JAPAN 162 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Shamisen, Kabuki, Marlon Brando
Document Summary
Most people will identify with this image. Treading (and sometimes crossing) the fine line between entertainment in the form of dancing, singing, pouring drinks, playing the shamisen and making conversation, and sex. However, geishas back then sometimes had customers who were their lovers, and paid for their lifestyles. Well known geishas were not tied to one teahouse, and usually advertised. Geishas are trained for several years on the art of pouring drinks and having intellectual conversations with their clients. Some girls were sold to teahouses for money (just as daughters were sold to any other position to help the family"s financial situation) The word geisha itself is a non-gendered term, but is now an actual gendered term. Word also originally defined as art person . Historically associated with the powerful, cultured, and rich. Caption does not mention the geisha at all, only the men around her. Japanese elite were criticized for engaging with geisha.
