SouthFlorida.com | City Link Magazine

One afternoon last year, Naomi Graham-Diaz returned to work from lunch at one of her favorite Japanese restaurants to discover a friend had sent her a gift. Graham-Diaz excitedly tore into the package and squealed with delight at what was inside: a container of nightingale droppings.

"After doubling over in juvenile giggles about receiving birdie poop in the mail and racing around the office grossing my workmates out," Graham-Diaz notes on her Web site Immortalgeisha.com, "I sobered up enough to remember that it really is an age-old beauty secret passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years."

A few days later, after much contemplation, Graham-Diaz stood before her bathroom mirror, massaging the deep, musky-smelling paste into her skin, while her husband, Alejandro Diaz, watched in equal fascination and horror.

This was not some Fear Factor-type experiment, just Graham-Diaz's latest immersion in Japanese tradition. Since moving to South Florida from Queensland, Australia, in 2001 after meeting her future husband online, Graham-Diaz has devoted herself to studying Japanese culture and history, particularly that of the geisha. She has created two Web sites: Immortalgeisha.com, which aims to dispel misconceptions about geishas, and Puchimaiko.com, through which she sells her handmade Japanese fashion items, such as kanzashi (hairpin) flowers, kimonolets (wrist cuffs) and tote bags made from kimono fabric. And last September, she left her job as a project manager at a Fort Lauderdale Web design firm to turn her obsession into a full-time venture.

So the question is: Can a 28-year-old Aussie make a living selling kimono accessories in South Florida?

Tate Ottati -- owner of Tate's Comics in Lauderhill, which carries anime, manga and Japanese candy -- thinks Puchimaiko has potential. He has noticed a growing interest in Japanese fashion at anime conventions. Given the rise of anime and many things Japanese in mainstream America -- witness Gwen Stefani's recent dip into the culture -- she may be onto something.

Yet Graham-Diaz isn't all that interested in anime. She would much rather watch live-action period dramas set in Japan, especially movies made by the late Akira Kurosawa. And she says anything starring late actor Toshiro Mifune, including Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, makes her swoon.

Her obsession with Japanese culture took root when she was a child and often admired Japanese woodblock prints. By her late teens, she was rescuing Japanese dolls from thrift stores. "One of my favorites was a doll my mother found for $1," Graham-Diaz recalls. "She was this tall, elegant beauty, but her face was pitch-black with dirt, her dress had cobwebs, and her hair was all matted." Graham-Diaz restored the doll to its original beauty. "I think it was that particular doll that really prompted me to start researching the women who inspired these dolls -- geisha."

She quickly learned that the Internet was rampant with false information about geishas, whom, Graham-Diaz says, mostly entertain men with conversation, dancing, singing and music. She argues that the misconception of these women as prostitutes rather than artists emerged when American servicemen returned home after World War II. They told stories of hookers calling themselves "geisha girls," and the men didn't know the difference.

"Many of these women obviously felt that the only way they could support their families was to avail themselves to Americans," Graham-Diaz explains. "Unfortunately their actions seriously damaged the reputation of a time-honored tradition."

To combat these assumptions and to share her vintage geisha photos, dance programs and research with others, Graham-Diaz launched Immortalgeisha.com in 2001. "I couldn't legally work," she recalls. "I was going through the whole immigration process, so I had nothing else to do for two years but read about geisha, research and build a Web site." The site now gets about 2,500 unique visitors per day.

Her venture into Japanese crafts was an equally natural progression. Graham-Diaz's mother had made her and her siblings' clothing when they were children and eventually taught Naomi to sew her own clothes.

"When I moved over here, I actually stopped sewing for about three years because all my equipment was back in Australia," she says. "I really wanted to start sewing again, and it just occurred to me that I need to work with kimono fabric."

She began making small items for herself but inevitably gave them to friends or family members who admired them. "I taught myself the traditional art of tsunami kanzashi -- pinched and folded petal flower hairpins that apprentice geisha wear -- and started making petite versions of the traditional ones for everyday use," Graham-Diaz says of one segment of her fashion line. She also combines vintage kimono fabrics to create contemporary garments that go well with jeans.

Graham-Diaz pours her knowledge of geisha and kimonos into everything she makes. "If you're in Japan, you can't just throw any old piece of kimono on and wear it with whatever," she explains, "because each month has a specific color and pattern and things that are associated with the month.

"I would feel kind of weird using, say, plum blossoms on something that has chrysanthemums," she adds, "because plum blossoms, the first flowers that bloom while it is still snowing, represent the end of winter and beginning of spring, while chrysanthemums are used in autumn."

This attention to detail is what drew Malia Duran-Anderson to Immortalgeisha.com in 2003. Duran-Anderson, a dancer with the South Florida performing arts troupe Bacabuda Arts and a member of the Japanese taiko drumming group FushuDaiko, wanted her stage makeup and costumes to be authentic. So she began using Immortalgeisha.com as a reference. Graham-Diaz has since designed several costumes and hairstyles for her.

Other people have turned to Graham-Diaz for her expertise, as well. Arthur Roses, a member of the production team for the recent film Memoirs of a Geisha, contacted her for specific details about a geisha dance and a particular photograph. Graham-Diaz has also been cited in the bibliography of two books about geisha and is working on a book of her own.

For now, though, she is focusing on Puchimaiko, which she operates from her Coconut Creek apartment. She sews her creations on the living room floor, drawing inspiration from the boxes of vintage kimono material sitting in a corner. When Graham-Diaz gently picks out selections to discuss their origin with a visitor, there is no mistaking her passion for her work or doubting her when she says she has no regret about leaving the security of her 9-to-5 job.

"In the end, it's worth it," she says, "because as you can see, I'm very passionate about this."

Naomi Graham-Diaz will sell her handmade items Saturday and Sunday at the Hana Machi vintage kimono booth at the Hatsume Spring Fair at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, 4000 Morikami Park Road, in Delray Beach. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 561/495-0233 or visit Morikami.org.