Whichever version
you like the best is the one you tell any
it is. It's a very much choose your own ending
story because it just gets um even more out there
(14:12):
too as it goes on. After Harris left Japan, Okihi
was left behind. And this is sort of the central
focus of the legend, that being left and then being
a shunned woman somebody who was called tjan okichi um
so the mistress of a foreigner, the mistress of a barbarian,
(14:36):
a derogatory name for her um. And she was basically ruined,
ye ruined from from this association, whatever it might have
been with this foreigner and the stress of being shunned
by her the people she knew her her hometown led
to a drinking habit which got very serious. Yeah, and
(14:58):
obviously her career too, as a successful geishaw was was
not going to I couldn't really just spark that back
up because she really, I mean, no one would pay
for her to come and be an entertainer at their
party because she was you know, kind of considered trash
at that point. Unfortunately, so she you know, had to
(15:21):
look for other work eventually, and some reports and the
book we mentioned to tell a story of trying to
start up hair saloon business. You know, geisha of course
have the elaborate hairstyles which signify all sorts of things
about about them too. I think Molly and Kristen did
an episode on that some time ago and step Mom
never told you. But that didn't go as planned. No,
(15:45):
it turned out that the you know, the society women
that she was hoping to draw with her knowledge were
not the ones that wanted to go there because she
was again still seen in a dark light, and so
her clientele tended to be women of ill repute, the
high class women in the town didn't want to be
(16:05):
seen and they didn't want to associate with her, which
is really really sad. But in the meantime you have
to wonder what happened to her love and some stories
never mentioned him again. They just kind of jumped to
how okeeche story ends. But in others, and this happens
in the book, they are reunited for a time Um,
but it's a very conflicted relationship. Initially when she meets
(16:29):
him again, she almost doesn't want to be with him,
like she can't quite wrap her mind around it. But
then they do strike up this relationship, but she's conflicted
consistently about dragging Sudumatsu and his business. He was a
very popular carpenter down with her disgrace, and it's very dramatic,
and it's told in various versions. There are various levels
(16:51):
of drama, but there is lots of drunkenness. There are
fights where they talk about her having hung onto the
fact that he left in the first place when the
whole deal with the console was going on Um, and
you know, it was really on a trajectory that could
never get to a positive place again. They both start
(17:13):
to develop pretty heavy alcoholism issues and Eventually, uh Todumatsu's
best friend convinces her that if she really loves him,
she has to leave him because he's not getting business
anymore because people don't want to be associated with her,
even peripherally through him. But his time is short anyway.
(17:34):
He dies a year later of a heart attack, and
o'kechi lived in Kyoto and Mishima for a time, um
possibly working as some sort of geisha in the darkest
versions of the story, as a prostitute. Um and then
finally did return to Shimoda, where she opened up a
(17:56):
restaurant she called it and show Koro, but it didn't
do well, lost money due to poor management. Um o'keechee
was not in a state to run a business. Intoxicated
a lot of the time, employees apparently stole from her.
There's one story of an employee that is fairly conscientious
(18:18):
trying to tell her like, people are stealing, don't you care,
And she's just kind of too drink to care. And
so it turns that employee where they're like, if she
doesn't care, I'm just gonna start stealing from the till
as well. Uh So you can see where that's not
really a good way to run a business. No. But
eventually though, there was kind of a change in sentiment
about her. Maybe we've been too harsh, maybe she has
(18:40):
been misjudged. But she was in debt by that point,
despairing of how her life turned out, and it didn't
do much to help her at that point. So she
died by suicide in eighteen ninety two at the age
of fifty one, by drowning herself near Shimoda. Uh. In
(19:00):
the book too, it's on March, which is right. There's
actually a strange day which you talk about a little
bit more, and it's on a different day, um And
the day in the book March, which is when the
festival actually happens in real life today um and is
touted as the day she died. In the book, that's
(19:22):
actually the day that a local priest took pity on
her because no one claimed her body initially, and after
two days he just couldn't take it, and he claimed
her and and found a place for her in his
temple to be buried. Uh. And that's the legend, which
is horribly sad, that's our legend. So she's dead at
fifty one, this tragic life living with the American Consulate
(19:45):
for our console for some number three days and having
her life spiral downward in consequence. But according to historians,
a lot of the details of that story are not
true at all, and I'm sure that's apparent just from
the discrepancy. Did she open these businesses, but we know
(20:09):
one of the businesses really arrested because the restaurant is
still there. Um. And then the very bland version that
comes up among historians is that o'kechee and another young
woman were housekeepers for hers for a very short time,
and her downwards by rolling life was not really unrelated. Yeah,
I mean, there could have been a shadow cast on
(20:31):
her reputation by things, but that it was not nearly
as dramatic as as what's often told in her story. Yeah.
