The term oiran originated in Yoshiwara , the red light district of Edo in the s, and is applied to all ranks of high level courtesans in historical Japan. The services of oiran were well known for being exclusive and expensive, with oiran typically only entertaining the upper classes of society, gaining the nickname keisei lit. Many oiran became celebrities both inside and outside of the pleasure quarters, and were commonly depicted in ukiyo-e woodblock prints and in kabuki theatre plays.
Though regarded as trend setting and fashionable women at the historic height of their profession, this reputation was later usurped in the late 18th through 19th centuries by geisha , who became popular among the merchant classes for their simplified clothing , ability to play short, modern songs known as kouta on the shamisen , and their more fashionable expressions of contemporary womanhood and companionship for men, [ 4 ] which mirrored the tastes of the extremely wealthy, but for lower class merchants, who constituted the majority of their patronage.
The popularity and numbers of oiran continued to decline steadily throughout the 19th century, before prostitution was outlawed in Japan in Though only the highest ranking prostitutes of Yoshiwara were technically known as oiran , the term is now widely applied to all. Within the pleasure quarters, an oiran 's prestige was based on her beauty, character, education and artistic ability, [ 11 ] which was reflected in the number of ranks falling in the category of oiran.
Oiran not considered to be high ranking or skilled enough to hold an inherited name would instead use a professional name considered elegant enough to be the name of a courtesan; these were typically pseudonyms taken to either protect one's identity or to promote the brothel's image, and were likely to be slightly more elaborate than the average woman's name. The appearance of oiran was markedly different from that of both geisha and the average woman, reflecting the upper class tastes and expectations of their customers; by the height of their profession at the beginning of the Edo period, oiran wore upwards of eight large kanzashi hair ornaments , typically made from tortoiseshell, silver, gold and gemstones, in their large, elaborate and heavily waxed hairstyles ; these hairstyles, all with different names and meanings, were worn to represent different ranks, seasons and occasions.
An oiran 's outfit consisted of a number of layered kimono ; the outermost kimono would usually be a heavily decorated silk brocade garment known as the uchikake , which would feature a heavily padded hem. Though uchikake were also worn by noblewomen and, towards the end of the Meiji period, began to be worn by some brides, the uchikake worn by oiran were far more excessive and loud.
