Gion and Geisha

This is my first blog about the wonderful time Damien and I had with our friends Heather and Jeremy. They flew in from Chicago on the 12 of July and just left on the 21.

While we were in Kyoto the most famous festival in Japan was going on, the Kyoto Gion Festival. We had heard that things would be crazy but luckily the stories were a bit exaggerated. We were able to watch the parade of giant, centuries old wooden floats, or dashi, get pulled around the streets. The dashi were similar to ones we had seen before, but a bit bigger and more substantial. But this festival is very big and Kyoto style is more reserved than other areas of Japan. I thought the festival lacked energy. It was very hot that day. I had to keep running up to the front and take pictures and then running back to the shade. I couldn’t stand to be in the scorching sun for more than about 5 minutes. Some of the floats were 12 tons and have no steering. The attendants lay bamboo poles on the ground and use water as a lubricant. They then slowly make a series of small turns until the float is ready to go down another street.

We spent our second evening walking around the Gion district of Kyoto. This is the main area famous for geisha. Actually, Japanese prefer to use the terms geiko and maiko. Geiko are full-fledged geisha and maiko are in training. We found out that you can distinguish the two by looking at the collar and belt of their kimono. Maiko have colored collars and long trains on their belts. Geiko have white collars and no train. We were very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time during this busy festival time. We were more than shocked to run into geisha almost immediately upon entering the Gion neighborhood. Within about 20 minutes we had seen upwards of 15 of them scurrying from one appointment to another. We even got to see a couple of them with their male patrons. One of the most amazing things was watching a geiko and a maiko waiting for a taxi and when it arrived one of them said thank you to the restaurant hostess. She had the most unnatural high pitched voice I have ever heard. I asked some students about it and they said that it is the traditional sound of a sexy beautiful woman’s voice. Definitely different from where I am from!

It was difficult to get pictures, especially of their faces since you never knew when one would dart out in front of you. And they clearly wanted to get to where they were heading as quickly and inconspicuously as possible. It really was like seeing living history walking down the street. There are so few actual geisha left and many people go to Kyoto and try to see them and never get the chance. It is an evening I will never forget.