So the major discrepancy though, and we told you to
remember this part, it has to do with the timeline
and the treaties, because according to the legend, Okeechee is
clearly offered up as some sort of treaty bonus work
(20:53):
out the treaty with the help of this young lady
where was a talented geisha. But she's always only linked
to towns in Harris and he actually did not get
to Japan until eighteen fifty six, so he wasn't even
there when that treaty was happening. He did work on
other treaties that came up along the way, as you know,
(21:14):
shifting politics and trade needs were addressed. Was just actually
called the Harris Treaty of eighteen fifty eight, much later
after Uh, this whole story was unfolding, and it's also
called the Treaty of Amity and Commerce. But he could
not have been offered okichi to make those initial talks go. Well, Um,
he wasn't in Japan. He wasn't there yet, he was
(21:34):
doing other things. Um. More discrepancies on the nature of
the relationship in the timeline. Um, Harris was he was
the first foreigner that lived on Japanese soil. Um. But yeah,
as we mentioned earlier, there's a one source that says
she was only there for three days and not even
until May of eighteen fifties seven. So again, nowhere near
(21:57):
when he was when the treaties were happening when he
first got there. Um. And then this one kind of
corrects my favorite you should read them, Okay. So we
told you that one possibility was that Opeechee served as
a nurse to Harris. That was the extent of their relationship.
There is a large monument in front of the main
(22:19):
building of the temple commemorating the beginning of cow milk
being consumed in Japan, and Harris supposedly was a big
milk fan. He drank a lot of milk because he
had ulcers and it helped with them, and it kind of,
in a sort of roundabout way, kind of supports the
(22:39):
nurse story, supports maybe he was a guy who needed
a nurse. And in the sort of novelized history of
her life they do there are instances where she is
asked to go get more milk because they almost can't
keep up with his need for milk. And she doesn't
really want to go out because the villagers don't like
her and they've already started to shun her, and but
she has to get milk for him, and it's it's
(23:00):
very dramatic stuff. Um, but yeah, I mean, all of
those embellishments were really developed, likely through gossip and rumor.
I mean, we know you don't have to be in
eighteen fifties Japan to love gossip. There are lots of
stories that happen in modern era just grow so outlandish
and bizarre that they couldn't possibly be true, but people
(23:20):
believe them. An okeechie story even though it, you know,
is in large part chunks of it are not true.
We're pretty sure. Um it's very very popular and it's
actually become a big thing in Shimoda. It's memorialized throughout
the city. Yeah, merchants so okeech souvenirs to tourists. There
(23:41):
are tourist attractions built around her story. UM hopeful Kuji,
which is the the temple where she was taken after
she had passed and buried. Um. It's the sixteenth century
temple and as we said, no one had claimed the body,
and a priest that knew her family took pity on
her and arrange for her to be buried there. And
(24:04):
there's also a museum there of her possessions like combs
and some of her musical instruments from when she was
a geisha. Um. But the weirdest part to me is
that her legend, and I was unable to find out
what version of the legend which was, but her legend
is relaid on a loudspeaker in both English and Japanese
for tourists, because I mean, clearly the legend loses a
(24:26):
little of its um loudspeaker appeal. If you if you're saying, well, okay,
she's sort of the say, you know, the guy might
have had ulcer. She was just delivering milk. Um. It's
a strange thing to consider. I guess if anybody has
visited this site, we would love to hear more about
what specifically is relayed over the loud speaker, what version
(24:50):
of the legend, but the most touching part of the story,
because I think that we can we can assume that
this part is true. Her beloved is buried with her there, Yes,
and again I have seen pictures. I haven't been, but
I have seen pictures of their two sites and they
are side by side. There's really no verification in any
(25:13):
sources that I found that yes, he is actually there,
or if it was just a monument erected um the
idea is lovely regardless. Uh. And then her restaurant is
also a tourist destination. Now Antokuro is um still a
restaurant on the first floor, but part of the second floor,
like one room, is dedicated as an Okichi museum. There
(25:34):
are also a lot of other Okichi items on display
at gail Kasenji, which is a Buddhist temple that became
the American consulate in eighteen fifty six, and Harris lived
in the temple for a year to making it a
pretty part of the story. Where the American Consulate in
(25:54):
Japan began was in that temple. Yeah, so the temple
displays pipes and dish is and other belongings of Harris's
as well as life size figurines of Harris and Okechi.
And this was another one where if you have been there,
we would like to have more information about well. And
there is a Time article about it where they describe
(26:16):
them as kind of ghastly, like it's a really creepy thing,
But again that's through one person's eyes. Other people may
find them very touching and romantic seeing them in person.
Almost the nicest part of this story, I think, although
again the date is a little strange if if this
is the day they choose to commemorate, but um Okeichi
(26:38):
is honored every year with the festival on March, which
is either the anniversary of her death or the anniversary
that the priest claimed her body and took her back
to the temple. Yeah, so people do remember this woman,
and she's kind of become a symbol of how, you know,
people can be victimized by the chain Jing winds of culture,
(27:01):
a symbol of that of that time. Yeah. Sure. Um.
