Take a seat for the annual geisha dance performances in Kyoto.
Every year, Kyoto’s geisha districts host dance festivals, offering locals and visitors lucky enough to get tickets and the chance to see geisha in all their glory in vibrant kimono and beautiful hair arrangements. There are four geisha districts in Kyoto, each with its own theater. The most famous and largest is Gion (which is actually divided into two: Gion Kobu and Gion Higashi), the area featured heavily in Arthur Golden’s best-selling novel Memoirs of a Geisha. Next to Gion is Miyagawacho and near Kamishichiken and Pontocho are the other rooms.
The dances themselves are set up for a musical accompaniment of shamisen (traditional Japanese guitar) and tell old stories of love and loss, life and death. Background colors change during presentation to reflect the cam
bio of the seasons: the beautiful pink cherry blossom of spring gives way to the greens of summer, the blazing golds and reds of fall and finally the cold white snow of winter.
When to go:
Geisha dance performances take place at the end of March, during the months of April and May, and during the first ten days of November. We can help you get the tickets
.