The Maiko Industry

Historically, Japan's geisha industry was once quite prosperous, with tens of thousands of people working in tens of thousands of geisha houses in the centralized area of Kyoto. However, after World War II, the geisha industry declined greatly, and flourished again for a while after the economy recovered, with the rise of the corporate public relations industry and the boom in tourism. It is estimated that there are only about 200 Geisha in Kyoto, and with a number of Geikan being converted to other uses, the decline of the Geisha industry is indisputable.

Geisha are not unique to Japan. Geisha, whose profession is to "serve wine, feasts, songs and dances," were not historically unique to Japan. According to Huang Junxian, geisha were "very similar to the official prostitutes and courtesans of the Tang and Song dynasties". During the Tang and Song dynasties in China, it was a common custom for scholarly men to sing with prostitutes, and there are a lot of good lines about singing girls in the vast Chinese poems and songs. At that time, Chinese government prostitutes, as well as Korean prostitutes, were similar to Japanese geisha. With the development of history, only the Japanese Geisha has continued to the modern day. And it has become the carrier of Japanese traditional culture and one of the symbols of Japanese traditional culture.

The geisha is still in decline, although also strive to reform, but the scenery is no longer, the demise is only a matter of time. It is only a matter of time before it becomes extinct, as it has become obsolete to modern young men and women. What is noteworthy is that the Geisha who are still in the business have not lost their confidence. They even traveled around the world to increase their value. Some people are even more explicit: Geisha is a symbol of Kyoto, and the traditional old culture must be preserved. There is still a tit-for-tat struggle between the decline and revitalization of geisha, and between preservation and abandonment.