Beato’s photographs of geisha and samurai embody ideas that Westerners had about Japanese women and men. Geisha were women highly trained in dance and music, rather than prostitutes. In reality, Beato’s geisha were women whom he dressed up in kimono and posed in his studio with the accouterments of a geisha’s profession.
Beato’s “geisha” are shown putting on make-up, playing the samisen (an instrument identified with female performers), and sometimes with a pipe—rather than for tobacco, foreigners surmised it was for opium. The framing of the oval vignette adds an element of voyeurism to these erotic scenes.