The there's also some film adamation. There's well, there's one
called Tojino Kichi, which it was very old. I believe
it was made in the nineteen thirties, and there's only
like four minutes of surviving footage, which is like a
brief dance section, so it doesn't really tell much of
(27:22):
the story. It's literally almost watching a documentary of a
geiship performing. But there was another movie called The Barbarian
and the Geisha and it's actually starring John Wayne and
a Japanese actress named i go Ando, and it was
filmed on location in Japan, which was a big deal
when the movie came out, And it's directed by John Houston,
(27:44):
who already had established a pretty um spectacular career at
that point. I've got to this movie now. It's interesting.
It's very very interesting because like if you look at
the Rotten Tomatoes score, it's only like I think it's
fi um. But then if you look at it in
iTunes in the movie store, like there's a lot of
really good reviews of it, where some people are like,
(28:04):
I think this is the great unsung role of John
Wayne's career, but other critics will be like this was
the biggest misstep of both John Wayne and John Houston.
Like it was just it did not go over well
even though it was beautiful because it was um and
they really did do some at that point in the
fifties too, which you didn't really bring a whole crew
(28:27):
out to another country at that point. Yeah, well, I
want to see it all the more. But I mean
I couldn't help thinking just for John Wayne in his
little his robes, it's like it's worth it. I couldn't
help it think though that it's maybe time for another
adaptation of this. Yeah, it's such a compelling story. It
does seem so suitable for fiction. I mean, maybe that's
(28:51):
why the historical accounts of it seemed to be tinged
pretty strongly with with fictional elements. Um, it's one of
those stories where the historical basis is great and it's
a good kickoff point, but maybe more could happen with
it and give me a serious. Well, I kind of
(29:12):
love the idea of the gaisou spy well, and she isn't.
In the movie. She is sent as an assassin and
kind of moves into a spine roll before she becomes
they become very fond of each other and fall in love,
and it's very dramatic and you know, really kills him
to leave her behind, and it's so I guess I'm
basically requesting a spy movie, but also also a tragic
(29:36):
realmance too. I mean yeah, And because there is so
little actual documentation, it's so easy for this to be
even further embellished, have at it. Filmmakers go crazy, go crazy.
So while sad, I think it is lovely that she has,
you know, been redeemed in history. Again, we don't know
(29:58):
the value of the actuality of what happened, but as
a symbol, she's really become very important to kind of
recognize them just the ways in which people's lives are
genuinely affected by current events. And you know, when people
become pawns, it destroys lives. So it's good to have
that remembrance and have her honored in in the way
(30:21):
that she is now At the festival. So sad story,
but with sort of a happy coda to it. Yes,
I'd say, so, um, it's it's always good to have
a festival day. Do you have to have a tragic life?
At least you get a festival after festival in the
long run, and maybe another movie. Okay, So moving on
(30:46):
to listener mail today, I thought I would include some
real mail. Postcard. It is from Renata in Omaha, and
she wrote to say, ladies, I took my grand tour
of Europe before your podcast started, so now that I've
finally gone somewhere interesting again, I didn't want to miss
my opportunity to send you mail. I'm on a week
(31:07):
long trip to China for college, and I've been learning
a ton about the Dragon Lady. If you visit the
Forbidden City, you can see her summer palace, which is amazing.
I would definitely recommend a warmer month because Nato was
there in January and apparently found it rather chilly. But
that's really cool. The Dragon Lady was such a fun
(31:30):
episode to to talk about and I love it. As
I always say, when people are inspired to take trips
based on the podcast and Forbidden Cities on my boocket
list and now they have a Starbucks. So I'm covering,
really get to go. That was the one thing that
was holding you back. I have to mention too, since
(31:52):
you guys know, um, I like the stance, the international
stance that we get on the postcard. This one has
the cool This one, it's a good stamp. It's crackodiles,
I mean kind of alligators cuddling. They are kind of cuddling.
There's like a little or alligator who's resting his chin
(32:13):
in a sleepy way on the other alligator's back who's
smiling at the reader. It's quite dear. So thank you,
thank you for choosing such a good stamp on a
beautiful postcard and a lovely postcard. And I'm glad you
had fun. So if you would like to learn more
about the topic we've talked about today, you can go
to our website. Type in the word Geisha in the
search bar and you will get the article how Geisha work. Uh.
(32:36):
If you would like to contact us, you can do
so via Twitter. Yeah, on Twitter, and we're also on Facebook,
and we are at History Podcasts at Discovery dot com.
For email and uh yeah, we'll be getting an email soon.
