艺妓的源头
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在日本历史的早期就有了女艺人的存在：艺人（为客人提供服务的女孩）几乎都是公元七世纪后期在战争中家破人亡的一些流浪女孩。流浪女孩中的一些靠出卖自己的身体来谋生，而另外的那些受过良好教育的则是在达官显贵的聚会中依靠表演来维持生计。朝廷在794年将首都移至平安京（京都）后，艺妓文化形成的条件日趋成熟。京都也便成了那些名流们流连的处所。那些有着技艺的日本传统舞蹈开始兴盛起来。

  

Traditional Japan embraced sexual delights (it is not a Shinto taboo) and men were not constrained to be faithful to their wives. The ideal wife was a modest mother and manager of the home, by Confucian custom love had secondary importance. For sexual enjoyment and romantic attachment, men did not go to their wives, but to courtesans. Walled-in pleasure quarters were built in the 16th century, and in 1617 the shogunate designated "pleasure quarters", outside of which prostitution would 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, originally playing on stages set in the dry Kamo riverbed in Kyoto. They performed erotic dances and skits, and this new art was dubbed kabuku, meaning "to be wild and outrageous". The dances were called "kabuki," and this was the beginning of kabuki theater.

  

传统的日本坦然地接受性带来的乐趣（这并不是神道禁忌），男人们并不被强制要对他们的妻子忠诚。一名理想的妻子首先是一个温和的母亲和家庭的管理者，其次才是儒家式的爱。男人们不会给予他们妻子性的愉悦和浪漫，他们会从妓女那里获取性的乐趣。专门为妓女建立场所是在16世纪，到了1617年，幕府将其定名为“妓院”。在妓院以外性交易被视为非法，而在妓院里面，妓女会被分类并颁发许可证。最高级别的妓女便是艺妓的前身，被称为“花魁”，她们亦歌舞亦卖身。花魁最初是在河床上搭的舞台进行表演，表演的舞蹈被称为“歌舞伎”，这也是歌舞伎剧场开始。

  

18th century emergence of the "geisha"

  

  

十八世纪，艺妓正式登上历史舞台

  

These pleasure quarters quickly became glamorous entertainment centers, offering more than sex. The highly accomplished courtesans of these districts entertained their clients by dancing, singing, and playing music. Some were renowned poets and calligraphers. Gradually, they all became specialized and the new profession, purely of entertainment, arose. It was near the turn of the eighteenth century that the first entertainers of the pleasure quarters, called geisha, appeared. The very first geishas were men, entertaining customers waiting to see the most popular and gifted courtesans (oiran).

  

这些妓院迅速发展成为极富魅力的娱乐中心，妓院提供的不只是性。这些地区的有较高技艺的妓女们会唱歌、舞蹈和演奏乐器，甚至有些妓女还是著名的诗人和书法家。渐渐地，这些妓女专业化了，纯娱乐的新行业（不提供性交易）应运而生。临近18世纪的时候，首批纯娱乐的妓女出现，被称之为艺妓。最初的艺伎是男人，他们为那些等待着一睹花魁的顾客们提供娱乐。

  

The forerunners of the female geisha were the teenage odoriko ("dancing girls"): expensively-trained as chaste dancers-for-hire. In the 1680s, they were popular paid entertainers in the private homes of upper-class samurai, though many had turned to prostitution by the early 18th century. Those who were no longer teenagers (and could no longer style themselves odoriko) adopted other names —one being "geisha", after the male entertainers. The first women known to have called herself geisha was a Fukagawa prostitute, in about 1750. She was a skilled singer and shamisen-player named Kikuya who was an immediate success, making female geisha extremely popular in 1750s Fukagawa. As they became more widespread throughout the 1760s and 1770s, many began working only as entertainers (rather than prostitutes) often in the same establishments as male geisha.

  

女性艺妓的前身是十几岁的odoriko（“舞女”）：她们是花费了大量的金钱进行培训，用以被聘的纯洁的舞者。在17世纪80年代，这些舞女普遍被聘于一些上层武士的私宅以提供娱乐，尽管在18世纪初许多人转向性交易。已经过了少女年龄的舞者有了其他的称谓：其中一种便是艺妓（在那些男艺伎之后）。1750年，已知的自称为艺妓的第一个女人是一名叫做kikuya的深川妓女，她是一名熟练的歌手和三味线演奏者。当时，她一举成名，使得女艺妓在18世纪50年代的深川家喻户晓。随着艺妓在18世纪六、七十年代队伍的壮大，许多妓女转而仅提供娱乐而非性交易，跟男艺伎的性质一样。

  

Rise of the geisha

  

  

艺妓的兴盛

  

Tokyo Geisha with Shamisen, circa 1870sThe geisha who worked within the pleasure quarters were essentially imprisoned and strictly forbidden to sell sex in order to protect the business of the Oiran. While licensed courtesans existed to meet men's sexual needs, machi geisha carved out a separate niche as artists and erudite female companions.

