Kyoto Geisha Dance Performance - The Miyako Odori

The Kyoto Miyako Odori is the biggest and most famous geisha dance in Japan, and this year I finally had the chance to go! I made a mini-review featuring a bit of the optional Japanese tea ceremony with a real geisha and maiko beforehand, souvenirs I got, and a couple of tips for tourists who will be in Kyoto in April.

I really enjoyed this: the geisha and maiko were beautiful and elegant, the sets were amazing, and it's easy to see why this is so famous. I feel it would be a true highlight of any April Kyoto trip, not only for kimono or geisha fans but anyone who wants to see traditional Japanese culture.

 

For more about geisha, check out these other articles:

What is a Geisha?

A Geisha Timeline

Geisha vs. Maiko vs. Oiran

More posts about geisha!

CLAMP's Kyoto Fantasy: Gate 7

The city of Kyoto looms large in the Japanese cultural mindset as a place of classical beauty and tradition. The capital of Japan for over a thousand years ("Kyoto" 京都 actually means "capital city"), it is still considered the heart of traditional culture today, famed for icons like its geisha, the gold-covered Kinkakuji temple, handicrafts like beautiful Kyo-Yuzen dyed kimono, and many more.

Priding itself on this reputation, Kyoto even offers a discount to some tourist spots if a visitor comes dressed in kimono.

Now CLAMP, the hugely successful circle of female manga artists behind titles like Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Cardcaptor Sakura, xxxHolic and RG Veda, has taken Kyoto as its backdrop for one of its latest series, Gate 7.

Focusing on a young man living and going to school in Kyoto amid very odd circumstances, the series presents the city through the trademark CLAMP lens: traditional sites become gateways to battlegrounds, characters lounge elegantly in highly-stylized and embellished ideas of kimono or swirl about in fantasy takes on traditional miko (shrine attendant) robes, and little touches of Kyoto can be found throughout the world.

Here in America, Dark Horse Comics has plans to release Gate 7 Volume 1 on October 25th, and I'll definitely be picking up a copy!

(On a related note, CLAMP artist Mokona loves kimono, and even released her own book with coordinate ideas and her own homemade kimono projects.)

Japan Travel: When/Where Not to Go

(Readers who have been to Japan, please feel free to add your own times and places!)

For most people, going to Japan represents a serious outlay of cash, and if you're going you don't want to get blindsided by unexpected factors. Here's a short and dirty list of times and places you don't want to travel in Japan, based on my time over there:

The week of Obon (August) and Golden Week (late April-May): Holiday weeks when most people travel. You'll find higher prices and bigger crowds traveling.

New Year's: In addition to more people traveling home to family, some businesses and banks close for a few days, leaving you out of luck if you're trying to get cash.

Kyoto in July-August: Kyoto is in a valley that nicely traps in heat and humidity, making it pretty nasty in the summer if you're walking everywhere.

Harajuku (Tokyo) on the weekends: Yeah, you'll miss the cosplayers on the bridge in front of Meiji Shrine and some of the interesting street fashion if you don't go then, but you'll also miss the insane amount of people crowding through Takeshita Street and the neighborhood.

Meiji Shrine (Tokyo): This isn't a "don't go" as it's a beautiful shrine, but rather wear or bring comfortable shoes because the walk back through the woods to get to the shrine is entirely on a wide gravel path, unless they've changed that since I left.

Tokyo Tower: Biggest tourist trap in the city, with cheesy souvenirs and a panoramic view up top often blocked by smog.

Geisha vs. Geiko

At times you might see geisha called geiko. Geiko are just geisha from the Kyoto area, but when the profession entered the English language only "geisha" made the jump.

Henshin Studios - Geisha For a Day

I have a sort of perverse record of never visiting or doing Famous Things You Should Do when I'm in a place. I grew up in Houston but have yet to make it to the annual Rodeo, and lived in New York/New Jersey for over two years but somehow never made it to the Statue of Liberty.

The Japan edition features me never having made it to a henshin studio in almost five years of living there, which given my fondness for kimono and geisha is pretty ironic... Allow me to explain and keep you from making this mistake yourself should you happen to be there in the future. ;)

Henshin studios are "dress up for a day" experiences, where you choose a package that usually includes getting fully dressed and made up as a maiko, geisha, or yujo (courtesan prostitute) and professional photos of you indoors and sometimes outdoors as well. Some studios also have deals where you can leave the studio and walk or go around a nearby area of the city in your costume, like the tourists shown in the photo above.

For men, there are at times samurai or "formal" dress options available as well.

The website Immortal Geisha has a nice review thread of people's experiences at various studios, offering advice, price information and some sample photos. Whenever I make it back to Japan for a visit, I'll have to finally get around to doing this myself!

Image copyright Yves Picq