A geisha is a traditional Japanese artist- entertainer. The cast of the central characters in “Memoirs of a Geisha” were played by Chinese actors and this sparked controversy. It caused a stir in the Chinese Internet community where some users were unhappy due to rising natiionalist sentiment, especially because some mistook geisha for prostitutes. A profession similar to that of a Geisha did exist in imperial China. These women were refined in art, literature, history and social manners. They lived in brothels but did not make a living by selling their bodies. Their job was to entertain male guests with their talents in music, chess, calligraphy, painting etc., a practice known in Chinese as “selling one’s talents instead of one’s body” (賣藝不賣身). However, though highly refined and famous (involved in innumerable Chinese poems, literature, legends and folklore), they did not enjoy the status accorded to geisha in Japan. Some people unfamiliar with this cultural difference misunderstood geisha in a negative way. Those people misunderstood geisha in a negative way, but they didn’t grasp the artistic and cultural aspect of the Geisha in Japanese society.

Reference: http://www.gojapango.com/culture/memoirs_of_a_geisha.html

In the blog by Joi Ito has a torn moral stance on the subject and question: Are Geisha Prostitutes? He believes geisha represent the polygamist past of Japan more than they represent prostitutes. I agree with him in that the geisha is a symbol of the polygamist past of Japan, but I firmly believe prostitution stemmed from the geisha and grew from it. Polygamy doesn’t help reduce the misconception of a geisha. Ito says the geisha have gone through a variety of changes in their roles in the past and are now totally different from where they started out. Back then, poor families would sell their women to the okiya and they would be taken care of by powerful men. This is much so the same scenario for Chiyo in the film “Memoirs of a Geisha”. Nowadays, the blogger says people don’t “sell” their children so most geisha become geisha to learn the tradition and to meet interesting people. Most people who go to tea houses cannot afford to be a full sponsor of a geisha and corporate expense accounts pay for most of the drinks. People still sponsor geisha but it only usually works when both are truly in love and in many cases, this turns into a true marriage. Now geishas can marry for love, but in the past geishas were living for the money and did whatever it took to survive in Japanese society of that time. Joi Ito says “there are a lot of bars and even tea houses that are about prostitution. In fact there is even a service in Gion that provides prostitutes who double as geisha to tea houses for the foreigners who come to Kyoto thinking that geisha are prostitutes and insist on having sex. On the other hand, the bars that have evolved from the traditional tea houses and the old tea houses in Kyoto are still fairly legitimate places for people to meet future wives and for women to look for future husbands outside of the arranged marriage system.” I believe it is okay to think geishas were prostitutes in the past, but nowadays it is different and that a geisha doesn’t necessarily symbolize a prostitute. You cannot blame people for their misconceptions of a geisha because they were a lot of bars and tea houses that offer prostitutes. Ito claims that it isn’t fair that women are not treated equally in Japan and the “tradition” is not supportive of women’s rights. I agree with him; the tradition of the geisha is equivalent to a single pathway. I believe women in current-day Japan have more freedom in becoming what they dream of as opposed to the oppressed past, but I could be wrong. On the bright side, Ito also mentions that the tradition supports a great deal of art and culture. Indeed, I got to enjoy the artistic and cultural aspects of a Geisha within Japanese society through the lens of Chiyo (also known as Sayuri) in the film “Memoirs of a Geisha”.

Reference: http://joi.ito.com/weblog/2003/04/28/are-geisha-pros.html