The problem with historical accuracy...
Aug. 23rd, 2007 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodsong1is the truth.
I can't be a geisha! They didn't EXIST until the 1800s!
I could be a high ranking courtesan who owned a pleasure house in the right district of Kyoto.
Which means I could pick one of the names I had thought up for myself. The time period Wolf's talking about is part of the history of geisha, but the word literally means "art person" and the first ones were male. Again, didn't show up until the Meiji period.
*sigh*
The Tokogawa shogunate did set up special districts for courtesans and artists and such. There were very strict rules about who stays how long and handling strangers. But they were, by and large, brothels, with certain veneers of culture. Geishas were performers who evolved into an elaborate culture with NO sex. Geishas were allowed to marry, but it required retirement.
Ho hum. Lots to think about.
I can't be a geisha! They didn't EXIST until the 1800s!
I could be a high ranking courtesan who owned a pleasure house in the right district of Kyoto.
Which means I could pick one of the names I had thought up for myself. The time period Wolf's talking about is part of the history of geisha, but the word literally means "art person" and the first ones were male. Again, didn't show up until the Meiji period.
*sigh*
The Tokogawa shogunate did set up special districts for courtesans and artists and such. There were very strict rules about who stays how long and handling strangers. But they were, by and large, brothels, with certain veneers of culture. Geishas were performers who evolved into an elaborate culture with NO sex. Geishas were allowed to marry, but it required retirement.
Ho hum. Lots to think about.
