An oiran refers to a high-ranking courtesan in the pleasure quarter of Yoshiwara. Since oiran were expected to be cultured women, kamuro (young girls that were candidates to become oiran) were given a comprehensive education in culture and arts such as classical literature, calligraphy, the tea ceremony, Japanese poetry, the Japanese harp, the shamisen (a stringed instrument), and igo (a Japanese board game like chess). A customer had to ask a tea house to contact an oiran. The first time that an oiran met a customer, the oiran sat apart from her customer, not speaking to him, and not eating or drinking anything. In the case of miuke of an oiran in an omise, the miuke fee was said to reach several thousand ryo (a unit used in the old Japanese currency system).