Kikuya

Kikuya (菊弥) was the very first named female geisha, recorded at Fukagawa in the 1740’s. She was reputed to be “good at playing the shamisen and singing”. Given the career path of other young women of her day, she probably started work as an odoriko, a dancing girl, in her early teens, and transitioned to being a geisha when she turned 16 or 17 and could no longer wear the long hanging sleeves that were essential to odoriko.