雷厄姆博士(Fiona Graham)有着天生的棕褐色头发和蓝眼睛，如果她能成为艺伎，那也不是普通的艺伎。事实上，艺名“纱幸”(Sayuki，意思是“透明的幸福”)的她绝非人们印象中那种典型的艺伎。
作 为第一位被艺伎界正式接纳的外国人，这位牛津大学的学者最初是将它作为一项人类学研究，最终她接受了一年的日本传统艺术训练，获得了正式的认可并于 2007年12月完成了她作为职业艺伎的首次演出。艺伎的训练非常艰苦，许多年轻的日本初学者远未达到专业水准便早早退出了。
外国人仍大体难以理解艺伎的世界，因此造成了许多误解，其中最主要的误解就是认为艺伎的角色等同于妓女。相反，艺伎是日本传统艺术和音乐的表演者，观看表演需要付费。她们一生都要接受训练，多位资深艺伎被评为“人间国宝”，这是日本艺人所能获得的最高身份。
艺 伎还以才智及谈话技巧闻名，几个世纪以来，她们应邀在茶室、聚会和各种活动中进行表演。纱幸也不例外，因为她的日语很流利。她的大多数客户都是日本人就证 明了她首先是一名艺伎，其次才是一名外国人。如果没有第三方引荐，许多艺伎不会与潜在客户见面。然而，纱幸与她们不同，精通技术的她善于利用西方式的创 新：她注册了一个Twitter账户，关注哥伦比亚广播公司(CBS)的新闻和歌手贾斯汀•汀布莱克(Justin Timberlake)等明星，同时也乐于让别人通过她的网站直接与她联络以及预定宴会等活动。
纱幸认真的对待这个角色。她说，参加宴会就是登台，你表演的是一个角色，一种艺术。我经常收到其它女孩的电子邮件，她们告诉我想成为一名艺伎。你能想像给别人写信说你想当芭蕾舞演员吗？穿上舞衣并不意味着你能跳舞。艺伎也如此，我们是艺术家。
纱幸在东京的老艺伎区──浅草(Asakusa)经营自己的业务。艺伎界与学术界或许分属两个世界，然而她的艺伎“妈妈”、即主要培训人Yukiko允许她首次登台之前对她进行的长期培训却将二者联系在一起。
培 训要求学习的东西很多，要学会横笛和三味线等传统乐器，还要了解动植物的情况，以便挑选以时令花卉装饰的和服。另外在过去一年里，纱幸在应庆义塾大学 (Keio University)讲课，谈艺伎和日本传统艺术。这让她自己的学术经历（她拿的是社会人类学领域的博士学位）和艺伎职业不可思议地重合在了一起。
在 一个历来由男性主导的社会，艺伎从古至今一直是独立而成功的商人。纱幸也展现出了艺伎的创业才能，出版了好几本商业著作。现在她的注意力正转向寻找商业赞 助。20世纪20年代，日本大约有80,000名艺伎（现在已经下降到2,000人左右），她们常常是资生堂(Shiseido Co.)化妆品或朝日(Asahi Breweries Ltd.)啤酒等消费品的代言人。纱幸很希望恢复这一传统，从而为培养新人提供资金支持，不然学费会贵到很多人无法承担。
培训项目有很多，虽然有时候也厌倦于沉浸在这样一种传统等级制度中，但纱幸说，她还不打算马上离开艺伎界。她说，永远很远，但我还没有设定一个终点。
With naturally russet brown hair and blue eyes, Dr. Fiona Graham is not your average geisha, should such a thing exist. In fact, Sayuki, to use the name she goes by, meaning 'Transparent Happiness' is anything but typical.
As the first foreigner to have been officially accepted into the geisha world, what originally began as an anthropological study for the Oxford scholar became a year of intense training in traditional Japanese arts, leading to securing official recognition and making her professional geisha debut in December 2007. And the training can be arduous: many young Japanese novices falling by the wayside well before reaching the professional ranks.
The world of the geisha has remained broadly impenetrable to foreigners, generating a slew of misconceptions, chief among which is that their role is one premised on sex. Instead, geisha are paid entertainers of traditional Japanese arts and music. Training throughout their lives, a number of more senior geisha have even been classified as 'living national treasures', the highest status an artist can attain in Japan.
Renowned also for their wit and conversational skills, they have for centuries been called out to entertain at tea houses, events and parties: Sayuki's role is no different, made possible by her fluent Japanese. The fact that most of her clients are Japanese is testimony to this - geisha first, foreigner second. However unlike many geisha who will not meet prospective clients without a third party introduction, tech-savvy Sayuki does make some concessions to Western-style innovation: she has a Twitter account, where she 'follows' CBS News and singer Justin Timberlake, among others, and is also happy to be contacted directly via her website and booked for banquets.
Sayuki takes her role seriously. 'Going into a banquet is going on-stage -- you're performing a role and your art,' she says. 'I often get emails from girls telling me they want to become a geisha. Can you imagine writing to someone to say you want to be a ballet dancer? Just because you put on a tutu doesn't mean you can dance. Geisha are the same, we are artists.'
And while academia and the old Tokyo geisha district of Asakusa, where Sayuki plies her trade, may be worlds apart, the lengthy hours of study put in before her geisha 'mother'- Yukiko, or chief trainer, allowed Sayuki to debut is a common thread.
From learning to play traditional instruments like the yokobue flute and shamisen, to learning about flora and fauna so that a kimono adorned with seasonal flowers can be correctly picked, the studies are demanding. Meantime, there has been an unlikely fusion between Sayuki's own academic history - her doctorate is in social anthropology - and geisha career over the last year: she has been lecturing at Keio University on geisha and traditional Japanese arts.
With an entrepreneurial flair also in keeping with geisha, who have remained independent and successful businesswomen through history in a traditionally male-dominated society, Sayuki is also a published author of several business books. And she's now turning her attention to seeking out commercial sponsorship. In the 1920s, when there were around 80,000 geisha in Japan (the number has now fallen to around 2,000), they were often the faces for consumer products like Shiseido Co.'s cosmetics or Asahi Breweries Ltd.'s beer. Sayuki is keen to revive this tradition, with the aim of funding the training of new geisha, otherwise prohibitively expensive for many.
With so many projects in train, despite frustrations that occasionally arise out of being immersed in such a traditional hierarchy, Sayuki says has no immediate plans to leave 'the flower and willow world' of Geisha. 'Forever is a long time,' she says, 'but I haven't yet set an end point.'