than once, the practice of formed an important initiation into womanhood and the role of an independent geisha; according to the research of anthropologist Liza Dalby, though this process was generally not pleasant, for many, it was perceived as a natural stage in growing up, with trainees in the same age cohort who had not graduated viewed by their peers as having been somewhat left behind. Post-1956 to present day Mineko Iwasaki, former high-ranking Gion geisha, detailed her experience of in her autobiography, Geisha, a Life. Describing her experience of graduation to geishahood with the term , Iwasaki described her experience as a round of formal visits to announce her graduation, including the presentation of gifts to related geisha houses and important patrons, and a cycle through five different hairstyles before graduating. This set of graduation experiences is generally referred to as in the modern day. Dalby relays the change between pre- and post-1956 attitudes to within the geisha community through her first-hand accounts with the geisha mothers of Ponto-chō: Today, all and geisha have full say over their personal choices regarding sex, and most begin training, attending banquets, and interacting with customers aged 18 – though they may start living at the as a (maids) for a few years before graduation to and then status. Though customers attending geisha parties and banquets generally expect some level of convivial and low-key flirtation, a is likely to be considered off-limits as a younger and more vulnerable participant to such gatherings. are instead treated with generosity by guests cognisant of their relative inexperience at geisha parties. In literature Arthur Golden's novel Memoirs of a Geisha portrays as a financial arrangement in which a girl's virginity is sold to a " patron", generally someone who particularly enjoys sex with virgin girls, or merely enjoys the charms of an individual . Former geisha Sayo Masuda describes in her 1956 autobiography Autobiography of a Geisha as sexual exploitation. Masuda describes being sold multiple times by her to men, ostensibly for the purposes of taking her virginity, under the pretence that she had not yet lost it. The transaction was explicitly a sexual arrangement, far removed from the ceremony of graduating into geishahood, netting the a large profit. Despite her personal experiences, Masuda argued against the outlawing of sex work in Japan, explaining that it provided a way for women to make an independent living when