Prostitution In A Geisha's Culture

Preconceptions and stereotypes that geishas are prostitutes is disrespectful and contemptible. Geisha is a very old tradition and it takes copious amount of skill and training to master their many arts. People -mostly people foreign to japanese culture- are ignorant as to what Geishas profession is most of the time mistaking it for sex service and it could not be further from the truth. A Geisha sells her skills not her body. A Geisha acts “as hostesses, engaging in witty conversation and encouraging guests to mingle. They prepare and serve food, tea and other beverages and perform traditional dances and songs”(Negroni8). “The word geisha itself literally means ‘person of the arts’”(Geisha). And that designation is more than well deserved

Male Geisha we’re called “taikomochi or hōkan”(GEISHA2) and they were more” similar to court jesters”(GEISHA2). Although they were still very skilled in the arts, just as modern female Geisha are skilled. It was awhile until “[w]omen first became geisha in the mid-1700s”(Japan's only GUY-sha: The geisha's son who wanted to follow in his dead mother's footsteps8) then “by the 19th century geisha had become a primarily female profession”(Japan's only GUY-sha: The geisha's son who wanted to follow in his dead mother's footsteps8). Contrarily the female geisha had other means or entertainment “ In the late sixteenth century, the pleasure quarters...were created…after the defeat of the Toyotomi Clan, the wives and children of high status samurai fell into prostitution in order to survive... Since this new group of women were rivalled by courtesans, they needed to offer something different – extraordinary artistic talent” (Barua3and4). The birth of geisha stemmed from economic competition in the sex industry however it metamorphosed over the years “[b]y the end of the seventeenth century, there were yet more geisha-like women called Saburuko, who also resorted to selling sexual favours to rich aristocrats due to their social displacement”(Barua4). It was not until “the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a number of other pleasure quarter residents began to make a name for themselves as talented musicians, dancers or poets, rather than simply as sex workers”(History of the Geisha9). It took a great deal of time for the geisha culture to be what it is now, however even as prostitutes they were emphasized for the artistic