Draft:Manryu
Japanese geisha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manryu (July 1894 – December 1973) was a geisha and tea ceremony instructor who was renowned and popular during the late Meiji era. Along with Teruha, who was two years younger, she is sometimes referred to as one of Chishō Takaoka's two most famous geishas.[1]
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Comment: Marriage needs more citations. 🚂ThatTrainGuy1945 Peep peep! 11:42, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
Early life
Manryu's real name was Shizuka Tamukai. She was born in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, to Hatsutaro Tamukai and Hama, who worked as subcontractors for a transportation company. When her father contracted tuberculosis, the family fell into poverty, and at the age of seven, she was adopted by Some Hiruma, the proprietress of the geisha house "Harumoto" in Akasaka, Tokyo. Her father soon died.[2]
Career
She attracted attention from her time as a maiko, even after becoming a geisha, although some criticized her for being too gentle, she was popular.Manryu attracted attention when she won first place with 90,000 votes in the "100 Beauties of Japan" popularity poll for geishas organized by the literary magazine "Bungei Club," became popular as a postcard beauty. The story of Manryu was serialized in newspapers, she appeared on posters for Mitsukoshi department store, she became so famous that she was even featured in a popular song: "Masamune sake, Manryu geisha."[3]
Marriage
In 1910, she was caught in a major flood in Hakone and nearly fainted from anemia, but was rescued by Yoichiro Tsunekawa, a student at Tokyo Imperial University. The following year, the two met again and soon fell in love. In 1913, Tsunekawa and Manryu got married. The romance between a university student and a geisha was widely covered in newspapers. However, four years after their marriage, Tsunekawa died of illness, leaving Manryu a young widow. Public interest was focused on whether she would return to being a geisha as Manryu. The following year (1917), she married Shinichiro Okada. After remarrying, she devoted herself to nursing her sickly husband and helping out at his architectural design office.Okada passed away in 1932, leaving her a widow once again.[4][5]She spent the latter half of her life quietly, and was a beloved figure among many students as a teacher of the Enshu school of tea ceremony.[6]