The highly stylized and tightly choreographed dance moves are slow and graceful, so there’s no chance that speed of movement can hide any mistakes – every move must be (and almost always is) perfect. The geiko communities have built up a distinct style of music and dance over many years, and the geiko are required to adhere to the prescribed forms absolutely – there’s very little room for the performers to introduce their own innovations. One of many paper lanterns that are displayed in Gion to advertise the Miyako Odori
This schedule is maintained every day throughout the whole of April – making the dances extremely hard work for the geiko and maiko – especially as they are expected to produce a flawless performance every time. There are four hour-long performances each day, at 12:30pm, 2pm, 3:30pm and 4:50pm. Since the second season in 1873, the dances have been held at the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Theatre, and they continue to be popular with both Kyoto locals and visitors to the city. That was the first time that Gion Kobu’s nationally-famous geiko performed in public. In English the dances are often referred to as ‘The Cherry Blossom Dances’, because they take place in April when the cherry blossoms are in bloom, or sometimes just as ‘The Kyoto Dances’.ĭespite the name, the dances began in 1872, four years after Tokyo took over as the capital of Japan. ‘Miyako’ means capital city, and ‘Odori’ means dance, so ‘Miyako Odori’ translates literally as ‘Capital City Dances’, which makes sense when you consider that Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan, and that ‘Kyoto’ is still written with characters meaning ‘capital city’. All the performers, including the musicians and singers as well as the dancers, are women.
Maiko dancing on a walkway at the right side of the theatre, in front of an orchestra of shamisen players. Around the age of twenty, maiko graduate from their apprenticeship, and become fully-fledged geiko. They then move on to training in the geiko’s arts, such as music, dance and calligraphy, and they begin to join the geiko in entertaining clients in Kyoto’s teahouses. First they are trained in conduct becoming of a geiko – bowing deeply to show respect to their seniors, and undertaking everyday tasks with grace and elegance. From then on, they move into a geiko house, and dedicate their lives to the geiko world. Geiko begin their careers as apprentices called ‘maiko’, usually aged fifteen. (Kyoto geisha prefer to be called ‘geiko’ meaning ‘arts child’, rather than ‘geisha’, which means ‘arts person’.) Geiko communities are very traditional, and are governed by strict rules, and the Gion Kobu community is perhaps the most conservative of all. Geiko are women trained in dance and music, with an emphasis on grace, beauty and dignity. The most famous of these performances is the Miyako Odori, at which the geisha of the Gion Kobu geisha community perform. Fortunately, Kyoto’s geisha communities put on annual public shows, which provide an opportunity for less-privileged ordinary people to see the geisha perform their arts. Even having deep enough pockets to pay for a private geisha party isn’t good enough – you need an introduction from an existing client in order to gain admittance to the private and exclusive world of the geisha. Japan’s geisha are famous the world over, but as they usually perform only at small private gatherings in the teahouses of the geisha districts, it’s not often that visitors from overseas get to see them. Only in Japan: Products you’ll find nowhere elseĪ maiko heading home after performing at the Miyako Odori.
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