Kyoto turns to geisha traditions for tourism revenue (Feature)

By Takehiko Kambayashi Dec 15, 2009, 12:12 GMT

Kyoto, Japan - The ancient imperial city known for its national treasures and other cultural assets is now turning to self-effacing young women with their faces painted white to boost tourism.

Every Sunday, a couple of maiko - apprentice geisha - in elaborate kimono perform traditional dance three times in front of more than 100 visitors including foreign tourists at the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts.

Since they started the free performances in June, the number of visitors has grown, Maki Jimba, an official at the museum, said. 'This event has become very popular.'

Maiko and geisha, professional entertainers, are rarely involved in an event like this.

They usually perform traditional dances, sing songs and serve drinks at ochaya, or tea houses, where the average customer pays about 500 dollars for their services. As first-timers are often turned away, some people can only get in through someone's introduction.

Mitsuna, who wanted to become a maiko after watching them on television, said, 'I'm pleased to be here. I did a lot of training in my first year.'

Nirmala Shinta Dewi, a civil servant from Indonesia attending the show, said, 'They are very beautiful. Their performance made me more interested in Japanese culture. I want to come back again.'

'Maiko have been sort of the country's fashion leaders since the Meiji Restoration [in 1868],' Jimba said. He wants visitors to understand that the traditional outfit and accessories a maiko wears are made by Kyoto's artisans, Jimba added.

Kyoto began a new promotion at the start of December in which tourists pay 500 yen (5.50 dollars) to partake of a tea ceremony with maiko and geisha, including the chance to pose for pictures with them.

The event is aimed at attracting more tourists in the off-season, Hiroaki Kakinuma, a Kyoto city official in charge of tourism promotion, said.

'But this is not just for tourism revenue. We're hoping the opportunity could help foreign visitors have a deeper interest in Japanese culture.'

This new approach is met with mixed feeling by some Kyoto residents. 'Times have changed. Everything is money,' one resident, whose parents used to run a traditional kimono factory in Kyoto, said, shaking her head.

Jean-Pierre Esnise, a French retiree who has lived in Kyoto for six years, was once invited to a tea house where maiko and geisha serve.

'Maiko and geisha are very attractive and their kimono is very nice. But I still have a little difficulty to understand why Japanese men want to go to such a place to chat with a maiko,' he said.

Almost all the foreign customers at tea houses used to be Westerners. But in recent years, half of them are from Asia, especially from China, managers said.

Books and films about geisha including the 2005 hit movie Memoirs of a Geisha helped draw more foreign tourists, Kyoto officials said.

The number of foreign tourists who stayed overnight in Kyoto doubled to 926,805 from 2003 to 2007. The total increased only slightly last year, however, due to the global recession.

A national campaign started in 2003, setting a goal to double the number of foreign tourists to 10 million by 2010.

But there is also a downside. As maiko and geisha have become popular, more camera-touting tourists follow them on the streets. Some foreign tourists even pull their kimono or put their hands on their shoulders, one maiko said. After several cases were reported, the Kyoto Tourism Council posted a warning in English on its website.

'Please respect the maikos' privacy, and do not follow them in the streets or touch their kimonos. Thank you for respecting the Japanese culture, please enjoy your stay,' the website reads.

In the past, Kyoto did not have to make so much effort to attract tourists, because the former imperial capital was among the major destinations of school trips. The nation's declining birthrates, however, made the ancient city reinvigorate its tourism industry to attract more domestic and overseas tourists.