Foreign readers may not be very familiar with the professional traditional entertainers called geisha, but nowadays it’s not unusual even for older Japanese to be unaware of what geisha actually do. That state of affairs sadly reflects the decline of the ...

It started as a joke over too much sake. It was 1975, in Kyoto, Japan. The American Fulbright student was dining with a motherly ex-geisha who had befriended her and with some of the other geisha, and soon the women were talking to one another about who ...

Few countries today are so bound in tradition as Japan. Occupied since at least the Stone Age, Japan's long isolation as an island nation spawned a unique and fascinating culture. The tea ceremony, kabuki theater and sumo wrestling are but three ...

Once part of a booming industry displaying the elegant traditions of Japan, Kyoto’s Geisha now find themselves at a crossroads with the spread of the Coronavirus and lack of visitors to the famous Geisha districts. Falling on hard times A Maiko ...

The posters of geishas -- everywhere -- were driving Scott Tadashi Tsuchitani bonkers. "When I first saw those images throughout the city, it annoyed me," says the Bay Area native of the omnipresent promotions for the Asian Art Museum's summer exhibition ...

The powerful image of the geisha - scarlet lips across an alabaster-white painted face, a glossy black wig and ornate kimono - has been associated with Japanese culture since the 17th century. Yet, even in the age of social media, the true lives of these ...

"Brokeback Mountain," the gay cowpoke flick that has the queer community's knickers all in a twist, isn't the only Hollywood film this season that thoughtfully and sensitively depicts characters who are forced to bury their true feelings for the ones they ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a ...

For years, marketers have struggled to translate the fantasy power of their films into sales at fashionable boutiques and department stores. They’ve sanctioned vivid yellow overcoats from “Dick Tracy,” frilly cancan skirts from “Moulin Rouge!”

Clint Lilley, of Santa Clarita and son of the late stuntman Jack Lilley, has captured the award for Best Western Short Film October 2025 by the Independent Shorts Awards.