"Professional prostitutes in the areaway of one of the big professional houses. Note the uniform kimonos. The women are made up to somewhat resemble geisha. Geisha were and are not prostitutes, but more like what Europeans used to call courtesans. However, many prostitutes, especially those with a little more education than the norm, might behave marginally like geisha--that is, as entertainers and intellectual companions. And then some geisha houses, undergoing deterioration, could make the transition to prostitution--the term "daruma geisha" or "geisha that would tip over easily" was used sometimes (daruma is a figure in Japanese Buddhist folklore--a monk who contemplated so intensely that he lost his arms and legs as well as his ego)."

From: Bennett, John W. Doing Photography and Social Research in the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1948-1951: A Personal and Professional Memoir, 2002,
http://library.osu.edu/sites/rarebooks/japan/2_1_photos.html.