Geisha means art (gei) person (sha) , so it could be translated into "art person" or "artist". At the origin, they were skilled professional entertainers, either male or female, performing traditional Japanese arts as dance, music or storytelling. Male geisha disapear 200 years ago, then geisha was only referring to female entertainers.

During the Edo period, and following the shogun rule, prostitution was controlled. Special "pleasure quarters" were set up. The pleasure quarters became the places of sexual freedom. Exclusive prostitutes or courtesans would entertain samurai warriors.

In the very begining these entertainers (story tellers, musicians, acrobats) were exclusively males. They also were called jesters (hokan) or drum bearers (taiko-mochi), and they were there to make the guests laugh.
It was there where the first geisha appeared.

In 1751, some customers in a Shimabara brothel were surprised when a female drum bearer came to their party. She was referred to as geiko, the term still used in Kyoto instead of geisha. By 1780 female geisha outnumbered the men; by 1800, a geisha was only a woman.