The Geisha Culture In Ancient Greece

The children were considered as property of the brothel owner because of the enormous debt to the pleasure houses. The outlay regarding the practice of buying them from their parents had already incurred an enormous debt for them before they even arrived. The fine food and kimono provided by the brothel were also included as parts of the burdensome debt. By the time they were old enough to start their profession, they have no choice but to work day and night to pay off the mounting debt for the rest of their life.[2]
At first, the children worked as maids in the pleasure houses. When they were older, they would be allowed to become kamuro (child attendants to a courtesan). The courtesan taught them how to behave and ensured that they were …show more content…
It is commonly believed that the first geisha was Kiku, from the Fukagawa zone, who announced her new profession in 1750 or 1751. There were not much information regarding people of her class, but we can infer a good deal about her from the authorities at the red-light districts. Starting off as a prostitute, Kiku gradually developed her artistic skills to a point that she could make a living from performing arts alone. She was well-known as a star dancer, performer, and shamisen player. Shamisen came from the taikomochi; dance from the kabuki stage and other traditions stretching right back to the shirabyoshi. [1] During that time, Kiku was considered to be representing a new form of entertaining company in tastefully refined surroundings. By the eighteenth century, geisha arts were fully developed and welcomed by many sophisticated …show more content…
For example, in the upper rooms of teahouses, “sleepover” practice was conducted, which allowed a few high-paying regular guests to stay the night with groups of young geisha. The geisha were not forced to have sex with the guests but lots of playful grabbing and fumbling went on.[2] With that being said, according to past anecdotal sources, although such activity was not common or caught the kemban’s attention, some younger geisha were talked into spending the night with guests who were not their danna. The well-off regular guests could, and did, put a lot of pressure on geisha house Mothers to get sexual access to young geisha. [2] By no means, the danna should express their jealousy in public, which would indicate the height of bad form if they did. It was generally believed in East Asia that it was degrading of danna for not being able to keep “his woman” in line. If a man can’t even keep his woman in check, how can he be trusted with the greater tasks in life, like business, money that require major responsibility?