They Started as Men

As we all know, Japanese geisha are women whose primary responsibility is to entertain men. The word geisha means "art people" or "art doer" and seemingly so, each geisha strives to perfect their everyday actions in an effort to be perfect. They walk on clouds, talk with seductive confidence, dress in utter exquisiteness, and gain unwavering attention in any setting. Although they play the most non-subservient role for women in Japan, they still have the, sometimes, arduous task of pleasing men. This entails dancing, singing, and, sometimes, sexual favors. Will it ever be known to anyone but the geisha and her mate? Negative; the value of a geisha is measured by her ability to remain trustworthy--along with her beauty.  Yet research has proven that the first Japanese geisha were men.


These men were hired to attend banquets and entertain other men that were accompanied by courtesans (professional prostitutes). I have not found any piece of research that proves that these men did in fact include sexual favors in their entertainment package; however, it is stated  by all documents that the same code of ethics was enforced. The original geisha were valued upon their ability to maintain the trust of their clients. With that, if anything were to be performed sexually-- who would jeopardize their value to promulgate their clients' personal lives? Eventually one ambitious courtesan grew unhappy with her banal progress as a sole courtesan and decided to be a geisha as well. Study shows that she was a hit! She's a legend of the sort. As time passed the female geisha outnumbered the males to the point that it was no longer socially acceptable for men to be geisha.