I'd love to hear from you. And if you want
to research almost anything else you can think of, you
should do that at our website, which is how stopeworks
dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
(33:01):
Isn't how Stuff Works dot com m hm m m
m
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Fry and I'm stared Out, and today we're
talking about a topic that's kind of near and dear
to my heart and probably near and dear to the
(00:20):
heart of anybody who has ever studied Geisha or even
Reni Japanese culture, because it comes up a lot. I
first learned about this story in Jody Cobb's book about Geisha,
and Jody Cobb is a woman who was the only Westerner,
to the best of my knowledge, to ever be fully
indoctrinated into Geisha culture. And because in the West we
often equate geisha, we think of them as like sort
(00:43):
of high class call girls, but that's not really accurate
at all. They're really artists, kind of like Mr misperceptions
about the Ottoman Harem on those right, Like they were
really um women of great culture and really artists in
their own right and performers um And it was not
completely void of a sexual element, but that really wasn't
(01:05):
what that culture is about. And so that book really
opened the eyes, i think, to a lot of Westerners
about it, and also to the story of Okichi, who
is really one of these sort of great tragic figures
of Geisha culture. And when you told me what you
were thinking of researching I it didn't ring a bell.
(01:25):
But once I started reading about her story, I thought, oh,
of course I've heard this before. And part of that
is just because it has a strong fairy tale element
to it, except in the worst possible way. You know,
a tragic tragic story. Um, but it will probably be
familiar to a lot of listeners even if the name
(01:46):
isn't familiar right away. Yes, well, and even if the
story itself doesn't ring familiar to them, the themes of
it do, because it really is as you said, it's
it's like your classic kind of tragic romance story. Uh.
There are a lot of elements that are very common,
and that's not really accidental, will discover because a lot
(02:06):
of this is an embellished tale that you know has
grown in reputation and and the details have been fleshed
out here and there along the way, and it fellished
for romance and become another thing than it probably was.
It has, so we're gonna sort of do a classic
stuff he missed in history class, take on it. Then
and examine that story, the story that you're likely to hear,
(02:31):
the legend, the legend, and then what historical basis there
really is for it, right, the sort of less exciting
and thrilling but still interest you know, the tale um
to see how it how it changes in interpretation every year.
So for quick background, Okichi was born in December eighty
(02:55):
one in Shimoda, Japan. Her parents, the psychos, were ichibay
and his wife Marco, and they were fishermen. I mean
they were in a fishing village. Shimota is the southernmost
port city on the Easy Peninsula, so this was a
time when Japan was not open to the outside world
and that plays into this story pretty dramatically. But according
(03:18):
to the legend, which is how we're gonna kick it off,
Okeechi was incredibly beautiful and was sold into a geisha
house when she was twelve years old. And um, I
guess if you've read this, this book about sort of
the history of geisha, is that a normal age to
be entering the geisha house? Yes, I mean, and and
(03:40):
when we say she was sold into the geisha house,
that in and of itself has some connotations that sound
really bad. But for a lot of these families, having
a daughter that couldn't contribute to the work of the
day to day like needs of a fishing family, they
couldn't afford to keep those children and raise them well
and give them the things that they felt that they needed.
(04:01):
So it was really, in many impoverished family's eyes, a
better thing to be, like, go to this life of opulence,
where you will be given every she'll become a woman
of you know, great grace and beauty. Um. So, while
it sounds really creepy, and it, I mean it is,
it's unsettling to think that a family would be like,
we're going to give you to these people. Not uncommon.
(04:23):
And as far as age, I'm trying to remember because
it has been a little while since I've read that
whole book through um, but I mean I have heard
accounts of kids much younger than that, even where it's
just from the get go they kind of don't even
have the resources to really get their kids through that
early formative stage. Well, in the amount of training that
(04:44):
a gay show would have to go through it too,
you would start very early if you're learning music and
dance and things like that that take a lifetime of practice, uh,
and the bio. There's a biography about Okichi which is
all referenced in a lot of other literature about her,
called Butterfly in the Wind, and it's by Ray Knura,
(05:06):
and it's interesting because it's written very much in the
style of a novel U, So in terms of historical basis,
I question it a little bit um And she writes
a lot uh in a very prose fiction style where
she talks about the inner feelings and the inner thoughts
of of the characters of the story, where you know,
there's really probably no historical um documentation that could lend
(05:29):
sources to that, but it is a good read and
it it's fundamentally, you know, kind of a um, a
really fleshed out, in depth version of the o'keechee legend
that gets told over and over. So keep that in
mind as we go forward. As we mentioned earlier, we're
in the according to legends, And if you go off
(05:50):
to to do more research on this yourself too, and
you pick up the book and think, wait a minute,
a historical novel, Yeah, it definitely does not read as
a textbook, so it really is kind of a novelization
of the story uh, And in this book we're told
of Okichi meeting even though she is in uh in
(06:11):
the geisha culture at this point, she meets a man
Sudu Matsu. In the aftermath of a storm that hits Shimodin,
a lot of people had to evacuate, and she meets
him during that evacuation. City kind of get out of
the cloistered geisha training environment thanks to this story. Well,
and at that point she was already working as a geisha.
I can't I'm trying to remember if she was still
in the apprentice stage where she was working alongside another
(06:33):
or she had already ascended to be in her own
right fully fledged geisha. But uh, you know, in kim
what I was telling of the story, ok is troubled
because the opulence of the geisha world and this sort
of indulgence of it is very unsettling to her. She
sees it as, you know, not really how a person,
(06:54):
how a person should live, and she really dreams of
like a simpler life. She wants to be a wife
and a mother. And so when she meets Sudu Matsu,
who is very kind to her and unlike the gentleman
that she's been entertaining. He doesn't want anything from her.
