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Updated: June 14, 2025
She had been taught how to conduct herself under almost any possible circumstances; for what she could not have known Kimika knew everything about: the power of beauty, and the weakness of passion; the craft of promises and the worth of indifference; and all the folly and evil in the hearts of men. So Kimiko made few mistakes and shed few tears.
The story of the first Kimiko belongs to the last class. It is not one of the most extraordinary; but it is one of the least difficult for Western people to understand. There is no more Ichi-dai-me Kimiko: she is only a remembrance. Kimika was quite young when she called that Kimiko her professional sister. "An exceedingly wonderful girl," is what Kimika says of Kimiko.
It was a family quarrel between the scions of Kiyowara Takenori, a magnate of Mutsu who had rendered conclusive assistance to Yoshiiye in the Nine-years' War; and as a great landowner of Dewa, Kimiko Hidetake, took part, the whole north of Japan may be said to have been involved.
Other geisha grew into fame, but no one was even classed with her. Some manufacturers secured the sole right to use her photograph for a label; and that label made a fortune for the firm. But one day the startling news was abroad that Kimiko had at last shown a very soft heart.
He was an only son and his parents, wealthy and titled people, were willing to make any sacrifice for him, even that of accepting a geisha for daughter-in-law. Moreover they were not altogether displeased with Kimiko, because of her sympathy for their boy. Before going away, Kimiko attended the wedding of her young sister, Ume, who had just finished school. She was good and pretty.
But what she had foretold came true ; for time dries all tears and quiets all longing; and even in Japan one does not really try to die twice for the same despair. The lover of Kimiko became wiser; and there was found for him a very sweet person for wife, who gave him a son. And other years passed; and there was happiness in the fairy-home where Kimiko had once been.
There were exceptions, of course. One old man, who thought life not worth living unless he could get Kimiko all to himself, invited her to a banquet one evening, and asked her to drink wine with him. The kitten became a fashionable mania, a craze,-a delirium, one of the great sights and sensations of the period.
Kimiko had made the match, and used her wicked knowledge of men in making it. She chose a very plain, honest, old-fashioned merchant, a man who could not have been bad, even if he tried. Ume did not question the wisdom of her sister's choice, which time proved fortunate.
Kimika is the teacher and mistress: she has educated two geisha, both named, or rather renamed by her, Kimiko; and this use of the same name twice is proof positive that the first Kimiko Ichi-dai-me must have been celebrated. The professional appellation borne by an unlucky or unsuccessful geisha is never given to her successor.
To win any renown in her profession, a geisha must be pretty or very clever; and the famous ones are usually both, having been selected at a very early age by their trainers according to the promise of such qualities Even the commoner class of singing-girls must have some charm in their best years, if only that beaute du diable which inspired the Japanese proverb that even a devil is pretty at eighteen . But Kimiko was much more than pretty.
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