The number of geisha has been declining for primarily two reasons. First, the training to become a geisha is long and rigorous. Second, the variance in levels of geisha, as far as cost, has all but disappeared. Geisha have become an elite group and have therefore become very expensive. Fewer and fewer men are willing to pay the high cost of a geisha when other entertainers (i.e. hostesses) are available. Kyoto and the area around the city maintains the highest number of geisha as well as having a more traditional culture of geisha. Tokyo brags the second highest population of geisha, though these geisha and teahouses tend to be less traditional. Tokyo geisha lack the formalized older sister/younger sister relationship. Geisha in Kyoto are more conscious of being a geisha at all times. On the whole, in Tokyo, geisha is seen as another career. Traditionally, geisha live lives separate from the rest of society. "Ideally, what a geisha brings to the banquet room is an elegance that has been cultivated, like a rare orchid, in the special environment in the flower and willow world. Whatever is special about geisha and imbues them with a certain mystique arises because their lives are set apart from everyday society. Today the walls of their world are art and discipline" (Dalby, 217). In the past, geisha were often sold to a teahouse by their family as a means of earning money, and for their daughters to get an education of some sort. Now the choice to become a geisha is less for economic reasons, and more as a career choice like any other. If a geisha had daughters, they were traditionally sent to a special geisha school with the intention that they would grow up to be geisha like their mothers. Now the children of geisha are sent to public school like all other children. This is one illustration of how, in the recent past, geisha have been losing the strict division between their lives and the rest of society.
We can observe a dramatic decline in the number of geisha. Nowadays, there are very few genuine geisha left in Japan. This is partly due to the decreasing demand. Most of the Japanese prefer (and can afford) hostesses when they want to go out and have some fun with women outside the "net of the family and workplace". The decline is also due to the supply. For the Japanese girls it is much easier to become a Western-type entertainer, a hostess.
It is possible that in a few years it will be difficult to find any geisha left. If we can, it would probably not
be the real, traditional type. Due to tourism and the interest of the businessmen visiting Japan, this institution will probably survive, but maybe in a modified form. It is possible that the Japanese women who used to become geisha (who wish for independence and try to get rid of the accustomed mother/wife role), can find more opportunity for success in work. In spite of these, it would be positive if this uniquely interesting patch of the Japanese society, would survive. We should not see it (as many Western people do) as prostitution. A love for the traditional arts seems to be the most important motivating factor for women who choose to become geisha. They are respected as preservers of traditional art and culture.
