Allergic to tourist hotspots as I am, I would have given Kyoto a miss (heresy!!). But friends of my parents, who we knew from my childhood in Twickenham, had arm-wrestled me into adding Kyoto to my itinerary, kindly also offering to put me up for a night in their Osaka flat. So my next stop was Kyoto station, meeting Keiko Kano for day 1 of my stay.
I found Kyoto overwhelming, and the need to take buses between the sights bewildering - at least initially. After taking me around X and Y temples (the gardens the highlight for me: autumn colours, water courses, mossy shade, waterfalls and rocks) Keiko and I parted company, for me to continue strolling on my own and her to return to Osaka and greet Hiroshi, just back from a trip to Tokyo. I met them at their flat - by the skin of my teeth - that evening. I had underestimated how difficult finding Block D7 in a featureless Osaka suburb, with a map entirely in Japanese, at night, would be. Three kind people led me lengthy distances in three different completely directions before I arrived in a sweaty, dishevelled state at the Kano threshold!
The following day the three of us got up early for another day of temples and sights. Kinkakuji was, as indicated on FB, breathtaking. Even though the throngs of people required stern management, a park official directing us into the viewing area, policeman-style, it didn't diminish from the thrill of seeing the golden, gleaming temple.
I spent the next two nights in a Kyoto hostel. And that first evening joined an organised walking tour of Gion, the most famous geisha district of Kyoto. The whole geisha thing is mind blowing. Here's what I learned. Geishas prefer to be known as geikos, the "ko" denoting their professional status. Maikos are the girls in training, who spend 5 years going to "school" every day to learn the skills of etiquette, flower arranging, dance, playing musical instruments, making tea.
Unlike the geikos, maikos have limited skills, and only (!) their youth and beauty to offer clients. This is why their kimonos and accessories are more ostentatious: brilliant colours and designs in comparison to the more muted geikos who are fully proficient in all the arts of entertaining. The training is extremely tough. During their first year maikos aren't allowed home. Cell phones and use of the internet are forbidden (though, curiously, initial contact by girls interested in the career is via the internet). There is surveillance in the boarding houses where the girls live, and our guide had a story about one girl who received a phone call when she relaxed to the extent of leaning her arm on a table. There is zero tolerance of such behaviour.
A maiko's world is limited to a few hundred square metres of her boarding house. Apart from school, she will have contact with her dresser (there are five in employment in Kyoto), who will help her don her 20 kg kimono. She will go to a beauty parlour to be made up. Maikos receive only pocket money, with all earnings going into a common pot that finances their enormous expenses. During her training a maiko, whose costume and accessories are changed every month, will clock up half a million dollars' worth of kimono expenses.
Geikos, on the other hand, can choose the kind of life they want to have. Some might work in a different field, alongside; they can choose their clients - but also have to take responsibility for their expenses, of course. Our guide surprised us when she revealed the oldest geisha in Kyoto is a venerable 90 years old. I tested this fact on Hiroshi, and he could quite see that a woman of this age would have much skill. (Mum - are you reading this?!)
The whole geisha world is shrouded in secrecy and exclusiveness. Geiko might entertain politicians or businessmen and, with the need for discretion, an evasive way of talking needs to be acquired. (In fact people from Kyoto have a reputation for being this way, even amongst Japanese.) In addition, there is dialect to be learned, and the sing-song way of intoning.
The tea houses that are the basic venues are discreet, a tiny plaque, invisible to an uneducated eye, the only indication of the establishment. Access is by invitation only (Gorbachov was turned down the first time he wanted access). The ochaya (tea houses) are a kind of gentlemen's club for a monied elite; more recently, men can drop in to a bar in an ochaya simply to relax. Or, more formally, they can ask an ochaya to organise a party for W number of people on X date, for Y timing, with Z maiko/geiko - with no discussion of budget. They then can't blink when the bill arrives some months afterwards, as this way of doing business is based on trust. I asked Hiroshi if footballers would be allowed into this privileged world and got a very clear No!
And the discretion goes further. Clients don't use their real names, but (men) are referred to as "Brother X" (a young man) or "Father Y" (an older man). No wonder, when part of the entertainment can consist of childishly silly physical and drinking games. The only way for some men to let their hair down? I'd always doubted how the allure of the geishas could be linked to anything other than a kind of classy prostitution. But geiko are not prostitutes, and I think I have an idea of how the interaction might work. To be successful as a geisha requires great skill and determination, and geikos therefore have immense pride. The white make-up is said to enhance sexuality. But It also seems a way of preserving distance. This and the exquisite clothes and gestures set the geiko unreachably high. All men can do is admire. And the fact that only the most distinguished men are allowed access creates a power balance in the relationship.
And so we walked the streets, would-be voyeurs hoping for a view of a maiko or geiko as she went about her business. We got one glimpse of a girl whose dress (and lack of make-up) indicated her to be in the preparatory year, before maiko training. During this time around 40% of girls drop out - for very understandable reasons. But this didn't satisfy my curiosity. So, the following evening I bought a ticket to the tourist show put on in a theatre. For 10 minutes of the one-hour "demo" of different elements of Japanese culture we watched two maikos dancing. I am surprised to write that, despite resisting the notions of femininity and service that underpin the geiko culture, this inauthentic tourist experience was nevertheless spellbinding.
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