The Japanese geisha is an artist and entertainer, but the word does not mean just any artist or entertainer. The culture and profession of geisha is limited to a very strict and meticulous system developed over a couple of hundred years, in which geisha provided entertainment for parties and events for wealthy people who wanted to impress their guests. The misconception of geisha as sex workers came from the aftermath of World War II, when Western soldiers brought much-needed cash to Japan and sex workers passed themselves off as geisha to attract them. That doesn't mean that real geisha weren't mistreated or abused, and indeed they encountered plenty of sexual harassment. It also doesn't mean there weren't some geisha who used sex to enhance their status or enrich themselves, but it wasn't part of the system as intended.
Learning the profession of geisha takes years of strict education and training, which each woman is expected to pay for in full when she begins her career. Each step in the process has its own duties, curriculum, and expectations, as well as rules for her appearance. In the 19th century, families would sell their young daughters to a geisha house at around age six, and the geisha house would become their family as well as their employer. Now, becoming a geisha is voluntary, and training starts at age 15. But the draw is not what it used to be. There are only around a thousand trained geisha left in all of Japan today, where there were once tens of thousands. Read about the system of geisha and how it's changed at History Collection. -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: OSU Special Collections and Archives)