It was near the turn of the eighteenth century that the first entertainers of the pleasure quarters, called geisha , appeared. The early Shikomi in-training and Minarai learns by watching stages of geisha training lasted for years shikomi and months minarai respectively, which is significantly longer than in contemporary times. The majority of women were wives who did not work outside of their familial duties. Geishas are not submissive and subservient, but in fact they are some of the most financially and emotionally successful and strongest women in Japan, and traditionally have been so.