He's not you know, she's not paid to make him
make conversation with him. He just wants to be with
her and care for her, and he doesn't care that
(07:15):
she had been a geisha. So she thinks all her
dreams are about to come true. Okay, though, we know
that I'm not gonna get down quite exactly as you
might think, because in eighteen fifty three, Commodore Matthew Perry
of the U. S. Navy first landed in Japan, and
by eighteen fifty four he had sailed to Okeeche's hometown,
(07:37):
Shimoda Harbor, with a varying number of chefs depending on
the account you read, which just pretty startling because that's
like a historically significant event. I mean, it's huge. But
even so, in different historical texts that are cited by
their texts, different numbers of the ships he brought, I
mean they change up in four four, and some it's
(08:00):
evan and some it's nine. But the most important part
is not the number of ships, but what he was
there to accomplish and to demand. Really, he demanded that
Japan established trade in diplomatic relationships with the US, because,
as you had mentioned earlier, Japan was a closed society
and had been where its history. Uh So this was
(08:23):
a that's a huge shift in in in world history really,
but also pretty important in Okichi's life. Yes. Uh. Now,
in some tellings of the story, the dates get real floppy. Um.
And some tellings of the story, Okeichee was seen by
(08:45):
Townsend Harris, who became the U. S. Consul in eighteen
fifties six. And so already there's something dicey there because
that's after these these treaties were being discussed. Remember this part,
this is going to be the first thing we get into,
and we're getting into some legend debunking. Yeah. So there
is one version of the story where towns and Harris
(09:07):
sees her when she's seventeen. She's leaving a bathhouse with
a friend of hers, uh, and he thinks she's quite lovely.
She doesn't interact with him during that, But then later
on people come into her life and say, by the way,
we need you because this gentleman thinks you're beautiful and
if we can give you to him, it might grease
(09:28):
the wheels of this whole negotiation process. I mean things
go a lot smoother for us because they were not
going well at all. Um. Other accounts though, have Okachee
not being seen at the bath house. All. Um, she
was chosen by government officials because exactly she'd be a
good candidate. I'm sure he'll like her. Um. So in
(09:51):
some versions too, they offer up something for her taking
on this role, and that is a job for her beloved,
who was just a ship's carpenter, you know, a very
simple sort of working man. Um. They offered to make
him a samurai, high profile, high class position. Other accounts, though,
(10:12):
say that he was just moved out of the way,
especially it was given a job in another town. Yeah,
it wasn't a here as a reward if you do this,
it's just getting him out of the way. And um
that's because depending again on accounts, they might have been engaged,
they might have even been married. He was. Accounts differs.
(10:33):
Some say they were already married, some say they were engaged,
some just say they were in love. But he seems
like a man who needed to be removed from the
equation to make it all easier. Um. And in some
cases that's told as though it was offered up as
a negotiation tactic with Okichi and Sudu Matsu, like, we
will make your lives easier financially if we can give
(10:55):
Okichi to this foreigner, and in others it's much harsher,
and they just kind of gave her to the and
they just kind of pushed him off into something else. Yeah, So, however,
that ended up going down. Treaties were signed in Shimoda
in June of eighteen fifty four. The two signers in
question where Commodore Matthew Perry for the U S and
(11:18):
Degaku Hayashi for the Shogunate. And the agreements did have
a major effect, as we keep saying on on world history.
They opened up Japan to international trade. So it seems
from our legend at least that maybe Okeechee got the
job done. Yeah, but even the job that she was
(11:42):
given is a little bit in question. Um. And also,
you know, so as a little brief sidebar, four months later,
I believe after um Matthew Perry had wrapped up his
business there there were Russian ships that also came so
right around the same time. It's not especially impactful in
(12:04):
this story, but it's interesting because it does kind of
point out how it started to Domino very rapidly that
Japan opened up to the US trades, and then there
was a Russian consulate almost immediately after that that opened
as well. So it was such a hugely shifting time
for Japan. I mean immediately after having been a close country.
(12:26):
Within five months they were trading regularly with two other countries,
already major countries. Um so Oguchi, though, did live with Harris, who,
as we mentioned, went on to become the U s
consul uh for a time. Again, depending on the story,
three years, three days, the number three seems to be
(12:47):
important for pretty pretty vast different, pretty big difference for
how long you live with somebody um and then all
sorts of versions of the legend of what she did
while she lived with him, whether she was some sort
of assassin. This is a dramatic movie version of the
tales to kill him undercover gaish i guess, but ends
(13:10):
up being loyal to him, ends up saving his life.
In other versions, she's sent to Harris by the shogunate
as a spy, so not somebody to to ease this
um this treaty negotiation at all, but to to see
what the US representatives were up to yeah, And there's
a great deal of debate and discrepancy and accounts of
(13:30):
whether or not their relationship was consummated. Um. She has
been described as his lover, as his housekeeper, as his nurse. Um.
