For centuries before World War 2, the Geisha was an icon of Japanese culture, hired for entertainment, occupying guests with dance, music, conversation. There was no one clear factor that changed this perception and lifestyle of the Geisha, but one of the largest contributing factors was that the government forced women including Geisha into sex slavery and factory work during World War 2. Other factors included: new ways to make money, education of women becoming required, increased popularity of prostitution, wealth after war, and destruction of tea houses. Many of these are a domino effect of another factor and these collectively evolved the Geisha.
Because of the second world war, the way of Geisha changed in Japan. During World War 2, women, including Geisha, were taken advantage of by the government. They were forced into work and sex slavery for the army. By 1943, all unmarried women under the age of 26 were forced into national service. These women worked in factories making munitions, vehicles, pharmaceuticals, and electrical goods for the army. Geisha were also shipped out to soldiers for entertainment against their will. This shows that women were not valued in society and were not even seen as
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The Geisha used to set trends and be an icons for Japan, but ever since the war, Japan had slowly been westernizing. This put Geisha in a difficult position because they wanted to preserve their tradition, but also maintain their popularity. Their usual customers, wealthy businessmen, had lost interest because of the up and coming prostitution industry. Geisha loathed the Onsen and “Geisha Girls” because they were stealing customers and weren’t educated like the Geisha were. They were a new type of Geisha and people began to perceive all Geisha as prostitutes. This was not the best for the traditional Geisha business and numbers were falling