History of Geisha Essay

Geisha recruitment seems to be a business wherein the indigenous people were the victims. Unfortunately this is the reality of life; one suffers while the other prospers. Another important contribution of Geisha is the preservation and performance of many Japanese dances. Dances like Mivako Odori and cherry dances which are based on Japan’s cultural value were the most common dances performed by Geisha. The red costume of the Geisha had a great significance in the Japanese culture and society. The use of red in their dress and makeup signifies beauty and happiness. The red underclothing was believed to ease the menstrual pain and maintain the good and healthy functioning of female reproductive system. Red is an erotic symbol for men. In fact they wear red lining under their own kimonos and apply red lipsticks made from petals of red flowers. In early times, the costumes of Geisha girls have warrior motifs which include hats and swords. But as time passes by and culture progresses, Geisha’s dress became feminine. Geisha is a culture which permits Japanese women to become independent and economically stable. It is believed that this is the only profession in which they are above men. It is one of the most important role of Geisha in society; keeping women at the height of men. Being intimate with men are part of the being a Geisha. Nearly all marriages in Japan were arranged by families of both parties. These marriages main goal is to preserve the present rank in the society rather than to seek peace and happiness. In this kind of situation, the man would normally have two women in his entire life. It was a common practice that wealthy and powerful men have a relationship with geisha. On other culture and religion this set up do not conform to morality. The Christianity sector would surely say that this is immoral. Unfaithfulness to your wife is considered a sin but still other may see it as something normal. Geisha is mysterious but beautiful creatures that represent the very old traditions of the Japanese. Now, modern geisha still reside in what they call okiya in flower towns especially during mentoring era. Most old and experienced geisha decide to live independently. They are often hired in parties or exclusive events at the tea houses and also to high-class restaurants in Japan. An incense stick serves as their clock for determining the spent time of each geisha in entertaining guest and visitors. Confusion still remains on what is really the nature geisha profession. An awful view about Geisha is that they serve as prostitutes. In western perspective, Geisha are known as expensive prostitutes. Geisha are entertainers and they are expected to entertain their customers in many ways such as reciting verse, playing musical instruments or simply by giving a good conversation but not to serve as sexual workers. Geisha’s arrangement also includes flirting with the customers and to do some playful and fancy innuendos but nothing more can be expected. Geisha strongly do not engage with sex with the customers even with money offerings. What they believed is that geisha are entertainer particularly sexual entertainers. This common notion about geisha made this decent and simple tradition to be a tradition full of immorality and sins. To attract costumers, prostitutes dressed and posed as a true geisha. Actually, a true geisha do not engaged with sexual relationship with her costumers. What they usually do is just entertainment. In fact, they were first and foremost entertainers. Geisha were invited to gatherings to keep thing in harmony and lively. They dance together with the guest, sing with them and played drinking games. Clearly, geisha are there for mere entertainment. The success of parties and celebrations are determined by the presence of geisha. Having several geisha in a party meant that the party host was wealthy and powerful. Geisha and the traditional high-class courtesans also know as oiran have similarities which lead to confusion. Like geisha, oiran also have their elaborate hairstyles and wear white make-up. Geisha are truly different with orian in a simple manner. Oiran tie their obi in the front and serve as prostitutes while Geisha in contrast usually tie their obi in the back. Prostitution was legalized during the Edo period. Prostitutes like orian were given license by the government. On the other hand, geisha were strictly prohibited to hold such kind of license and eventually forbidden to have sexual engagement with their customers. Any geisha holding the prostitution license is referred to be promiscuous. During the Japanese occupation, several Japanese prostitutes sold themselves to American to become sexual slaves. These prostitutes are termed geisha girls which lead to the conception of geisha as prostitutes. Also, those geisha working in onsen towns give a bad reputation to geisha because of the prevalence of prostitution. They used the name and character of a geisha in order to have a good market. Geisha indeed are not prostitutes. They are just victims of wrong conception. But sadly, although the nature of geisha is really good many are still doubt the nature of geisha’s profession. We can now infer that being a geisha is tough job. A geisha needs to be beautiful all the time and must undergo hard trainings to perfect the geisha’s required talents skills. We can see the good and bad accounts of being a geisha. It is a good tradition of Japan. It reflects all the prosperous cultures and traditions of Japan; from dancing, singing, conversing to the various arts. Also geisha’s dedication to work really manifest that Japanese are disciplined person. Generally, geisha plays an important role in Japanese culture. Geisha are entertainers not prostitutes. Although most people considered them as sexual workers, we cannot take away the fact that they bring happiness and pleasure to people. Although the nature of geisha’s work is closely similar to prostitutes we must not immediately pre-judge it. Geisha is a wonderful culture which is full of creative stuffs. From the dress, hairstyles, and other attributes of geisha we can see how diverse the Japanese culture is. Those bad accounts to geisha will be polished by its amazing structure. Eventually and hopefully people would fully accept the truth that geisha are made for merely entertainment. Instead of looking at it that way, looks at it other perspective or maybe people can even look deeper to the inner core of it in order to see its real purpose. References: History of Geisha. Retrived November 14, 2007, from http://marian. creighton. edu/~marian-w/academics/english/japan/geisha/history. html.