Geisha and Theater in Gion

During my final night in Kyoto, I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner and a trip to Gion Corner in Kyoto’s Gion District. Gion is one of the most well-known “Geisha” districts in Japan (although Geisha in Gion refer to themselves as “Geiku” instead of “Geisha.”) Gion Corner is a theater in Gion that operates to demonstrate the traditional geisha artform for tourists and others who cannot afford the often great expense of a geisha. Basically, for about 35 bucks, you can watch a traditional tea ceremony, kyo-mai dance, a flower arrangement, a koto performance, gagaku court music, kyogen theater, and bunraku puppet theater. The entire experience was really cool. I was one of two lucky individuals who was invited on-stage to participate in the tea ceremony, so I was fed sweet tea cakes and fresh green tea while listening to the koto. Koto is a really cool stringed instrument that makes AMAZING music. I think it is arguably the most versatile instrument I’ve ever seen, because it can produce the sounds typical of a guitar, a piano, and its own unique sounds as well. I really enjoyed it. Bunraku theater is also really impressive. If you look at the photo below, it looks like one man is holding a single life-sized puppet. In fact, there are actually two other people dressed entirely in black standing behind the puppet—the puppet requires three people to completely control, because each joint (shoulder, elbow, wrist, each finger joint, even the mouth) has complete functionality. The puppetry is really amazing.

Here are a few photos from my experience, as well as some low-quality videos of the various dance and theater just so you can have an idea of what they are like.