Yesterday, my friends and I attended an online geisha event. I thought it was very interesting, but while I write my recap of it, I thought I’d share a bit from this book that I’ve almost finished. It’s called 中世の遊女 (Courtesans in the Middle Ages) by 辻浩和

Three Myths about Courtesans

In this case, the myths are impressions we get of 遊女 (Yuujo) from movies: 

1. MYTH: They have sex with a lot of men 

TRUTH: because the term includes artistic and the hospitality industry (宿泊業), they weren’t necessarily engaged in sex work. Some, like Kutsugu, were more known for their songs and dance i.e.「歌女」

2. MYTH:　They were sold into this because of poverty and were kept in the system via debts and could not escape　

TRUTH: Because their basic structure was an independent business, these girls had the freedom to live and work. And because of this freedom, there were even yuujo who functioned as the head of their households (＜イエ＞; the ie system)

3. MYTH: They were discriminated against even if they got out of the profession 

TRUTH: The discrimination wasn’t as bad as it is with sex workers now. E.g. children by 遊女 and royalty didn’t really suffer from their parent’s profession. In fact, A prince in the 1st half of the 10th Century even lived with a yuujo named Takigi and had married relations with her. 

According to the book, these myths about 遊女 are fairly recent and are based on relatively recent forms (what the book calls “近代後期以降の形作”）

Types of Japanese Courtesans

Since I talked about 3 myths, let me also talk about the three basic subgroups of the courtesans (遊女).

1. 遊女/Yuujo：遊女 appear at key transportation hubs from the second half of the 9th century onwards. They were called to banquets because of their skills with 和歌 (waka) and 歌謡 (kayo) and they engaged in prostitution. From the 12th century onwards, they were famous as singers of 今様 (popular contemporary songs). From the second half of the 13th century onwards, you start to see Yuujo appear in Yuujo houses around Kyoto. 
2. 傀儡子/Kugutsuko：傀儡子 appear in the 11th century as a category separate from Yuujo, but for all practical purposes they probably the same as Yuujo. Their differentiating factor were the songs that they sung and from the second half of the 13th century onwards, they started being absorbed back into the Yuujo category. 
3. 白拍子/Shirabyoushi：Appearing around Kyoto in the second half of the 12th century, the Shirabyoushi danced to the beat of the Shirabyoushi dance. While they also engaged in prostitution, they were primarily seen as artists until the 16th century. 

So there you have it! Three basic myths about the Japanese courtesans (the predecessor to the modern Geisha) dispelled and a quick introduction to the three main categories of courtesans.

The book I took the information from has even more content, so let me see if I can share anything more at a later date! I’m currently preparing for a presentation and might share from there.