84-year-old Geisha Demonstrates the Resilience of the Japanese

84-year-old geisha in tsunami-ravaged town vows to keep working until retirement

News Updates shared by Seki Satoko, Tokyo, Japan

An 84-year-old geisha who lost her home in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, when the city was struck by a devastating tsunami on March 11, has vowed to keep working until her planned retirement at the age of 88.

The earthquake struck as Ito was putting on white tabi footwear at her home in central Kamaishi. After she dashed outside, a local man carried her on his back to a gymnasium being used as a shelter. Other people escaped to higher ground, but Ito had no confidence of being able to follow them by herself, and she was prepared to part with everyone for good then and there. Fortunately, she survived.

The path to the gymnasium was the same one Ito’s mother had carried her along when they escaped from a tsunami triggered by the 1933 Sanriku earthquake. At that time, her family’s home was not damaged.

“If the tsunami reached our home, the whole town of Kamaishi would be wiped out. I never thought it would come,” she said.

But it did, and the tsunami waves swallowed her home.

“I’ve experienced three tsunamis before as well as the bombardments during the war, but I’ve never felt as terrified as this,” said Ito, who has spent more than 7 decades in the city.

Ito, who now goes by the stage name of Chikano Fujima, began learning dancing at the age of 12 and began training to be a geisha at the traditional Japanese restaurant “Saiwairo.” She lost many friends and restaurant patrons in the tsunami and she helped identify the bodies of two of her friends.

Ito had dreamed of staging a retirement performance at the age of 88, but her kimonos and samisen were buried underneath rubble.

“The people who supported me died in the tsunami. But I won’t be defeated. There’s still three years before I’m 88, and I’m certain I’ll get there,” she said.

News Source: Daily Mainichi