There are people that believe that she served until the
American Consulate closed as like the local mistress for the consulate.
I mean, it's all very It goes from everything from
(13:51):
a like a chaste caring nurse to a prostitute basically
consulate prostitute, and every version in between, you know, embellish
at will apparently is how that one went. Whichever version
you like the best is the one you tell any
it is. It's a very much choose your own ending
story because it just gets um even more out there
(14:12):
too as it goes on. After Harris left Japan, Okihi
was left behind. And this is sort of the central
focus of the legend, that being left and then being
a shunned woman somebody who was called tjan okichi um
so the mistress of a foreigner, the mistress of a barbarian,
(14:36):
a derogatory name for her um. And she was basically ruined,
ye ruined from from this association, whatever it might have
been with this foreigner and the stress of being shunned
by her the people she knew her her hometown led
to a drinking habit which got very serious. Yeah, and
(14:58):
obviously her career too, as a successful geishaw was was
not going to I couldn't really just spark that back
up because she really, I mean, no one would pay
for her to come and be an entertainer at their
party because she was you know, kind of considered trash
at that point. Unfortunately, so she you know, had to
(15:21):
look for other work eventually, and some reports and the
book we mentioned to tell a story of trying to
start up hair saloon business. You know, geisha of course
have the elaborate hairstyles which signify all sorts of things
about about them too. I think Molly and Kristen did
an episode on that some time ago and step Mom
never told you. But that didn't go as planned. No,
(15:45):
it turned out that the you know, the society women
that she was hoping to draw with her knowledge were
not the ones that wanted to go there because she
was again still seen in a dark light, and so
her clientele tended to be women of ill repute, the
high class women in the town didn't want to be
(16:05):
seen and they didn't want to associate with her, which
is really really sad. But in the meantime you have
to wonder what happened to her love and some stories
never mentioned him again. They just kind of jumped to
how okeeche story ends. But in others, and this happens
in the book, they are reunited for a time Um,
but it's a very conflicted relationship. Initially when she meets
(16:29):
him again, she almost doesn't want to be with him,
like she can't quite wrap her mind around it. But
then they do strike up this relationship, but she's conflicted
consistently about dragging Sudumatsu and his business. He was a
very popular carpenter down with her disgrace, and it's very dramatic,
and it's told in various versions. There are various levels
(16:51):
of drama, but there is lots of drunkenness. There are
fights where they talk about her having hung onto the
fact that he left in the first place when the
whole deal with the console was going on Um, and
you know, it was really on a trajectory that could
never get to a positive place again. They both start
(17:13):
to develop pretty heavy alcoholism issues and Eventually, uh Todumatsu's
best friend convinces her that if she really loves him,
she has to leave him because he's not getting business
anymore because people don't want to be associated with her,
even peripherally through him. But his time is short anyway.
(17:34):
He dies a year later of a heart attack, and
o'kechi lived in Kyoto and Mishima for a time, um
possibly working as some sort of geisha in the darkest
versions of the story, as a prostitute. Um and then
finally did return to Shimoda, where she opened up a
(17:56):
restaurant she called it and show Koro, but it didn't
do well, lost money due to poor management. Um o'keechee
was not in a state to run a business. Intoxicated
a lot of the time, employees apparently stole from her.
There's one story of an employee that is fairly conscientious
(18:18):
trying to tell her like, people are stealing, don't you care,
And she's just kind of too drink to care. And
so it turns that employee where they're like, if she
doesn't care, I'm just gonna start stealing from the till
as well. Uh So you can see where that's not
really a good way to run a business. No. But
eventually though, there was kind of a change in sentiment
about her. Maybe we've been too harsh, maybe she has
(18:40):
been misjudged. But she was in debt by that point,
despairing of how her life turned out, and it didn't
do much to help her at that point. So she
died by suicide in eighteen ninety two at the age
of fifty one, by drowning herself near Shimoda. Uh. In
(19:00):
the book too, it's on March, which is right. There's
actually a strange day which you talk about a little
bit more, and it's on a different day, um And
the day in the book March, which is when the
festival actually happens in real life today um and is
touted as the day she died. In the book, that's
(19:22):
actually the day that a local priest took pity on
her because no one claimed her body initially, and after
two days he just couldn't take it, and he claimed
her and and found a place for her in his
temple to be buried. Uh. And that's the legend, which
is horribly sad, that's our legend. So she's dead at
fifty one, this tragic life living with the American Consulate
(19:45):
for our console for some number three days and having
her life spiral downward in consequence. But according to historians,
a lot of the details of that story are not
true at all, and I'm sure that's apparent just from
the discrepancy. Did she open these businesses, but we know
(20:09):
one of the businesses really arrested because the restaurant is
still there. Um. And then the very bland version that
comes up among historians is that o'kechee and another young
woman were housekeepers for hers for a very short time,
and her downwards by rolling life was not really unrelated. Yeah,
I mean, there could have been a shadow cast on
(20:31):
her reputation by things, but that it was not nearly
as dramatic as as what's often told in her story. Yeah.
