Memories of the 1950s geisha: Stunning photos celebrate the ancient oriental art of the hostess

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception 

 As early as late 600s Japan there have been 'female entertainers' hosting gatherings, pouring sake and offering company to men.

Known as 'saburuko' - translated as 'serving girls' - some of these women sold sexual services, while others simply hosted high-class occasions. And around 794 the culture of the geisha began to emerge: women who men would visit for romantic and sexual pleasure.
Traditional geisha - heavily made-up, immaculately dressed and coquettish entertainers - emerged in 18th century Japan, and these women did not officially sell sex - that being the preserve of a different group of female entertainers known as Oiran.
But this stunning collection of photographs of geisha during the second half of the 20th century shows how the ancient Japanese art found its place in a more modern world full of businessmen, beer and steam baths.

A group of geisha girls being instructed by their teacher, circa 1955

A geisha laughing coquettishly with a male guest,  and a geisha going home past a line of drying umbrellas in the alleyway, both circa 1955

The black and white photographs show young geisha wearing kimonos with their dark hair neatly tied up in tight wide buns practicing their trade in the geisha house under the instruction of a more senior woman.

Others show geisha giggling coquettishly while hosting businessmen over sushi suppers, giggling and pouring sake. In a third photo a geisha is seen walking home in her platform flip-flops at the end of her shift, glancing back at the camera past a row of umbrellas being dried out in an alleyway.
The female entertainers are also pictured learning to play the samisen, a traditional Japanese stringed instrument, pouring beer into the mouths of 1950s businessmen while they relax in steam baths, giving men massages by trampling all over their bodies, and getting ready for work in beautiful patterned kimonos and high flip-flops.

Geisha girls entertaining a group of men and ensuring their cups are kept full in 1955

Two geisha girls practicing their art in the 1950s, one playing a samisen, a traditional Japanese stringed instrument

Japanese geisha girls, without their wigs, prepare themselves for the evening, having their kimonos pinned on and getting ready to slip into their platform flip-flops

A geisha entertains a male visitor in Fifties Japan, and, Japanese geisha girls in kimonos serve sushi and sake in a lounge on board a boat to businessmen sailing on the Nagara river

Yujo, geishas and oiran: How the 'female entertainer' emerged in Japan

Enclosed pleasure quarters known as yūkaku were built in the 16th century in Japan, outside of which prostitution was be illegal, and within which yūjo (play women) would be classified and licensed.
The highest yūjo class was the geisha's predecessor, called oiran, a combination of actress and prostitute, who performed erotic dances as part of a new art known as kabuku.
The talented courtesans entertained clients by dancing, singing, and playing music, while some specialised as poets or calligraphers.

Group of geishas washing and dressing, circa 1880

Japanese geisha dancing and playing music in 1901

Near the turn of the eighteenth century those who specialised in 'entertaining' emerged as geisha, and many of these were men.
The first woman known to have called herself geisha was a Fukagawa prostitute, a skilled singer and shamisen-player named Kikuya, in about 1750.
Geisha who worked within the pleasure quarters were forbidden to sell sex as it was the preserve of the oiran - though prostitution was legal up until the 1900s, so it was practiced in many quarters throughout Japan.
By 1800, being a geisha was considered a female occupation - though a handful of male geisha still working today - and by the 1830s women throughout society copied the geisha look.

World War II brought down the geisha population when many women had to go and work in factories across Japan.
Simultaneously, the name 'geisha' lost status prostitutes began referring to themselves as 'geisha girls' to attract American military men.
After Japan lost the war geisha dispersed and the profession began to crumble, but the art flourished once more in the 1960s.

Modern geisha in Kyoto in 2006

Geisha girls, wearing aprons over their kimonos, serving Japanese sailors on Tokyo Navy Day in 1937

Japanese geishas form a trade union in an attempt to improve their working conditions, circa 1935

A hostess, not an official geisha, pours beer into the mouth of a male guest while he relaxes in the steam bath, and above, a young girl, circa 1950, wearing a typical Japanese geisha kimono while playing the samisen, a traditional Japanese string instrument

A Japanese geisha girl is carried through town during Osaka's Yebisu Festival

British born film actor Cary Grant watches as an extra is taught how to walk like a Japanese geisha during the making of his 1932 film Madame Butterfly

American actress Betty Grable as a geisha girl in a scene from the 1951 musical Call Me Mister, directed by Lloyd Bacon, compared to a portrait of a geisha wearing a kimono circa 1880.