Mizuage

Common card · No. 309134

Mizuage (水揚げ, lit. 'hoisting from water') was a ceremony undergone by apprentice oiran (kamuro) and some maiko (apprentice geisha) as part of their coming of age ceremony and graduation. For kamuro, who had often already lost their virginity, a patron would pay for the exclusive privilege of being a new oiran's first customer; for maiko who underwent mizuage, it formed part of a number of ceremonies and occasions used to mark graduation into geishahood, including symbolic changes in hairstyle and official visits to benefactors. Before the outlawing of prostitution in Japan, maiko who underwent mizuage would see patrons and benefactors bid large sums of money for the privilege of taking their virginity, a sum of money the okiya (the geisha house an apprentice was affiliated to) would take entirely. In the present day, a maiko's graduation is known as erikae (襟替え, 'turning the collar [of a kimono]'), and is entirely non-sexual, though some older sources – such as the autobiography of Mineko...

Read on Wikipedia