Essay by Kikuno
An Evening with Geisha
I was one of the lucky few that had the chance to participate in e special evening with three geisha from Kyoto at the Savoy Theatre in Helsinki.
Before the geisha arrived on stage a small speech was held and Peter MacIntosh was invited to the stage.
Those who are not familiar with Peter, he is a Canadian who has lived in Kyoto for over 10 years working with geisha and running his own company so he is quite the expert.
Peter briefly spoke about Kyoto and the history of geisha before introducing the main attraction, the geiko Fukuwaka and two maiko Satonami and Miehina.
The first one to perform was Satonami while Fukuwaka played the shamisen and sang, after Satonami Miehina also danced a lovely piece before Satonami joined her and both danced the Gion Kouta together.
Then all three danced together the Miygawa Ondo, this was only the second time it was performed outside Kyoto so it was special treat.
But the program continued even after that. The audience had a chance to participate in a game of tora,tora,tora which was like a form of rock, paper, scissor which both the participants and the maiko enjoyed very much.
Then Peter began to explain the differences in the appearance of a maiko and geiko having the girls stand beside each other so that we could clearly see the beautiful kimono and obi.
After the performances were over we were served a small Japanese meal of sushi and sake before the girls joined us again.
Immediately people began to take pictures of them and they kindly and patiently stood and posed for the photographers.
I had the great pleasure to talk with Fukuwaka who was a very interesting person to talk to, her long experience as a geisha clearly stood out.
What was interesting about her was that Fukuwaka had never been a maiko.
After finishing high school she was about to go abroad when she realized that she knew almost nothing about traditional Japanese culture.
After thinking were was the best place to learn about traditional Japanese arts she decided to become a geisha. Her age and height made the her to old to begin training as a maiko so instead she debut as a geisha.
After some pleasant conversation she asked if we had talked to the maiko at all and called Satonami over to us. Satonami was such a adorable person and I instantly liked her.
She was so excited over everything she had seen and experienced in Finland and told us that she had very good memories to take with her.
She was absolutely endearing and I almost hoped that the evening would never end or that I could go back to Japan with them.
But sooner or later the evening would end and the geisha would rush off to other appointments.
As I began to walk away from the theatre Satonami thanked us from coming and waved goodbye to us while saying bye bye in such a sweet way.
It was a dream come true for me and an evening I will never forget.
Article written by Kikuno. All rights reserved.
