kabuki shows recorded. Just like in Restoration London, the actresses were for sale. In 1629 the government banned women from the stage and adolescant boys took on the female roles. The boys were for sale just as much as the girls, and there was bo taboo on homosexuality. 

The birthing period of the geisha was from 1750-1820. 

Unlicensed prostitution was rife outside of the walled pleasure gardens of Japan. Among the many types of covert prostitutes were the sancha-joro, who worked illegally in public bath houses. From the 1680's onward, there were also yound women called 'odiriko', meaning dancing girls. These girls were not originally prostitutes, but had been taught skills like dancing by their families, who hoped to marry them off as concubines to wealthy families. However, as time went on, they found they had to start relying on prostitution more and more. In the early 1700's, many odoriko were rounded up with illegal prostitutes and moved to the red light district of Japan They continued to practise their arts even though the law forced them to work as licenced prostitutes. They called themselves gei-ko, "arts-child". This led to the birth of geisha as s formal profession.

The first woman to call herself geisha was Kiku, who announced her profession in 1750/1. There aren't records of her, as people of her class were thought not worth to keep a record of. Her artistic skills were so developed and in demand, that she decided she could make a living from performance alone. 

By the eighteenth-century, all the elements of geisha arts were in place, including a sophisticated public who were willing to patronize the new profession. The trend quickly spread throughout Japan.