okiya

An is the lodging house/drinking establishment with which a or geisha is affiliated during her career as a geisha. The is typically run by the "mother" () of the house, who handles a geisha's engagements and the development of her skills, and funds her training through a particular teahouse. Though a geisha is legally required to be registered to an in order to work, and may live there as a trainee, it is not a legal requirement for geisha to live within their .

A geisha's engagements at parties, and her lessons in singing, traditional dance, musical instruments and tea ceremony are also booked through her . An and its attached teahouse typically has its own "branch" of art names linking its geisha and 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 .