#kagai

Cute baby ( ͡°ω ͡°)

Shikomi Eiko practices dancing Gion Kouta, in preparation of her shikomi exam. Soon it will be one year since she joined the hanamachi as an aspiring maiko, and the time to decide on her debut is approaching.

This is the main Kanzashi Exhibit. It has all of the tsumami kanzashi used by maiko organized by the month it's used. They all include a senior maiko daikan kanzashi on the left, a bridge (勝山) kanashi in the middle, and a junior maiko kanzashi on the right. These are not the only types of kanzashi used by maiko, there are many flowers and motifs that you may also see in the wild, but they cannot all be displayed here.

I forgot to take a pic of the katsura and maezashi on the other table sorry 😞

Here is a close up of the December kanzashi, which has some of my favorite elements in maiko kanzashi.

Pictures were not allowed during the dances and I didn't do the photo session with maiko, but I kinda wish I had.

Let’s start with the basic facts again: Miyagawacho currently has 68 active members, 44 Geiko and 24 Maiko, and 17 active okiya and 33 active ochaya. Miyagawacho is Kyoto’s second largest hanamachi; Gion Kobu has 89 active Geimaiko, Pontocho has 59. They also have the second highest number of active okiya and ochaya, Gion Kobu has 22 active okiya and 61 active ochaya, Pontocho has 7 active okiya and 22 active ochaya. They have the highest number of active Maiko with 24, Gion Kobu has 23, and it’s usually just a little bit higher than that of Gion Kobu.

Their most recent Misedashi was Maiko Chikasome’s (Komaya Okiya) on the 21st of December 2016, and their most recent Erikae was Geiko Toshisumi’s (Komaya Okiya) on the 15th of June 2017.

Their most senior Maiko is Maiko Koume (Kaden Okiya), who had her Misedashi on the 8th of March 2012 and will have her Erikae in November, and their most senior Geiko is Geiko Mieko (Ishihatsu Okiya). Mieko had a very short Maiko-period, about two months long, because soon after she became a Maiko, wearing flashy clothing was prohibited due to war-conservation efforts and she was forced to become a Geiko on the 5th of March 1944. Mieko is currently 90 years old.

They dance in the Wakayagi Style of Dance, a pretty young dance school founded in the late 19th century, whose style is very close to Kabuki.

They hold two big annual odori, the Kyō Odori, which runs from April 1st to the third sunday of the month, and the Mizuekai, which will be held from the 12th to the 15th of October. They also hold a Yukata-Kai every July, although the date varies (this year it was the 12th), and participate in the Miyako No Nigiwai. They also hold a beer garden open to the public in summer, but I don’t know the exact dates from when to when it was running. It seemed to have run through a big part of July and August, though.

Miyagawacho’s biggest and wealthiest okiya are the Komaya Okiya (5 active Maiko, 5 active Geiko, three of them very famous) and the Shigemori Okiya (5 active Maiko, three active Geiko, one of them very famous). Two other well-situated okiya are the Kawayoshi Okiya (5 active Maiko, 1 active Geiko) and the Hanafusa Okiya (two active Maiko, two active Geiko, both Geiko famous senior Geiko).

In 1751, the first recorded licence for a tea house in Miyagwacho was granted and the area was already a popular entertainment-district before, which was mainly attributed to the fact that the famous Minamiza Kabuki Theater is located in Miyagawacho. Accordingly, Miyagawacho’s dance school is very close in style to Kabuki and many patrons of Miyagawacho’s ochaya used to be Kabuki actors, even to this day, to some degree.

Miyagawacho is the second youngest hanamachi of Kyoto; Gion’s teahouses (until 1886 it was called Gion Shinchi, usually shortened to just Gion, and consisted of both Gion Kobu and Gion Higashi) were officially licensed in 1665, Pontocho came into existence around the same time and Kamishichiken already came into existence in the late 16th century and was not only Kyoto’s, but Japan’s first hanamachi. Gion Higashi didn’t officially exist until 1886, when Gion Shinchi was split into Gion Kobu and Gion Higashi by the prefectural government.

Up until prostitution was outlawed in 1956, Miyagawacho used to license both Maiko and Geiko and prostitutes (yūjo), also including courtesans, Oiran. This led to Miyagawacho having a reputation as a “lower-class district” and still having to fight with a relatively low reputation, albeit its size (although it has become much more popular and highly-regarded over the last decades).

The fact that Miyagawacho used to licence Geimaiko and prostitutes means that some double-registered Geiko also lived and worked there. Double-registered Geisha were registered as both Geisha and prostitutes. As a part of their job as a Geisha, they would attend art classes normally and entertain clients with music, dance, drinking games and conversation and, as part of their job as a yūjo, would then sleep with some of their clients, too.

Double-registration only occured in districts that licensed Geisha and prostitutes and mostly affected very poor areas, as many Geisha in these areas couldn’t survive solely off of being a Geisha, and had to go to other means to make money, too. Double-registration never occured in most hanamachi, as most of them were popular and wealthy enough for their Geisha to solely live off their arts. Miyagawacho was also a very popular, bustling district, so it was much less affected than other areas of Japan used to be, so most Maiko and Geiko in Miyagawacho also were not double-registrated.

As Miyagawacho also licensed Oiran for a long period of time, and Oiran did not study the arts of the common people (the shamisen and Kabuki, for example), but those of the nobility (koto, kokyū and biwa, for example), today, Miyagawacho is the only kagai in Kyoto that still teaches the koto and the kokyū. They came from the Oiran and just kind of stuck around.

