Beautiful Portraits of a Popular Tokyo Geisha From 100 Years Ago

This demure beauty was a popular Tokyo Geisha during the late Meiji era. If marriage was delayed (or never happened) her career as a Geisha could have continued during the early years of the Taisho period as well.

From a multi-view postcard of Geisha Hamayuu of the Shinbashi hanamachi (geisha district) in Tokyo. Her name is sometimes given as Hawaryu, however, that this might be a title or a nickname meaning ‘Tokyo Dragon’, possibly used to mark her transition from Osaka to Tokyo.

According to Blue Ruin 1, there are several contemporary postcards and references in the literature to her under the name Hamayuu [Hamayū], both as a junior geisha in Osaka and later as a geisha in Tokyo, but none that account for the name Hawaryu. Perhaps it is a title or a nickname (Tokyo Dragon)?.

Here, below is a small collection of beautiful portraits of a Geisha under the singular name of HAWARYU from 100 years ago.

(via Okinawa Soba)