February 4th, 1923 saw the birth of a baby girl who would become a fixpoint for the flower and willow world. Asakusa Yuko would be her geimei.

Growing up in a family of musicians Yuko had always been passionate about music and dancing so it seemed natural for her to enter the hanamachi of Asakusa, the ward where she was born and raised. Her mother had always encouraged her to dance and Yuko’s first stage performance at the age of 3 was her introduction to the world of performing arts. Little Yuko had just learned to walk but she was already dancing so it seemed. To learn to play the shamisen was her next endeavor and within a year of her stage debut, she was gifted the treasured instrument and she and her mother studied and played together many afternoons. But dancing was her true love and when she turned 6, Yuko started taking dance lessons.

To dance was what Yuko was born to do and as she grew older she started thinking about how she could keep dancing every day as dance classes where quite expensive and leaving a dent in her parents budget. The hanamachi was to be the answer. Yuko’s older brothers were not very fond of the idea. They wanted to see her married but Yuko’s parents consented and so her path was decided. It was hard for Yuko’s father to let her go but his daughter was happy so he helped her look for an okasan who would train her.

At just 13 years of age she joined the Shinkikunoya okiya as a Hangyoku under the name Satokiku and she would turn her collar three years later and become a tachikata Geisha at the tender age of 16. At the time Asakusa was flourishing with around 300 registered Geisha, so Yuko was working hard to stand out. But the word “hard” was never heard from her mouth and when she found a danna at the age of 20, she finally became jimae.



Geisha Yuko in 1940 with her Asakusa sisters, she is the fifth from the left in the back row.

Around this time she changed her name from Satokiku to Yuko as she was now the okasan of Shinkikunoya but she was also pregnant and her life was taking a new turn. Delighted to bring a son into the world, Yuko was always proud of being a working mother and had she ever thought of retiring, she never spoke of it and kept on dancing and playing the shamisen at ozashiki every night. Her son and her mother were her motivation to keep on working hard. And so she did, year after year…

Asakusa Yuko passed away on February 20th at age 96. The legendary Geisha still worked four days a week at ozashiki, was a shamisen teacher and had become a valuable resource of knowledge and counsel for her sisters in Asakusa. Through her 80 years of active service she has become legendary and she will be very sadly missed. May her soul dance forever.

Source: Wedge Infinity and Excite