Geisha makeup is making a comeback!
In the past, tourists would have to wait for hours to catch 
a glimpse of a lone geisha on the streets of Japan on her way to an appointment. Now they are ten to the dozen. Well nearly, last year, there were 100 maikos (trainee geishas) in Kyoto, the highest number in forty years.
The recent surge of teenage girls wanting to enter the floating world of performing arts, extravagant ceremonies, and er, flirtatious exchanges with clients is said to demonstrate a cultural shift in Japan, renewing the respect for their traditional culture. There was a time where Japan would try and appear more Western to be accepted by the western world, but these days that concern has dimineshed, to make way for a revival of traditional cultures and values.
Then came the cyber-geisha. The girls combine their studies with learning the traditional arts, and writing blogs that capture thousands of visitors who soak up even the most menial accounts of a geisha or maiko’s day.
The recent adaptation of Arthur Golden’s best seller ‘Memories of a Geisha’, into the Hollywood film in 2005, also helped increase the interest in the profession by teenagers in Japan.