(1) She is not a realistic prostitute, but a courtesan , a prominent figure in Indian literature.(2) Geishas broke apart from courtesans / prostitutes sometime around the 1500s- 1600s, so the two are somewhat similar.(3) Nobody in Japan would dream of confusing top Gion geisha with high - class courtesans , let alone prostitutes, the myth that continues to prevail about geisha in the West.(4) Punning on the meaning of grande as tall or as grand in the social sense, the seventeenth-century commentator noted the reference to the courtesans and prostitutes of Venice.(5) In our society, women are condemned to be either courtesans or whores.
