Mizuage

Mizuage (水揚げ, lit. "hoisting from water") was a ceremony undergone by apprentice oiran (kamuro) and some maiko (apprentice geisha) as part of their coming of age ceremony and graduation. For kamuro, who had often already lost their virginity, a patron would pay for the exclusive privilege of being a new oiran's first customer;  for maiko, it marked an apprentice's graduation into geishahood, and was accompanied by the changing of hairstyles and official visits to benefactors. Before the outlawing of prostitution in Japan, some maiko underwent ritual "deflowering" ceremonies, wherein patrons and benefactors would bid large sums of money for the privilege of taking a maiko's virginity, a sum of money the okiya itself would take.