I thought you guys might like to see this beauty...

**bparnell75** · October 24th, 2017, 10:35 AM

I agree it reminds me of plenty of tangles

**Chromis** · October 24th, 2017, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by Rockin' Gramma

Those are beautiful! Where did you find them? What fun it would be to go to a hair forks/hair ornaments museum exhibit from historical to modern times.

I take a lot of pictures of hair things in museums, have always meant to start a thread for them or see if we had one already

Once you start noticing them, they are everywhere!

**TatsuOni** · October 24th, 2017, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by twill

My understanding is that maiko (apprentice geisha) have their hair done with their natural hair, whereas full geisha favor elaborate wigs. I was under the impression that geisha had their hairstyles done with their natural hair around the time this hair ornament was made, however. I could be wrong.

That's correct

**twill** · October 24th, 2017, 11:37 AM

There wasn't any additional info on these two ginkgo leaf hair sticks, but I thought they were fabulous:

Also, I saw this piece and thought it was possibly Japanese, but it was actually designed by a well-known Russian jeweler.

**twill** · October 24th, 2017, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by Chromis

I take a lot of pictures of hair things in museums, have always meant to start a thread for them or see if we had one already

Once you start noticing them, they are everywhere!

Yep! I've been noticing them more often myself... some of them are quite fantastic.

Originally Posted by TatsuOni

That's correct

Good - I thought for certain that I had read that they did, but I couldn't find any reliable info on it in a quick search to try and confirm it. Most of the info out there is on modern geisha, who pretty much always use wigs nowadays.

**twill** · October 24th, 2017, 12:01 PM

Japanese hair ornaments, such as the crane fork, are called kanzashi. I'd forgotten the specific name. (As it happens, I realize now that I have a LOT of modern kanzashi on my Pinterest boards...) I found this page, which has a list of common geisha hairstyles:
https://www.japanpowered.com/japan-c...dance-shamisen

One of the kanzashi I have pinned: Wisteria hair stick
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/74/51/ba/7...176b3266db.jpg

**TatsuOni** · October 24th, 2017, 01:05 PM

Maikos usually wear more eye catching clothes, make up and hair ornaments, while geisha's (geikos in Kyoto) mostly wear less colorful and eye catching stuff. Though geishas dress up more too, during dance performances and other special events.

A maikos hair ornaments changes with the months and seasons and there's different flowers and colors for every month. http://geisha-kai.tumblr.com/post/10078549192

And beautiful pics OP

I wouldn't more

**Chromis** · October 24th, 2017, 01:15 PM

Gentle mod reminder - super love seeing these but please put pictures that are not yours in regular links rather than hotlinking them here, Thanks!

**twill** · October 24th, 2017, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by TatsuOni

Maikos usually wear more eye catching clothes, make up and hair ornaments, while geisha's (geikos in Kyoto) mostly wear less colorful and eye catching stuff. Though geishas dress up more too, during dance performances and other special events.

A maikos hair ornaments changes with the months and seasons and there's different flowers and colors for every month. http://geisha-kai.tumblr.com/post/10078549192

And beautiful pics OP

I wouldn't more

Yup! The kimonos change with the seasons, too. There's also a difference in hair ornaments between very young maikos and senior maikos. The young maikos tend to wear the showy sprays of white or red flowers. There's a very interesting article I came across here (mostly accurate, minus the section about mizuage and possibly dannas - geisha did indeed sometimes go through mizuage but the practice died out about 100 years ago - no point in trying to whitewash it; Liza Dalby, who did her research back in the 1970's, mentions meeting some old geisha who went through it as young girls. As for what the article says about geisha no longer having dannas, I'm not sure I believe that; Dalby mentions in her book that the Tokyo - or Kyoto, I don't remember - geisha were very independent; if the article's author has only had experience with geisha from those regions, that would explain why she thinks the tradition of having dannas/patrons is defunct. It could very well be defunct in the regions she visited. Another factor being that as Asia becomes more Westernized, wives are less tolerant of their husbands being geisha dannas) that about halfway through mentions the makeup differences and how to spot tourists pretending to be geisha: https://iamaileen.com/understand-jap...-maiko-define/
https://iamaileen.com/wp-content/upl...rls-facts3.jpg
https://iamaileen.com/wp-content/upl...keup-hair3.jpg

Originally Posted by Chromis

Gentle mod reminder - super love seeing these but please put pictures that are not yours in regular links rather than hotlinking them here, Thanks!

Gotcha!