Memoirs of a Geisha

In Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden describes the world of the geisha.

“She paints her face to hide her face. It is not for Geisha to want. It is not for geisha to feel. Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances, she sings. She entertains you, whatever you want. The rest is shadows, the rest is secret..”

The geisha are the proletariat in this world, their goods are their entertainment and their beauty. The bourgeois of their world are the powerful businessmen who seek out their charms. They exist in a class of their own and their worth is established by the business men who pay call to them.