  

大约在19世纪70年代，妓院的艺妓被严厉禁止私娼，以便保障花魁业务，虽然持牌妓女依然存在，以满足男性的性需求。艺妓町划分出区域，以便显示表演者和博学的同类的差异。

  

By 1800, being a geisha was considered a female occupation (though there are still a handful of male geisha working today). Eventually, the gaudy Oiran began to fall out of fashion, becoming less popular than the chic, "iki", and modern geisha. By the 1830s, the evolving geisha style was emulated by fashionable women throughout society. There were many different classifications and ranks of geisha. Some women would have sex with their male customers, whereas others would entertain strictly with their art forms. Prostitution was legal up until the 1900s, so it was practiced in many quarters throughout Japan.

  

到了十九世纪，艺妓被打上女性职业的标志（尽管直到今天还有男艺伎操着旧业）。最终，红极一时的花魁退下历史舞台不再流行，现代艺妓得以鼎盛。到了19世纪30年代，一些时髦女性开始效仿层出不穷的艺妓风格。艺妓有了类别和等级。有些艺妓会与她们的男顾客发生性关系，而其他人则以自己的艺术来取悦客人。直到20世纪性交易合法化，并在日本全国实施。

  

World War II brought a huge decline in the geisha arts because most women had to go to factories or other places to work for Japan. The geisha name also lost some status during this time because prostitutes began referring to themselves as "geisha girls" to American military men. In 1944, everything in the geisha's world, including teahouses, bars, and houses, was forced to shut down, and all employees were put to work in factories. About a year later, they were allowed to reopen. The very few women who returned to the geisha areas decided to reject Western influence and revert back to traditional ways of entertainment and life. "The image of the geisha was formed during Japan's feudal past, and this is now the image they must keep in order to remain geisha". It was up to the these returning geisha to bring back traditional standards in the profession, though with increased rights for the geisha:

  

  

艺妓的衰落

  

第二次世界大战期间，大多数妇女为了国家要到工厂或其他地方做工，这使得艺妓艺术猛然下降。这期间，一些妓女在美国军人面前冒充艺妓，艺妓在人们心目中的地位渐失。1944年，艺妓世界里的所有东西，包括茶馆、酒吧和房子，被迫关闭，所有员工都投入到工厂工作。大约一年后，他们被允许重新开放。极少数妇女决定拒绝西方的影响，返回艺妓行业，恢复到传统的娱乐和生活的方式里去。“艺妓的形象，形成于日本的封建社会。我们目前需要维持传统的形象，以保留艺妓的存在”，那些重操旧业的，想要恢复传统的行业标准的艺妓如是说，尽管艺妓的权利已经得以提高。

  

There is no doubt that coerced sex and bidding on a new geisha's virginity occurred in the period before WWII... After Japan lost the war, geisha dispersed and the profession was in shambles. When they regrouped during the Occupation and began to flourish in the 1960s during Japan's postwar economic boom, the geisha world changed. In modern Japan, girls are not sold into indentured service, nor are they coerced into sexual relations. Nowadays, a geisha’s sex life is her private affair.

  

毫无疑问，性暴力和一个新的艺妓的贞操的保留是在二战前的问题。日本战败后，艺妓行业分散而混乱。60年代，日本战后的经济繁荣使其行业重组，开始蓬勃发展，艺妓世界也发生了改变。在现代日本，女孩不会因为契约而进行性服务，也不会被迫发生性关系。如今，一个艺妓的性生活已成她的隐私。

  

Before the war, a maiko's virginity would be auctioned (the original "mizuage") —this was outlawed in 1959, but has been reported as relatively normal in the 1990s, and happening "on a limited basis" in 2001.

  

战前，舞妓的童贞将被拍卖，1959年，这项陈规得以取缔。到了在20世纪90年代，这种报道复又变得相对正常。2001年，在一定的前提下，拍卖童贞是被允许的。

  

In her book, Geisha, a Life, Mineko Iwasaki said, "I lived in the karyukai during the 1960s and 1970s, a time when Japan was undergoing the radical transformation from a post-feudal to a modern society. But I existed in a world apart, a special realm whose mission and identity depended on preserving the time-honored traditions of the past."

  

岩崎峰子（Mineko Iwasaki）在她的著作——《艺妓，一种生活》中写到：“在20世纪60年代和70年代，我住在karyukai，那时日本正经历从一个后封建社会向现代化的社会彻底转变的时期。我处在这个世界的裂缝里，在这个特别的领域内，艺妓的使命和身份就是维护悠久的历史传统。”

  

译者注：“geisha”称“艺妓”而非“艺伎”。在日语中，“妓”字保留了传统汉语的用法，既可代表女性艺术表演者，亦可代表女性性工作者。而艺妓的“妓”是指前者，因为艺妓在原则上是艺术表演者，并不从事性交易。但在现代汉语中，多把“妓”字直觉关联到性交易方面，因此才有了“艺伎”这种以避讳为目的的现代汉语翻译写法。日语中的“伎”专指男性表演者，所以有人主张“艺妓”才是正确的中文翻译写法，以示区别。（via 维基百科）