So the major discrepancy though, and we told you to
remember this part, it has to do with the timeline
and the treaties, because according to the legend, Okeechee is
clearly offered up as some sort of treaty bonus work
(20:53):
out the treaty with the help of this young lady
where was a talented geisha. But she's always only linked
to towns in Harris and he actually did not get
to Japan until eighteen fifty six, so he wasn't even
there when that treaty was happening. He did work on
other treaties that came up along the way, as you know,
(21:14):
shifting politics and trade needs were addressed. Was just actually
called the Harris Treaty of eighteen fifty eight, much later
after Uh, this whole story was unfolding, and it's also
called the Treaty of Amity and Commerce. But he could
not have been offered okichi to make those initial talks go. Well, Um,
he wasn't in Japan. He wasn't there yet, he was
(21:34):
doing other things. Um. More discrepancies on the nature of
the relationship in the timeline. Um, Harris was he was
the first foreigner that lived on Japanese soil. Um. But yeah,
as we mentioned earlier, there's a one source that says
she was only there for three days and not even
until May of eighteen fifties seven. So again, nowhere near
(21:57):
when he was when the treaties were happening when he
first got there. Um. And then this one kind of
corrects my favorite you should read them, Okay. So we
told you that one possibility was that Opeechee served as
a nurse to Harris. That was the extent of their relationship.
There is a large monument in front of the main
(22:19):
building of the temple commemorating the beginning of cow milk
being consumed in Japan, and Harris supposedly was a big
milk fan. He drank a lot of milk because he
had ulcers and it helped with them, and it kind of,
in a sort of roundabout way, kind of supports the
(22:39):
nurse story, supports maybe he was a guy who needed
a nurse. And in the sort of novelized history of
her life they do there are instances where she is
asked to go get more milk because they almost can't
keep up with his need for milk. And she doesn't
really want to go out because the villagers don't like
her and they've already started to shun her, and but
she has to get milk for him, and it's it's
(23:00):
very dramatic stuff. Um, but yeah, I mean, all of
those embellishments were really developed, likely through gossip and rumor.
I mean, we know you don't have to be in
eighteen fifties Japan to love gossip. There are lots of
stories that happen in modern era just grow so outlandish
and bizarre that they couldn't possibly be true, but people
(23:20):
believe them. An okeechie story even though it, you know,
is in large part chunks of it are not true.
We're pretty sure. Um it's very very popular and it's
actually become a big thing in Shimoda. It's memorialized throughout
the city. Yeah, merchants so okeech souvenirs to tourists. There
(23:41):
are tourist attractions built around her story. UM hopeful Kuji,
which is the the temple where she was taken after
she had passed and buried. Um. It's the sixteenth century
temple and as we said, no one had claimed the body,
and a priest that knew her family took pity on
her and arrange for her to be buried there. And
(24:04):
there's also a museum there of her possessions like combs
and some of her musical instruments from when she was
a geisha. Um. But the weirdest part to me is
that her legend, and I was unable to find out
what version of the legend which was, but her legend
is relaid on a loudspeaker in both English and Japanese
for tourists, because I mean, clearly the legend loses a
(24:26):
little of its um loudspeaker appeal. If you if you're saying, well, okay,
she's sort of the say, you know, the guy might
have had ulcer. She was just delivering milk. Um. It's
a strange thing to consider. I guess if anybody has
visited this site, we would love to hear more about
what specifically is relayed over the loud speaker, what version
(24:50):
of the legend, but the most touching part of the story,
because I think that we can we can assume that
this part is true. Her beloved is buried with her there, Yes,
and again I have seen pictures. I haven't been, but
I have seen pictures of their two sites and they
are side by side. There's really no verification in any
(25:13):
sources that I found that yes, he is actually there,
or if it was just a monument erected um the
idea is lovely regardless. Uh. And then her restaurant is
also a tourist destination. Now Antokuro is um still a
restaurant on the first floor, but part of the second floor,
like one room, is dedicated as an Okichi museum. There
(25:34):
are also a lot of other Okichi items on display
at gail Kasenji, which is a Buddhist temple that became
the American consulate in eighteen fifty six, and Harris lived
in the temple for a year to making it a
pretty part of the story. Where the American Consulate in
(25:54):
Japan began was in that temple. Yeah, so the temple
displays pipes and dish is and other belongings of Harris's
as well as life size figurines of Harris and Okechi.
And this was another one where if you have been there,
we would like to have more information about well. And
there is a Time article about it where they describe
(26:16):
them as kind of ghastly, like it's a really creepy thing,
But again that's through one person's eyes. Other people may
find them very touching and romantic seeing them in person.
