Fiona Graham Explained

Fiona Graham
Birth Name:Fiona Caroline Graham
Birth Date:16 September 1961
Birth Place:Melbourne, Australia
Nationality:Australian
Other Names:Sayuki
Occupation:Anthropologist, geisha
Website:www.sayuki.net (archived 2022 version)

Fiona Caroline Graham (16 September 1961–26 January 2023)[1] was an Australian anthropologist working as a geisha in Japan.[2] [3] She made her debut as a geisha (trainee) in 2007 in the Asakusa district of Tokyo under the name as a part of her anthropological study, and as of 2021 was working in the Fukagawa district of Tokyo.[4] [5]

Early life

Graham was born in Melbourne, Australia,[6] and first travelled to Japan aged 15 for a student exchange programme,[7] where she attended high school and lived with her host family.[8] She had two siblings.

Academic career

Graham's first degrees, in psychology and teaching, were taken at Keio University. She completed an M.Phil. in 1992 and a D.Phil. 2001 in social anthropology at the University of Oxford, focusing on Japanese corporate culture.[9] [10] She has been a lecturer on geisha studies at Keio and Waseda Universities.[11] [12]

Graham has published three volumes of anthropology.

Inside the Japanese Company (2003) and A Japanese Company in Crisis (2005) are about the large insurance company (given the fictional name "C-Life") that Graham joined upon graduation, and which she later observed, first as a researcher and later as a documentary film maker.[13] The book's main subject is "the uneven erosion of the commitment of [the company's] salary men to an overarching corporate ideology", with Graham concentrating on the cohort who entered the company when she did. The reviewer of both books for the British Journal of Industrial Relations viewed her portrayal favourably, but thought that it "[did] not adequately address wider issues of structure and power relations".

The reviewer for the journal Organization of Inside the Japanese Company was troubled by the uninformativeness about Graham's interviewees and by serious problems with the book's quantitative survey. Nevertheless, he found the book insightful and rewarding.[14]

"C-Life" eventually went under in October 2000,[15] and A Japanese Company in Crisis concentrated on the ways in which individual employees thought and acted in expectation of the hard times ahead. The reviewer again found flaws with the book, but on balance gave it a highly favourable review. The review of the book in Social Science Japan Journal had similar high praise for it.[16]

In Playing at Politics: An Ethnography of the Oxford Union (2005), Graham built on a 2001 documentary (The Oxford Union: Campus of Tradition) that she had made for Japanese television about candidacy for president of the Oxford Union:

The reviewer for the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute found the book a "witty examination of British political processes" and "[recommended it] to all would-be politicians and their tutors".

Geisha activities

Graham initially entered the geisha profession with the intention of directing a documentary project for the National Geographic Channel; however, upon completing her training (undertaken as part of the documentary's filming), she was given permission to continue working full-time as a geisha, and formally debuted under the name of "Sayuki" in December 2007, though the Asakusa Geisha Association claims that she did not complete required training.[17]

Graham debuted in the Asakusa geisha district of Tokyo, and her training before this lasted for a year; this included lessons on dance, tea ceremony and the . Graham specialised in (the Japanese side-blown flute).[18], the documentary itself remained unfinished.[19]

After working in Asakusa for four years as a geisha, Graham applied for permission to take over the run by her geisha mother, who was retiring due to ill health; her request was denied on the grounds of her being a foreigner.[20]

In 2011, after being asked to leave the geisha community of Asakusa, Graham left to operate independently (against the Asakusa Geisha Association's regulations), though she continued to work as a geisha within the area, opening a kimono shop in Asakusa in the same year.[21] [22] [23] In 2013, Graham was running an independent in Yanaka, Tokyo, with four apprentices. By 2021, Graham had permanent residency in Japan and was running an in the Fukagawa district of Tokyo with three apprentices.[24] Graham allowed tourists to come and watch the young geisha have their lessons.[4]

Graham travelled internationally to demonstrate the traditional arts employed by geisha, visiting the United Kingdom to perform at the Hyper Japan festival in 2013,[25] Dubai in the same year,[19] and Brazil in 2015.[26]

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Japan in 2020, Graham added online geisha banquets to the 's repertoire of events.[27]

Graham died in January 2023.

Wanaka Gym court case

In December 2010, Graham, the sole owner of The Wanaka Gym Ltd., a New Zealand company, faced penalties totaling NZ$64,000 and was also ordered to cover NZ$9,000 in costs due to a conviction related to an unsafe building utilized for tourist accommodation. The building had been declared "dangerous" in June 2008, but continued to house paying residents in the two months after.[28] After the conviction, Graham made a number of unsuccessful appeals, and a final leave to appeal by both Graham and the company was rejected in December 2014 by the Supreme Court of New Zealand.[29] [30]

