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Fiona Caroline Graham (16 September 1961–26 January 2023) was an Australian anthropologist working as a geisha in Japan. She made her debut as a geisha (trainee) in 2007 in the Asakusa district of Tokyo under the name 紗幸 as a part of her anthropological study, and as of 2021 was working in the Fukagawa district of Tokyo.
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.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.) The book's main subject is "the uneven erosion of the commitment of the 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.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.)
"C-Life" eventually went under in October 2000,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. 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.Kuniko Ishiguro, untitled review of A Japanese Company in Crisis, Social Science Japan Journal 9 (2006): 141–143, .
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 to all would-be politicians and their tutors".
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). , the documentary itself remained unfinished.
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.
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. 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. Graham allowed tourists to come and watch the young geisha have their lessons.
Graham travelled internationally to demonstrate the traditional arts employed by geisha, visiting the United Kingdom to perform at the Hyper Japan festival in 2013, Dubai in the same year, and Brazil in 2015.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Japan in 2020, Graham added online geisha banquets to the 's repertoire of events.
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