For out of character discussions

Hello, might I presume there will be a thread for a geisha house once that becomes relavant to the game?

In reply to Himawari Yamanoyuki (msg # 2):

Girls. Welcome to the game.
Tremendously excited to introduce geisha to the remote village of Akiwakawa. I think what would be fun is that you are entrepreneurial and start the okiya yourself. That way, you can shape it to your liking and we can learn by creating. At this time the village is hurting so your services is definitely something this community needs.

If sounds fun, here are some viable locations:

The bar/ inn:
Pros
- Got everything you need
- Good existing foot traffic

Cons
- The owner has prejudices towards geisha
- Need to prove yourselves as economically viable
- (Bar) Get very rowdy also the townhouse
- (Inn) Owner believes in omen - you would need to do odd favours to win her trust

The theatre
Pros:
- Empty and desperate for custom so less economic pressure
- Bigger space

Cons
- Would need to source liquor and help
- Bar is going to get annoyed
- Run-down


There are infinite locations that I can assign pros and cons too if there's another location you would prefer to set up shop.
@Asa I recommend following Yamanoyukisan's venture to fulfil your objectives but both of you feel free to walk around the village and meet folks at your leisure - just message a location and I will create a thread.

I actually have a few ideas for the okiya.

Since the Sengoku period was a time of financial desperation due to over-taxation, I imagine that many families would be selling their daughters to the okiya. Therefore, it would have to be run by a very wealthy "mother" and be rather large, probably just on the outer edges of Akiwakawa. The geisha and maiko could also be frequently hired as entertainment for parties at daimyos' estates, which would give them some work and training opportunities as well as the options you provided.

In reply to Himawari Yamanoyuki (msg # 4):

All sounds very sensible and how things would have ran.
Here's the thing: Akiwakawa is a small remote village rather than castle town.

I invite you to talk to the locals and setup a small operation at the local inn or theatre that could expand upon success but a pre-existing geisha house with all the outlined infastructure is something you would need to build towards.

In reply to Storyteller (msg # 5):

Fair enough, perhaps Himawari could be from a neighboring village and building an okiya in Akiwakawa could be more of a retirement plan then. For now, she and a small handful of other geisha and maiko could try their luck at the theater.

Wonderful. I cannot wait to explore your motives in RP. I will create a theatre thread this eve but feel free to also checkout the inn to explore your options.

Few ground rules before we start
- At this point, don't worry about post-order
- If your necessary for story and idle for 2 days, I will control you as NPC
- If you need to duck out of the game, no worries! But a courtesy to me would be good
- I will write OOC in orange
- Some characters will dismiss you, persevere or work out how to appease them
See you in the theatre

Hello hello :)

Asa is definitely not from the area and will need accommodation - either at some inn or at the house of some local big shot.

In reply to Asa (msg # 9):

Hi Asa,
Thanks for joining.
Let's start at the theatre and move from there.

Welcome to the game Naoji!

Hi Naoji! :)

Hello. Nice to meet you.

Well met, maiko from a nearby village here.

Me, I'm an oiran exiled from the capital. Wondering how did a theater find its way out here.

Hi Asa, great question.
It sounds like Himawari Yamanoyuki has entered the theatre so I'll put a description of the insides in the thread but for RP context I've taken the definition of theatre as a place  where lectures/plays and other performances are given rather than what a conventional theatre would look like - if that makes sense? There will be someone in the RP you can direct questions these questions too but for RP think of "big (and in this case decrepit) hall"

I was going to point out that Kabuki hadn't been invented at the time this game took place and neither was Bunraku-- even Noh theater wasn't in his finalized form.

But some sort of Noh theater existed as far back as the 12th-13th century. I suppose that just means that the more annoying aspect of Noh which Kabuki was pretty much a complete counter to was nearly, but not fully manifested.

By which I mean-- the whole thing that makes Noh theater "noh" or skillful is that they try to tell the story with as little movement and action as possible as well as no words except in the musical accompaniment and even that doesn't really express a story much. In fact-- if you don't already know the story, it's almost impossible to enjoy noh as anything but kind of ironically.

Also Noh stories tend to be very, very traditional tales-- it limits itself to a fairly small set of mythological and historical stories for the most part.

So earlier theater traditions almost certainly used more action, dialogue and narration to tell their story.

Kabuki was an entire counter-cultural movement to that, started in Kyoto by a woman named O-Kui, and the Kabuki performances-- being a counter to Noh-- use a lot of over-exaggerated physical movements, plenty of dialogue and the stories are generally fiction or, perhaps at times, historically inspired fiction. But O-Kuni's performances won't begin until a whole decade after our game is set.

That was the main reason I went with a courtesan instead of a kabuki actress, which would have been my first choice. But that's interesting, I had her name down as Izumo no Okuni, a shrine maid?