She's small, she's cute, she's lively and at 14 she used to do Deep Purple covers fronting her brother's rock band.

Hisako Nakahana: An apprenctice Geisha by day...

She's small, she's cute, she paints her face white and her job is to please men.

Meet Makoto, the "two-headed" geisha.

... and a would-be rock-star by night

Actually, she is a geiko, or a traditional geisha based in the geisha stronghold of Gion in Kyoto.

But she is also Makoto the nightclub singer who is currently recording her debut CD with top Japanese guitarist Kenny Kitajima (Pearl, Fence of Defense).

Not exactly your normal geiko.

"When I was a maiko (apprentice geiko), I sometimes used to go to a piano bar and sing Whitney Houston's 'Saving All My Love For You,' and the customers suggested I sing more often," Makoto (real name Hisako Nakahana) explains.

Pretty soon, she was singing frequently and had a strong reputation in the Kyoto area but was restricted geographically by her "day job."

Soon after her singing career took off, she graduated as a geiko at 21 and was kept busy with the more traditional pursuits of the Gion area. But the idea of a parallel career had taken root, and it was through her day job that she made her breakthrough.

Performing the tea ceremony one day, she noticed a young, cool-looking guy who she assumed was a musician. But she failed to make contact and rued her missed chance. When the guy came back a year later, she was determined to make contact and found out he was Wataru Yamada, the drummer in Fence of Defense. She handed him a sample of her music, and this led to professional representation through FAN, a Tokyo-based management company. Now, Makoto is looking forward to success as an R&B singer -- but without giving up her work as a geiko.

Do the two conflict?

"It's tough," Makoto admits. "Being a geiko takes up a lot of time; doing both means I've got twice as much to do.

"As a geiko, you usually perform exactly as you've been taught and you have to control yourself strictly, but as a singer I can express myself a lot more fully."

So, no plans to go down the Kabuki Rocks road and combine traditional Japanese arts with rock music?

"No, I can't do that, at least not in Japan -- I don't think my (geiko) customers would approve."

Makoto's music has a kind of Hikaru Utada groove, and she has a voice that sounds like it's been carved from late nights drinking and smoking in the bars around Gion.

"I tend to listen to R&B, but I like many genres of music," she explains. "In my own music, I want to mix pop, R&B, jazz and rock." So far, she's made it onto a number of compilation albums, but her main debut will come in June, when she plans to put out her first CD and perform live around the country.

She also attracted the attention of one of Japan's top rock stars and producers -- who has to remain nameless -- who wanted her to work and record in the United States. But that would have meant giving up the day job, and being a geiko in Gion is to be part of an elite element of Japanese culture, not to be taken lightly.

Just becoming a maiko requires a year of training. Once a girl is accepted as a maiko (Makoto started at 16), she is allowed to participate in the entertainment of customers, but her training continues and most likely it will take another five years before she "graduates."

"Essentially, the duties of the maiko and geiko are to make their customers happy," Makoto explains.

While many foreigners -- and even some Japanese -- seem to think this consists of getting drunk and then getting laid, the truth is somewhat more mundane. The geiko are trained as performers (singing, dancing, tea ceremony), but they entertain their guests both on and off stage.

Makoto is an independent geiko but usually receives offers of work from her okiya, where she lived and trained as a maiko. As an unattached geiko, Makoto is free to accept or refuse work, and it makes it easier for her to follow her path as a singer. But if a geiko is popular, she will receive more offers than she can fulfill.

That's a lot of drinking.

"You need to be able to drink," she admits. "You have to drink every day. The customers are usually drunk and they try to get us drunk."

Some of the girls get offers of dates, dinner and assignations of a more lurid nature, but it is part of the geiko's training and skill to deflect the unwanted attentions of unruly customers.

The geiko's voice is probably more suited to Deep Purple songs now, but Makoto is going down a slightly more middle-of-the-road path with guitarist Kitajima.

At the moment, she doesn't have to choose between her two professions, although she admits that if she had a daughter, she'd probably tell her to be a pop singer rather than a geiko.

"When you dance as a geiko, you have to keep a straight face," Makoto explains. "But as a pop singer you get to dance like Janet Jackson. I'd probably get her to be like a Japanese Janet Jackson."

That, of course, may be a generation away. For the moment, keep an eye out for Makoto, the funky geiko from Gion.