Researching a Japanese Ancestor?

Question:

Researching a Japanese Ancestor?

There's a Japanese woman I want to research....I have ,an occupation (I know she was a geisha), two hometowns, two possible given names, a cause of death (suicide by some sort of poisoning), and an approximate date of birth. What's the best way to get more information on her? I've done a web search, but I haven't come up with very many clues. Is there someone in Japan I can contact, maybe to get some kind of a census report, a death certificate...? Is there still a geisha registry? How far back does it go, and could I ever get access to it?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Japanese research is very specialized and most of the records you need are in the Japanese National Archives and not available online. I would suggest you hook up with the fine researchers on this site and see if you can find a volunteer in Japan willing to help you with some legwork:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~jpnwgw/eindex.h...

Otherwise, this is the place where the records are stored. The next question is how to find what you need and get it translated into English:
http://www.archives.go.jp/english/index....

My personal preference when working with records like this so far away is to partner with a graduate student in History from a university where your subject was located. History grad students are often happy for the spending money and have the intellectual integrity to do good research and give you good results. To find one, email professors at the universities in the area and explain that you're researching a young geisha from ____ prefecture, _____ town, who lived between ___ and ___. You are trying to find a researcher who would be willing to pull appropriate records on the subject person and could the professor make a recommendation from among the graduate students in the History program who is a good researcher and who might be willing to help you.

It works quite well...and is much cheaper than hiring a professional researcher.