Almost the nicest part of this story, I think, although
again the date is a little strange if if this
is the day they choose to commemorate, but um Okeichi
(26:38):
is honored every year with the festival on March, which
is either the anniversary of her death or the anniversary
that the priest claimed her body and took her back
to the temple. Yeah, so people do remember this woman,
and she's kind of become a symbol of how, you know,
people can be victimized by the chain Jing winds of culture,
(27:01):
a symbol of that of that time. Yeah. Sure. Um.
The there's also some film adamation. There's well, there's one
called Tojino Kichi, which it was very old. I believe
it was made in the nineteen thirties, and there's only
like four minutes of surviving footage, which is like a
brief dance section, so it doesn't really tell much of
(27:22):
the story. It's literally almost watching a documentary of a
geiship performing. But there was another movie called The Barbarian
and the Geisha and it's actually starring John Wayne and
a Japanese actress named i go Ando, and it was
filmed on location in Japan, which was a big deal
when the movie came out, And it's directed by John Houston,
(27:44):
who already had established a pretty um spectacular career at
that point. I've got to this movie now. It's interesting.
It's very very interesting because like if you look at
the Rotten Tomatoes score, it's only like I think it's
fi um. But then if you look at it in
iTunes in the movie store, like there's a lot of
really good reviews of it, where some people are like,
(28:04):
I think this is the great unsung role of John
Wayne's career, but other critics will be like this was
the biggest misstep of both John Wayne and John Houston.
Like it was just it did not go over well
even though it was beautiful because it was um and
they really did do some at that point in the
fifties too, which you didn't really bring a whole crew
(28:27):
out to another country at that point. Yeah, well, I
want to see it all the more. But I mean
I couldn't help thinking just for John Wayne in his
little his robes, it's like it's worth it. I couldn't
help it think though that it's maybe time for another
adaptation of this. Yeah, it's such a compelling story. It
does seem so suitable for fiction. I mean, maybe that's
(28:51):
why the historical accounts of it seemed to be tinged
pretty strongly with with fictional elements. Um, it's one of
those stories where the historical basis is great and it's
a good kickoff point, but maybe more could happen with
it and give me a serious. Well, I kind of
(29:12):
love the idea of the gaisou spy well, and she isn't.
In the movie. She is sent as an assassin and
kind of moves into a spine roll before she becomes
they become very fond of each other and fall in love,
and it's very dramatic and you know, really kills him
to leave her behind, and it's so I guess I'm
basically requesting a spy movie, but also also a tragic
(29:36):
realmance too. I mean yeah, And because there is so
little actual documentation, it's so easy for this to be
even further embellished, have at it. Filmmakers go crazy, go crazy.
So while sad, I think it is lovely that she has,
you know, been redeemed in history. Again, we don't know
(29:58):
the value of the actuality of what happened, but as
a symbol, she's really become very important to kind of
recognize them just the ways in which people's lives are
genuinely affected by current events. And you know, when people
become pawns, it destroys lives. So it's good to have
that remembrance and have her honored in in the way
(30:21):
that she is now At the festival. So sad story,
but with sort of a happy coda to it. Yes,
I'd say, so, um, it's it's always good to have
a festival day. Do you have to have a tragic life?
At least you get a festival after festival in the
long run, and maybe another movie. Okay, So moving on
(30:46):
to listener mail today, I thought I would include some
real mail. Postcard. It is from Renata in Omaha, and
she wrote to say, ladies, I took my grand tour
of Europe before your podcast started, so now that I've
finally gone somewhere interesting again, I didn't want to miss
my opportunity to send you mail. I'm on a week
(31:07):
long trip to China for college, and I've been learning
a ton about the Dragon Lady. If you visit the
Forbidden City, you can see her summer palace, which is amazing.
I would definitely recommend a warmer month because Nato was
there in January and apparently found it rather chilly. But
that's really cool. The Dragon Lady was such a fun
(31:30):
episode to to talk about and I love it. As
I always say, when people are inspired to take trips
based on the podcast and Forbidden Cities on my boocket
list and now they have a Starbucks. So I'm covering,
really get to go. That was the one thing that
was holding you back. I have to mention too, since
(31:52):
you guys know, um, I like the stance, the international
stance that we get on the postcard. This one has
the cool This one, it's a good stamp. It's crackodiles,
I mean kind of alligators cuddling. They are kind of cuddling.
There's like a little or alligator who's resting his chin
(32:13):
in a sleepy way on the other alligator's back who's
smiling at the reader. It's quite dear. So thank you,
thank you for choosing such a good stamp on a
beautiful postcard and a lovely postcard. And I'm glad you
had fun. So if you would like to learn more
about the topic we've talked about today, you can go
to our website. Type in the word Geisha in the
search bar and you will get the article how Geisha work. Uh.
(32:36):
If you would like to contact us, you can do
so via Twitter. Yeah, on Twitter, and we're also on Facebook,
and we are at History Podcasts at Discovery dot com.
For email and uh yeah, we'll be getting an email soon.
I'd love to hear from you. And if you want
to research almost anything else you can think of, you
should do that at our website, which is how stopeworks
dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
(33:01):
Isn't how Stuff Works dot com m hm m m
m
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