ABSTRACT
The costs of participating in the performing arts in Japan puts geisha into debt right from the start, and geisha manage the expenses by way of a unique system of patronage. Speculations abound regarding the relationships between geisha and their patrons, particularly on the topic of sexual relations. Dance is the most costly of the arts to study, and because geisha usually begin their artistic careers as dancers, they have long faced problems in financing their ongoing participation. A general decline of interest in the traditional arts performed within the karyukai combined with economic recessions has resulted in reduced demand for ozashiki. Geisha are viewed within the arts community and by themselves as primarily artists and secondarily as entertainers, and several factors of their life support this assertion. However, ozashiki is inseparable from the geisha identity, and it is essential to their artistic sensibility and the ways in which their musical abilities are f.
