SAKKOU

I was invited to this Maiko's Okiya, lodging house in which a maiko or geisha lives, for the last chance to take a picture wearing theSAKKOU hairstyle. Tomorrow will be her ERIKAE, then she'll become a Geiko.
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Around the age of 21 (or earlier, if the Okasan "Mother in the Geisha~house" feels the Maiko is mature enough), preparations are put into place for the Maiko's ERI-KAE ceremony for her debut as a Geiko. A weeks before this ceremony, the Maiko will have her hair done up in the SAKKOU hairstyle.

Just as the hairstyle for the beginning of her apprenticeship, her hairstyle signifying the end of her apprentice is equally elaborate and striking. The SAKKOU is easily recognizable by the hair being piled up and twisted into loops, with one pony tail of hair hanging over the back, cut at the end ("hashi no ke" hashi=bridge ke= hair).

(Originally, it appears that this hairstyle was worn by married women of the merchant class in the late Edo era through to the beginning of the Meiji era and that the cutting of the hair would normally have been performed by the husband, as a sign of the woman's devotion to her husband and his family.)

The cutting of the hair is now performed by the Okasan, Mother of the Geisha~house, and whilst the hair cut is not the Maiko's real hair, the significance of this gesture remains the same: to indicate that the Maiko is expressing her willingness and resolution to devote her life to the arts of Geiko.

The Kanzashi, hair~ornaments, worn for the SAKKOU style are a combination of the relevant hana-kanzashi for the month, flower hair ornaments, tortoiseshell kanzashi, one bira-bira kanzashi and tama-kanzashi.

In addition to the hana-kanzashi, she will wear a kanzashi of a crane on the left hand side made from either silver or gold mizuhiki cord. She also wears a kushi and several kougai made from tortoiseshell, and last but not least, three red ribbons at the front, wrapped within the mage (along with thin strips of silver) and at the back.