Introduction

Geishas have been historically and commonly confused with prostitutes. Despite this, some geishas have engaged prostitution, rather through personal choice or through coercion. In 1872, after the Meiji restoration, the new government approved a law liberating “prostitutes (shogi) and geisha (geiko)” ambiguously grouping both professions together. The terms of the law caused controversy, due to the unclear differentiation , with some officials claiming that prostitutes and geisha worked different end of the same profession, and that there would be a little difference in calling all prostitutes “geisha”.  Nonetheless, the government maintained an official distinction between both professions, arguing that geisha should not be confused with prostitutes. Still today, there are different opinions about it as it is seen in the different reading I investigated. Some of them have a feminist vision and others a more sexist opinion, but all of them gave me some information to develop my project.