Quote:
Originally Posted by TalnSG
I expect ignorance from AlphaDuck, but Tenchu, I would have expected a little more intellegence from. So much for that.
What too many people fail to note here (thanks for trying Paul) is that geishas are not exclusively for the entertainment of men. There are times when other women (usually of rank/nobility) also enjoyed being entertained by these artists.
Stop defining "entertainment" as sexually based. It is not the critical element of a geisha's ability to entertain her clients. It is her ability to host and to perform her art. Which includes being a very talented dancer, a reasonably skilled musician (or better), and a compelling story teller.
You who have maligned her as not being an artist still consider barely comptetant dancers on TV shows and in music videos artists, but a geisha spends years training to dance, not and hour or two. You consider a standup comic or professional story-teller an artist, well a geisha must be even more talented in this because she must gear her stories not to a general feel of a crowd, but the specific topics her exclusive audience relates to.
If you still think of a geisha as a high class call girl - which I would also consider a talented artist of another sort - you never will understand the difference.
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I am in agreement with TALNSG. A lot of people thinks that Geisha are prostitute. They are not. While most said that Wikipedia is not accurate (And I think, due to this reputation, many of you will reply to this saying that its the opposite of whatever wikipedia quoted), their article on Geisha is fairly accurate (Quoted from Wikipeida
Geisha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"There remains some confusion, even within Japan, about the nature of the geisha profession. Geisha are portrayed as prostitutes in much Western popular culture. However, geisha do not engage in paid sex with clients. Their purpose being to entertain their customer, be it by reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation. Geisha engagements may include flirting with men and playful innuendos; however, clients know that nothing more can be expected. In a social style that is uniquely Japanese, men are amused by the illusion of that which is never to be.
Geisha have been confused with the high-class courtesans of the Edo period known as oiran, from whom they evolved. Like geisha, oiran wore elaborate hairstyles and white makeup, but oiran tied their obi in the front not, as is commonly thought, for easy removal but, according to anthropologist Liza Dalby, because that was the practice of married women at the time.
During the Edo period, prostitution was legal. Prostitutes such as the oiran worked within walled-in districts licensed by the government. In the seventeenth century, the oiran sometimes employed men called "geisha" to perform at their parties. Therefore, the first geisha were men. In the late eighteenth century, dancing women called "odoriko" and newly popular female "geisha" began entertaining men at banquets in unlicensed districts. Some were apprehended for illegal prostitution and sent to the licensed quarters, where there was a strict distinction between geisha and prostitutes, and the former were forbidden to sell sex. In contrast, "machi geisha", who worked outside the licensed districts, often engaged in illegal prostitution.
In 1872, shortly after the Meiji Restoration, the new government passed a law liberating "prostitutes (shōgi) and geisha (geigi)." The wording of this statute was the subject of controversy. Some officials thought that prostitutes and geisha worked at different ends of the same profession – selling sex – and that all prostitutes should henceforth be called "geisha". In the end, the government decided to maintain a line between the two groups, arguing that "geisha" were more refined and should not be soiled by association with prostitutes.
Also, geisha working in onsen towns such as Atami are dubbed onsen geisha. Onsen geisha have been given a bad reputation due to the prevalence of prostitutes in such towns who market themselves as 'geisha', as well as sordid rumors of dance routines like 'Shallow River' (which involves the 'dancers' lifting the skirts of their kimono higher and higher). In contrast to these 'one-night geisha', the true onsen geisha are in fact competent dancers and musicians. However, the autobiography of Sayo Masuda, an onsen geisha who worked in Nagano Prefecture in the 1930s, reveals that in the past such women were often under intense pressure to sell sex"
The word Geisha - 芸者 - really translate to "Art (芸)" and "People/Person (者 )". By tradition, the ingredient of money traded sex was NOT part of the geisha practice.