Thriving business helps women fulfil their fantasy of dressing up as apprentice geisha

By Simon Rowe Translation by Amanda Mao

Around sunset, you might glimpse her. In the narrow laneways of Pontocho district, where red lanterns bob beneath the eves of noisy pub- restaurants – called izakaya – and hostesses in soft-coloured kimono usher diners into their traditional ryotei restaurants, she may be seen scurrying to her first appointment at a nearby tea house. The sight of this elusive woman, swathed in silk kimono and richly embroidered sash, with a snow-white powdered face, painted red lips and shimmering trinkets in her hair, never fails to enthrall visitors to one of the oldest and best known of Kyoto’s four entertainment quarters.

Hanamachi, or ‘flower towns’, like Pontocho, are the domain of geisha, or geiko, as they are called in Kyoto. Their allure as both a symbol of feminine beauty and cultural heritage has endured for more than 500 years, since the days when Kyoto served as Japan’s capital.

The word ‘geisha’ literally means ‘person of the arts’. Back in the 1500s, the services of these well-spoken and lavishly dressed young women, skilled in playing koto (traditional harp), fue (flute)and shamisen (three-stringed banjo), as well as dance, could only be afforded by the city’s wealthy merchants, lords, and high- ranking samurai.

Both Pontocho and nearby Gion, another hanamachi famous for its traditional restaurants and tea houses, are places where the vanishing arts of the geisha and maiko (apprentice geiko) can still be enjoyed, albeit at a high price. appointments are necessary and many tea houses will charge upwards of ¥20,000 (us$180) per guest for a geisha to attend a party for a two-hour period. realistically, most travellers to kyoto won’t have that kind of money to splurge on a night on the town, thus many opt for the next best thing – geisha-spotting in atmospheric old streets like hanamikoji in Gion, or the area between sanjo-dori and shijo-dori in Pontocho. your best chance will be around dusk when many geiko and maiko (apprentice geishas) are tottering off to work. would-be spotters, however, should bear in mind the proverb that states: Hito wa mikake ni yoranai mono – appearances can be deceiving. in recent years, a thriving business in maiko-henshin, or ‘maiko transformation’, has emerged in kyoto and now offers young (and not-so-young) women the chance to fulfil a fantasy of dressing up and stepping out into the streets as an apprentice geiko for the day.

“Japanese women love to wear the latest fashions, but sometimes i think they’d like to return to their traditional roots. dressing in the kimono style and make-up of a kyoto maiko-san is one way of doing this. and it’s fun!” says Masami hamada, a 36-year-old from western honshu’s himeji city waiting excitedly in the lounge of studio shiki, a long-running maiko-henshin company located near kyomizu temple in the hillside neighborhoods of eastern kyoto. while around 40 studios give women, both Japanese and non-Japanese, the opportunity to transform themselves into geiko and maiko in full regalia, you’d be hard-pressed to find a customer who feels bad about impersonating the city’s most famous icon. “for me, the real maiko-san are just so gorgeous,” says hamada. “Their kimono are elegant and stylish and the way they move is extremely feminine. Their lifestyle seems far more mysterious and exotic than my own.”

Business is brisk in the makeover trade, with an estimated 80,000 tourists a year paying between ¥9,000- 15,000 for a makeover which takes around 60 minutes and includes kimono, wig, cosmetics, a studio photo shoot with three take-home portraits and an optional 30- minute stroll around eastern kyoto. kimono designs, make-up quality and prices vary from studio to studio, with some places offering packages which cost up to ¥35,000 for album shoots and the chance to don a designer label kimono. other options may include having your pictures turned into printed sticker sheets, postcards, key ring holders, and senja-fuda, the traditional calling card of the maiko. at studio shiki, the excitable giggles of waiting customers are audible from the street. one by one they are called into the changing salon and asked to select a design of their choice from a rack straining with thickly embroidered kimono.

Then, after being wrapped in a plain white cotton robes and seated, the make-up session begins with a smothering of sticky chalk-white foundation, called doran – the trademark of the geisha. This is followed by a dusting of pink blush across the cheeks, with rouge applied lightly to the eyelids and then thickly to create a set of small, strawberry-shaped lips. coal-black eyebrows complete the look.

“it’s wonderfully simple, yet the effect is so exotic,” says hamada of her new face, barely managing to smile beneath the layer of doran. aspiring maiko are spared the tedium of doing their own hair, which real-life apprentices must do daily, thanks to ready-made wigs which can be adorned with (plastic) wisteria flowers and a vast array of silver trinkets. not all customers can handle the weight of this massive hairpiece, which is clamped to the head so tightly that it occasionally induces nausea and vomiting in some customers, while leaving a painful impression on the scalps of others. “if we didn’t attach the wigs so firmly we’d have geiko losing their heads all over Gion,” said one studio shiki staff member.

Once the studio photos have been taken, it’s into the streets of the ancient capital that many would-be maiko and geiko choose to step. Most studios allow a 30-minute stroll for an extra charge, and usually in the company of a staff member who’ll recommend the most scenic route and keep the more shakier-of-leg from toppling over as they come to grips with their towering okobo wooden clogs. it’s worth remembering that during autumn, the streets surrounding Kiyomizu temple teem with sightseers looking for that special photo to remind them of Kyoto. step out dressed as a geisha around this time and you may just be it.

FAST FACTS:

Studio Shiki
Masuya-cho, Koudaiji, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto,
+81 +81 75 531 2777
www.maiko-henshin.com/english/

Yume Koubou
2/F JKK Bldg., 45 kitanouchi-cho, Kujou Minami-ku, Kyoto,
+81 75 661 0858
www.yumekoubou.info/english/

The Kyoto Tourist Information Center (+81 75 343 6655) provides maps and can recommend studios across the city to suit all budgets.