For centuries, tourists have been visiting Kyoto to see the city’s geisha with their bright kimonos, white-painted faces and elaborate hairdos.
But starting next month, visitors to the historic district of Gion will be banned from certain streets due to increased harassment.
Experts say the situation is “out of control”; Spectators reportedly put out cigarettes on performers, harassed them for selfies, and chased them down the street.
The plan to limit access comes after the Gion district council, made up of local residents, called on Kyoto city in December to tackle the problem of overtourism, stressing that the area was “not a theme park”.
Many of the area’s atmospheric narrow streets lined with traditional wooden architecture will be inaccessible to tourists from next month.
‘We don’t want to do this, but we are desperate’
Although the area’s main street, Hanamikoji Street, will remain open, the ban will be marked with new signs, according to council member Isokazu Ota.
“We will ask tourists to avoid entering narrow private streets in April or later,” he told AFP. “We don’t want to do this, but we are desperate.”
One of Kyoto’s busiest spots, the picturesque Gion district has long attracted crowds of tourists with its time capsule architecture, cultural heritage and legendary status as home to geishas.
The volume of crowds filling Gion’s streets belies the culture of exclusivity that traditionally surrounds the ritual-filled world of geishas, known in Kyoto as geiko.
Access to the world of geikos, masters of traditional art forms from dance to music, requires introductions through connections often permitted at special teahouse events with elite patrons.
Plans to limit access to Gion’s lanes follow several previous initiatives aimed at curbing tourist bad behavior in the area, which have appeared to have limited impact.
Five years ago, Gion district council put up signs saying “photography is prohibited on private roads”, warning of fines of up to 10,000 yen (£53) for those taking photos without consent.
The problem became even more critical when Japan reopened its borders in October 2022 after being closed for two and a half years due to Covid, paving the way for a revival in tourism.
In one incident, a US tourist reportedly threw $10,000 to a geisha, along with her hotel room key.
More commonly, tourists sometimes block the paths of performers who are mistaken for sex workers in foreign cultures and demand selfies.
Geisha culture expert Peter Macintosh told the South China Morning Post that they sometimes enter private property to take photographs. “It got out of control,” he said.
Lack of cultural awareness was blamed
According to James Mundy of tour operator InsideJapan Tours, a lack of cultural awareness is a major factor causing conflict between tourists and locals in Kyoto.
“Kyoto was definitely seeing signs of overtourism pre-pandemic, but this has become a bigger problem as demand for travel to Japan has increased post-pandemic,” he told The Telegraph.
“But overtourism isn’t just about large crowds, it’s also about a lack of cultural awareness, which is a big part of the problem here; large groups of tourists and DIY travelers eager to take pictures of the iconic geisha on the streets of traditional Kyoto but there’s a lack of understanding of culture and etiquette.”
Kyoto is not the only tourist destination in Japan that is in the spotlight due to overtourism concerns. Officials in Yamanashi Prefecture announced this week that starting this summer, hikers who want to climb Mount Fuji, Japan’s most famous peak, will be charged 2,000 yen per person and numbers will be limited, in an effort to improve safety and reduce congestion.
There were approximately 80,000 geisha in the late 1920s, but only 1,000 remain today.
Young people are less likely to participate in the long-term training in music, dance and etiquette that the 18th-century tradition required.
The pandemic has encouraged some geisha to innovate by holding Zoom calls or opening crowdfunding sites.
In addition to a sumptuous meal, the typical geisha performance offers guests an hours-long party that includes dancing and games.
In the 1970s, US anthropologist Liza Dalby became the first Westerner to be accepted into the geisha community after studying the form for her doctorate.
His skill on the shamisen, a stringed instrument, was his key to entry into the monastic community.
Dalby was invited to join a group in Kyoto; Here she would gain fame as the “blue-eyed geisha” and become a household name in the country.
“They saw that I was serious about my work and felt that I couldn’t truly understand their lives unless I experienced it myself,” he said.