Minarai 見習い - This is a proto-apprentice, and literally means "learning by watching". Minarai dress like the next step up, maiko, but wear their obi half-length in the back to show customers and others they're newbies.
Minarai Fumino
Misedashi 見せだし - Basically "showing around", this word refers to the ceremony and day when a minarai becomes a proper maiko (apprentice).
Fumino again, on the day of her misedashi
Maiko 舞妓 - The most famous visual representatives of the geisha world, maiko "dancing girl", wear elaborate folded silk square hair ornaments made to look like flowers, butterflies, and a whole host of other seasonal and auspicious symbols, sometimes with dangling lines of silk petals or leaves. They most often wear whiteface, tall wooden okobo (clogs) and special, maiko-specific long obi (darari obi) tied to dangle like two tails in the back, as well as long-sleeved young women's (furisode) kimono.
Maiko Ayakazu
Maiko Toshikana and Toshimana
Sakkou 先笄 - The week before a maiko becomes a proper geisha, she will dress her hair a certain way to let everyone know she is about to "graduate" to geisha.
Maiko Mamechiho in the sakkou hairstyle
Erikae 襟替え - "Collar changing", this is the ceremony when a maiko becomes a proper geisha/geiko, fully turning her collar from maiko red to geisha white.
Geiko Kimiha on the day of her erikae
Geisha 芸者 ("Geiko" 芸妓 in Kyoto) - A "person of the arts" or "woman of the arts", a geisha has worked her butt off to become a classically trained entertainer and artist and has now taken her place as one of the most famous symbols of traditional Japan. She wears a simpler hairstyle and fewer, smaller ornaments, as well as short-sleeve tomesode (adult woman) kimono and usually short obi knot styles.
Geiko Konomi
Geiko Mamesuzu, Konomi, and Kogiku
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