One of Miyagawacho’s biggest “peculiarities” is that they don’t have a clear distinction between tachikata (dancers) and jikata (musicians) Geiko, in which they are very similar to Pontocho, which also doesn’t have one. Miyagawacho’s Maiko and Geiko are encouraged to become proficient in both fields, and it’s very easy to change one’s registration from tachikata to jikata, and vice versa, if needed. Many Geiko appear as both jikata and tachikata in the KyōOdori, even young ones like Tanefumi (Takayoshi Okiya) and Toshimana (Komaya Okiya), and Maiko also receive a broad education in all arts.

This makes it very easy for older Geiko to continue their work as a pure jikata when they feel like they are too old for dancing. This is sometimes difficult for Geiko in other hanamachi, mostly Gion Kobu.

Kamishichiken also gives their Geimaiko a broad education in both music and dance and encourages tachikata Geiko to act as jikata during ozashiki (usually, the most senior Geiko will act as a jikata), examplified by the fact that Geiko Katsuna (Daimonji Okiya) was allowed to become a jikata after her Erikae, but they still have a clear distincton between jikata and tachikata during odori. This probably has a lot to do with how small they are and that they need their Geiko to be as versatile as possible

Gion Kobu has a very strict distinction between tachikata and jikata, and also doesn’t allows Geiko to debut directly as tachikata, only as jikata. A Maiko’s education also focuses on dance (although not exclusively), as the term “Maiko”, meaning “dancing child”, is understood very literally in Gion Kobu. Gion Higashi is in a different situation, best examplified by Geiko Masaki (Man Okiya): She debuted as a jikata, showed talent for dancing, was encouraged to take lessons and has had small a role in last year’s Gion Odori and has a bigger one in this year’s Gion Odori. This probably also has a lot to do with how small they are and that they need their Geiko to be as versatile as possible.

In Miyagawacho, Geiko get to up to five years to become independent, the longest time out of all of Kyoto’s hanamachi; Gion Kobu only gives them approximately one year, Pontocho gives them two and Kamishichiken and Gion Higashi give them three. Women debuting directly as Geiko, especially tachikata, often favor debuting in Miyagawacho, as it allows them the longest time to build a customer base and acquire their own collection of kimono, obi and hair ornaments. This is also the reason as to why most Maiko of Miyagawacho don’t order their own kimono for their Erikae, as they won’t need their own, very expensive kuromontsuki for a while. They’d rather rely on their okiya for a bit more and use the money for something else (you can buy two nice everyday-kimono from the money you need for one kuromontsuki, and then you’d still have some money left).

Only in Miyagawacho, it’s allowed for senior Maiko to be called to ozashiki without oshiroi and hikizuri, but in a simple komon (if specifically requested by the client) and, also only in Miyagawacho, senior Maiko are also allowed to dress up for Setsubun; in the other kagai, they only get to wear special hairstyles, like the junior ones.

Miyagawacho’s Maiko also start tucking in their obiage starting the day they become senior, as it’s seen as a sign of maturity. In Gion Kobu, the obiage is tied a month or two before the Maiko’s Erikae, in Pontocho, Kamishichiken and Gion Higashi, it’s tied within a year of the Erikae.

In Miyagawacho, much like Kamishichiken, senior Maiko can also be the host (otemae) of tea ceremonies, although it’s rarer than in Kamishichiken. As these tea ceremonies will usually happen before the KyōOdori and sometimes the Mizuekai, the Maiko will usually wear a formal kuromontsuki and the yakko shimada hairstyle. In Gion Kobu, Pontocho and Gion Higashi, Maiko only act as assistants (hikae) of tea ceremonies.

Prior to wearing the sakkōhairstyle, Miyagawacho’s Maiko will wear the yakko shimada hairstyle for about two weeks with an iromontsuki kimono, a completely red collar and their special sakkō-daikan. During sakkō, the Maiko will wear a formal black kuromontsuki with a golden obi and a completely red collar and their special sakkō-daikin. They can also do ohaguro (blacken their teeth with a special paste), it’s not obligatory, but encouraged (as in all hanamachi of Kyoto).

Miyagawacho has also worked with “Maiko-only-contracts” relatively often in the past, some okiya are especially well-known for it. It brings the okiya a great amount of money (Maiko do make a lot of money) and keeps Maiko-numbers at a certain minimum, and also saves them the very expensive Erikae, if they are not in a position to afford it. It enables the girls to get to know the karyukai while still being able to do something else in life, form connections that can be very helpful later in life, and also save a decent amount of money. Sometimes, Maiko who signed such a contract are allowed to become Geiko, though, if they really want to, their future career seems promising and the okiya can afford it.

This shows Miyagawacho’s relaxed atmosphere (for very traditional Kyoto, at least), as many other districts would not allow this. It always depends on the okiya, their financial situation and ultimately, the decision of the okaasan, though; not nearly every okiya in Miyagawacho does this.

Miyagawacho is pretty relaxed in general, which probably greatly attributes to the fact that they attract so many new aspiring Maiko every year. Not too long ago, there was a debate going on online about the fact that Geiko Kikutsuru (Hanafusa Okiya) is dying her hair brown, as many very traditional people don’t think it is appropriate for a Geiko to do that (although it’s still a pretty dark brown). Gion Kobu and Pontocho probably wouldn’t have allowed this at all, and I’m not even too sure about Kamishichiken and Gion Higashi. I think she looks great, just fyi ^^.

There is some friendly rivalry between all hanamachi of Kyoto, but especially between Gion Kobu and Pontocho, as they are considered the most high class, and Kamishichiken and Miyagawacho, as they are thought to be directly behind them in rank and are, by some, considered to be of “equal rank”. Kamishichiken is the oldest hanamachi of Japan, and therefore has the most tradition and history, but Miyagawacho is more than double its size (in numbers) and very popular. However, this really doesn’t go further than friendly rivalry during joint dance performances.