Different Perspectives

Since then in the Meiji period there was much discrepancy about whether the role of the geisha was the same as that a prostitute. For some people the Japanese geisha were the ultimate erotic icon, the courtesan per execellence. Whether for others is a symbol of Japan, tradition or “oriental feminity”.

For some historian’s geishas are an elusive, problematic figure of Japan due to the involvement in some of them with prostitution. Prominent thinkers argued that Japan would have to adopt Anglo-American norms of sexual virtues of monogamy and deplored the social and cultural prominence of the sex trade, also some women like Tsuda Umeko thought geishas were “women of doubtful reputation” and impeded women’s progress because they monopolized the attentions of high-status men and blocked “respectable” young women access to social authority.