Kamaishi’s last remaining geisha came to Hachioji: Part1

As I have written in previous articles *, my geisha mother keeps  in contact with Kamaishi’s last remaining geisha, Tsuyako.

* My geisha family went to Kamaishi in order to help that city’s last remaining geisha.
* My trip to Kamaishi

From June 26th to 28th, Tsuyako stayed in Hachioji in order to record her singing, shamisen and dance performance.

It was a special project which my geisha mother’s customer, who is the owner of a sound production company, had suggested.

On the afternoon of the 26th, she arrived in Hachioji.
My geisha mother and some of my geisha sisters went to the hotel, where she would stay, to said hello to her.
To my surprise, she came to Hachioji alone by train, in spite of her age. She brought some big bags of souvenirs.

Unfortunately that hotel doesn’t have room service, so we took some dinner for her.
That day we all had ozashiki parties, so we left the hotel soon after.

On the 27th, my geisha mother went to the hotel early in the morning to pick up Tsuyako and take her to the hair salon.
After that, we were to have a joint practice session with Tsuyako at our okiya before her recording.

Tsuyako came to our okiya and the joint practice session started.
Tsuyako and my geisha mother didn’t decide the details of the songs before the joint practice session so they improvised and decided how we would play each song and the order of the songs on the spot.
I realised how professional they were.

Tsuyako decided to combine two songs. One of those songs she had already chosen for the recording and the other was a song which hadn’t originally been chosen.
However my geisha mother couldn’t find a musical score for that song, so I called my shamisen teacher and asked him to fax the score to the okiya.
My geisha mother asked me to play that song. I became nervous. However I was glad, because I felt that my geisha mother trusted me.

After the joint practice session, we enjoyed lunch together at the okiya.
While we were eating, one geisha sister, who is the geisha mother of another okiya, wrote a  score for the Japanese flute as she dined alone.
Indeed at the joint practice session, we decided to use the Japanese flute as an accompaniment to some songs.
However we didn’t have enough time before recording.
I also realized her level of professionalism as a  geisha.

In the afternoon we moved to the recording studio and met the owner of the sound production company and his assistant.
We had reserved the recording studio until 5pm however my geisha sister, who was also playing the shamisen, had to leave before 3pm. So, we didn’t have enough time to record the whole session.

I felt my geisha mother become nervous, because if she made a mistake, we would have to start the recording again from the beginning.
Tsuyako was doing vocals, so we thought that it would be hard for her to sing again and again.
I also became nervous.

Unfortunately the sound engineer assistant was not so professional so he made some mistakes.
However he didn’t apologize.
I felt my geisha mother get angry. I thought some of the other members also felt frustration.
It was very tough for us to play the same song again and again with intense concentration.

Soon 3pm came, so my geisha sister left the recording studio.
My geisha mother said to me that the remaining shamisen players were just she and I, so I had to play the shamisen perfectly.
However I made one mistake.

After we had recorded all songs, we all were very tired.
Nevertheless I think I could experience a rare occasion to record with Kamaishi’s last geisha.