She spent the day visiting more than 100 tea houses, restaurants and the homes of senior geisha. "Throughout my training, I never got any extra help or breaks because I'm a foreigner.

Greater equality between the sexes, the high costs associated with training and financially supporting a geisha -- up to $100,000 a year -- are among the factors in the decline of their numbers.

The history of geishas stretches back nearly 400 years. Scott Swan meets one geisha who says she's the first white woman in Japanese history to join the tradition.

Schemes are unveiled, fans are unfurled and accusations are hurled as Chiyo becomes a young woman, changes her name and begins her geisha training.

Geisha training is unglamorous, routine work day in and day out. Photo / Getty Images Mentor fully understands how difficult it is to raise today's young girls to full-fledged maiko. In the geisha ...

Several other women anthropologists and journalists, have written about the geisha world from the inside, but none has undergone the rigorous training required for the organisation that oversees ...

Graceful: Miss Graham underwent basic training in the tea ceremony, dancing and music - specialising in the bamboo flute - before debuting as a geisha in 2007 under the name Sayuki ...

The mystery of the Geisha remains as alluring, and deeply complex, as when the ladies first came into existence 400 centuries ago.

Geisha with maiko experience have higher status than those without it. During the five years of maiko training, the young women return the money they earn (from tips) to the house.

The geisha training proposal, which will cost the local government an estimated £43,000, aims to reverse the city's dramatic decline of its geisha population – a problem replicated across much ...