JAPAN: Geisha v. Fourteen

“The most wanton insult to Japan since the American exclusion of Japanese immigrants. . . .”

Such seemed the consensus of informed Japanese opinion last week respecting a report unjust, issued by the New York City Anti-Vice Committee of Fourteen.

Excerpt from report: “The hostess of the night club and speakeasy is the American counterpart of the Geisha Girl. . . .”

Speakeasy hostesses, as Americanized Japanese know, are uncouth, unskilled, uneducated wenches, frequently unwashed, unshriven and ashamed of themselves.

In total contrast stands the Japanese Geisha, neat, skilled in traditional songs, graceful in age-old dances and minutely educated in a polite ritual which by no means always ends in nimble leaping. The Geishas are invariably clean, frequently devout, and have in Japan nothing to be ashamed of.

The New York Committee of Fourteen, thought tolerant Japanese last week, probably had in mind not the Geisha, but the Joro. A Japanese male of lowest estate, called an Uma or “horse” imparts in a few moments to the despised Joro such little learning as she, coarse and unfit for Geishahood, is thought to require.