Are Maiko and Geisha prostitutes?
Most certainly not! A Maiko and Geisha’s profession is based on preserving the traditional arts such as dance, singing and music and entertaining in a non-sexual manner. The confusion as to whether Geisha are prostitutes or not seems to have stemmed both from the close proximity Geisha had to courtesans in the Edo era and the fact that they did technically originate from the red light districts. The main culprit though appears to be from post World War II occupation by U.S. service men. Many U.S. service came home from Japan with wild and raunchy stories of “Gee-sha Girls” whom, for most of the part where not in fact real Geisha, but rather, ordinary Japanese women or prostitutes masquerading or calling themselves “Geisha”, largely because it was easiest for the service men to understand. Of course, the large majority of service men did not know the difference, and despite the survival of the Geisha districts after the enforcement of the prostitution laws in 1957 and the subsequent clo