Books by Graham

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: FIONA CAROLINE GRAHAM . . 31 January 2023. 2 October 2023.
  2. Web site: Ng. Adelaine. A glimpse into the secret world of geisha. 1 August 2011. 13 May 2013.
  3. Web site: The Sayuki Geisha Banquet service Starts!! . https://archive.today/20130630003207/http://www.nisekotourism.com/event-news/detail.php?lang=en&id=4865. dead. 30 June 2013. 7 January 2013. Niseko Japan. Niseko Promotion Board Co., Ltd.. Japan. 13 May 2013.
  4. News: A Day in the Life of a Geisha. Bunny. Bissoux. Tokyo Weekender. 14 October 2017. 14 May 2020.
  5. News: Keeping a tradition alive, from the outside in. Harrison. Brooks. Bangkok Post. 25 October 2018. 19 January 2019.
  6. Web site: Fiona Caroline Graham . 2015 . 2015-03-16 . ... studied at Keio Univ., worked in the Japanese life insurance industry; later, Master's degree, management studies and Doctorate in social anthropology, U. of Oxford; her exper. and production of a film documentary for NHK form the basis for the fieldwork in the book ... data sh. . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150402133303/http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nb2011014699.html . 2 April 2015 .
  7. News: Westerner inducted into mysteries of geisha. Julian. Ryall. 9 January 2008. The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. 6 June 2011.
  8. Web site: Sayuki: Being a gaijin geisha isn't easy but it can be fun. Grunebaum. Dan. June 2016. Metropolis Magazine.
  9. Graham. Fiona. Aspects of a Japanese organisation. 1992. Thesis MPhil--University of Oxford. 19 July 2018. 20 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210520173736/http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=oxfaleph017292065&indx=1&recIds=oxfaleph017292065&recIdxs=0&elementId=0&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&frbg=&vl(254947567UI0)=creator&&dscnt=0&vl(1UIStartWith0)=contains&scp.scps=scope:(OX)&tb=t&vid=OXVU1&mode=Basic&vl(516065169UI1)=thesis&srt=rank&tab=local&dum=true&vl(freeText0)=Fiona%20Graham&dstmp=1532026161761. dead.
  10. Graham. Fiona. Ideology and practice: An ethnology of a Japanese company. 2001. Thesis DPhil--University of Oxford. 19 July 2018. 20 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210520173703/http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=oxfaleph015138761&indx=2&recIds=oxfaleph015138761&recIdxs=1&elementId=1&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&frbg=&vl(254947567UI0)=creator&&dscnt=0&vl(1UIStartWith0)=contains&scp.scps=scope:(OX)&tb=t&vid=OXVU1&mode=Basic&vl(516065169UI1)=thesis&srt=rank&tab=local&dum=true&vl(freeText0)=Fiona%20Graham&dstmp=1532026161761. dead.
  11. Web site: 2012-2013 Keio University: International Center Courses. 29 October 2015.
  12. Web site: Course List (Spring Semester). April 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140607000022/http://www.waseda.jp/sils/jp/common/pdf/student/course/Course_List_Spring2014.pdf. 7 June 2014. 29 October 2015.
  13. Tony Elger, "Japanese employment relations after the bubble", British Journal of Industrial Relations 44 (2006): 801–805, . (Review of Graham's Inside the Japanese Company and A Japanese Company in Crisis and of Ross Mouer and Hirosuke Kawanishi's A Sociology of Work in Japan.)
  14. Leo McCann, "Lives under pressure: Exploring the work of Japanese middle managers", Organization: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Organization, Theory and Society 12 (2005): 142–144, . (Review of Graham's Inside the Japanese Company and Peter Matanle's Japanese Capitalism and Modernity in a Global Era.)
  15. Leo McCann, "Pop goes the bubble: Japanese white-collar workers face up to hard times", Organization: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Organization, Theory and Society 13 (2006):158–160 . (Review of Graham's A Japanese Company in Crisis.
  16. Kuniko Ishiguro, untitled review of A Japanese Company in Crisis, Social Science Japan Journal 9 (2006): 141–143, .
  17. News: Turning Japanese: the first foreign geisha. David . McNeill. 24 January 2008. 8 July 2011. The Independent. London.
  18. Web site: Geisha cuts into kimono market. Alex. Martin. 3 June 2011. The Japan Times Online. The Japan Times Ltd.. Japan. 8 June 2014.
  19. News: The Western woman who became a geisha. The National. 2014-11-14. Tokyo.
  20. Web site: SAYUKI Being a gaijin geisha isn't easy, but it can be fun. Grunebaum. Dan. 3 June 2016. Metropolis. 19 January 2016.
  21. Web site: 花柳界初 外国人芸者 紗幸 好きこそ物の上手なれ. jukushin.com. 11 November 2011 . 5 December 2014.
  22. News: Wallace. Rick. 6 June 2011. Aussie Geisha Fiona Graham rejects reports she's split with Asakusa Geisha Association. The Australian. News Limited. Australia. dead. 29 June 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20141010105250/http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/no-place-for-you-aussie-geisha-told/story-e6frg6nf-1226069744853. 10 October 2014.
  23. News: Novick. Anna. 7 June 2011. Foreign Geisha's Future Uncertain. The Wall Street Journal: Japan Realtime. Dow Jones & Company. 14 July 2011.
  24. News: Swan . Scott . Get up close to the geishas of Japan and discover the history of this mysterious practice . March 8, 2021 . WTHR . January 22, 2021.
  25. Web site: Sayuki The First Western Geisha Appears at Hyper Japan 2013. 2013. Hyper Japan. https://web.archive.org/web/20140422071954/http://hyperjapan.co.uk/download/HJ2013/SayukiTheFirstWesternGeishaFINAL.pdf. 22 April 2014. 9 November 2015.
  26. News: Lucas-Hall. Renae. Sayuki Ushers the Japanese Geisha into the 21st Century. Renae Lucas-Hall. 18 July 2016 .
  27. News: Entertainers Under the Pandemic - Where We Call Home - TV NHK WORLD-JAPAN Live & Programs . 25 May 2021 . . 20 July 2020 . en.
  28. Web site: Beech . James . Gym owner fined $64,000 . Otago Daily Times . 18 December 2010 . Allied Press Limited . 30 November 2019.
  29. Web site: Wanaka Gym Ltd appeal dismissed. James. Beech. 18 October 2012. Otago Daily Times Online News.
  30. "The Wanaka Gym Limited v Queenstown Lakes District Council (2014) NZSC: Judgement of the Court." Archive:https://web.archive.org/web/20210217042545/https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/assets/cases/2014/sc84_2014_sc85_2014wanakagymltdgrahamvqueenstownldc.pdf (PDF).

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