Read Online The Ghost Brush by Katherine Govier - Free Book Online

courtesan.
    “Or Fumi.”
    Kana was thoughtful. “But the weird thing is it, like, changes. Like the whole idea of who’s beautiful and for what reason changes year to year. I c’n remember . . . Like, now the girls have to be thin. But before, when I was first in the biz, the famous girls were round.”
    “Never! I doan believe you. Yu mean, like, fat?” That was Takao, stuffing her face.
    “Yu doan remember ’cause yu’re too young, but yeah, it’s true—like round. The girls were, like, round.”
    Everyone made various noises of disgust.
    “And men liked it,” Kana added as an afterthought.
    Everyone laughed.
    “So who decided we hafta be thin?”
    “I tell you who decided. We decided,” said one girl.
    “We did?”
    “Yah. We make the fashion. ’F I wear this, like, bamboo-leaf pattern in my kimono and let my red underskirt show, and ’f I tie a purple-and-green obi around, really wide—like, way wider than anyone else—and I go strolling down the boulevard, then the artists paint me, even the noblewomen will think thaz a new style an’ it’z gorgeous. Izn it?”
    “’Member when Hana-ogi went to the Spring Festival dressed like a man? They thought that was beautiful too.” Everyone laughed.
    “Yah, maybe yu’re right. We decide.”
    “That is, like, so cool! We’re, like, the evil ones, but they wanna dress like us? Even the little girls in the samurai families?”
    “And talk like us. They copy our words, like iki—”
    “Because we’re so clever. We set the styles. And we’re fuh-ny—”
    “We’re fuh-ny till they suddenly decide we’re very bad for their health!”
    Everyone laughed again.
    “Well, we are. Bad for their health. Izn it?”
    Everyone laughed more, and some leant sideways on the floor, they were so full.
    “Not to mention our health.” Kana looked pointedly at one girl. It’s true she was very skinny. And pale. And she kept coughing. “You don’t look so great, Sanae.”
    “Doan say that!” she wailed. “If they think I’m sick they’ll sen’ me home, won’t they?”
    “We might all hafta go home if Sadanobu enforces these rules they’re talkin’ about.”
    “But they doan really mean it. They’ll never shut down the brothels.”
    “The only way we close ’em down is if we burn ’em down.”
    “Mmmm, great idea,” murmured someone.
    More laughter.
    O ur stomachs were bursting with food. We were lying around groaning.
    “So what did we decide beauty is?” said Shino.
    “We didn’ decide.”
    “But we c’n give you the list.”
    Fumi recited. “Best between fifteen and eighteen years of age.”
    I thought most of them were a few years older than that.
    “The skin must be pale pink, like cherry blossoms.”
    Their skin was not pink but sallow; they never went outside.
    “The eyes must be the shape of a melon seed. Nose depends on the face—not too large, not too small. Mouth should be very narrow across, and lips puffed as if a wasp has stung them. Eyes large and very black in the centre. Eyebrows close together.”
    The girls fell silent, each one reflecting on how far away she was from the ideal. I did too.
    “The teeth must be white and the nose must be gradual. The ears must be long and far away from your face, not fleshy.”
    “Oooh.”
    They curdled at the thought of fleshy ears.
    “When you lift up your hair, the nape should be clean and your neck long.”
    “How do you know all this?” said Shino.
    “’S written in a tablet, and we’re measured. We’ve all bin assessed.”
    “Waist must be very narrow and legs long in proportion to the back. Top of the head flat, like you can rest a plate on it.”
    A couple of them stood up and put plates on their heads and tried walking. The plates slid off.
    “And don’t forget the feet—a lovely arch.”
    “And the toes should curl up!”
    Here all the women put their hands over their mouths and giggled. Shino didn’t get the joke. Neither did I.
    Fumi whispered, “’F yu