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An okiya (置屋) is the lodging house/drinking establishment to which a maiko or geisha is affiliated with during her career as a geisha. The okiya is typically run by the "mother" (okā-san) of the house, who handles a geisha's engagements, the development of her skills, and funds her training through a particular teahouse. Though a geisha is legally required to be registered to an okiya in order to work, and may live there as a trainee, it is not a legal requirement for geisha to live within their okiya.[1]
A geisha's engagements at parties, and her lessons in singing, traditional dance, musical instruments and tea ceremony are also booked through her okiya. An okiya and its attached teahouse typically has its own "branch" of art names linking its geisha and maiko together, usually through the use of a shared prefix; for example, many of the geisha trained at the Dai-Ichi teahouse in Pontochō have names that begin with Ichi-.[2]