Geisha are neither courtesans nor actresses: they are artists who spend years on dance, music and conversation, and in Kyoto little more than two hundred remain. This walk follows their world from the river where kabuki was born to the teahouses you cannot enter without an introduction. Twelve stops between the oldest theatre, the Pontocho alley, the willow-lined canal, the houses where the apprentices live, the shrine that gave the district its name, the teahouse of the 47 ronin, the theatre of the Capital Dance, the first Zen temple, the stone that cuts ties, the stone slopes and the wooden stage of Kiyomizu. Approximate audio duration: 21 minutes.
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Gion: el mundo cerrado de las geishas que sobrevivió al siglo veinte
Las geishas no son cortesanas ni actrices: son artistas que dedican años a la danza, la música y la conversación, y en Kioto quedan poco más de doscientas. Este recorrido sigue su mundo desde el río donde nació el kabuki hasta las casas de té donde no se entra sin presentación. Doce paradas entre el teatro más antiguo, el callejón de Pontocho, el canal de los sauces, las casas donde viven las aprendices, el santuario que dio nombre al barrio, la casa de té de los 47 ronin, el teatro de la Danza de la Capital, el primer templo zen, la piedra que corta relaciones, las cuestas de piedra y el escenario de madera de Kiyomizu. Duración aproximada de audio: 21 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~21 min of audio · 4.19 km on foot (~1 h 5 min walking) · about 1 h 30 min in total
You are at the eastern end of Shijo bridge over the Kamo River. In front of you rises a building with tiled roofs and actors' posters: the Minamiza, the oldest kabuki theatre in Japan still operating on its original site.
Look near the bridge for the statue of a woman in men's clothing with a sword. It is Izumo no Okuni. Around 1603 she began dancing on the dry bed of this river with a group of women. Her show mixed dance, comedy and daring scenes.
That is how kabuki was born. It was an instant success, so much so that the authorities grew worried. In 1629 the shogunate banned women from per…
2
The Alley of Lanterns
Step into Pontocho. It is an alley barely two metres wide and half a kilometre long, between the Kamo River and a canal. Lanterns bearing the emblem of a water bird, sliding doors, restaurants leaning out over the river.
Pontocho is one of Kyoto's five hanamachi: the flower districts, where geiko and maiko live and work. The other four are two in Gion, one in Miyagawa-cho and one in Kamishichiken.
The name is curious. A popular theory says it comes from the Portuguese ponto, point or tip, from the days when Portuguese merchants reached Japan. Nobody knows for sure.
Look at the little lanter…
3
Water Flowing Under the Pillow
You are beside the Tatsumi bridge over the Shirakawa canal. Willows drooping over the water, wooden teahouses with lattice windows, moss-covered stones. It is one of the most photographed corners of Kyoto.
Next to the bridge is a small shrine, Tatsumi Daimyojin. Maiko come here to pray for progress in dance and music.
Look along the canal for a stone with a poem carved on it. It is by Isamu Yoshii, a poet who frequented this district in the early twentieth century. It says, more or less: whatever they say, I love Gion; even when I sleep, water flows beneath my pillow.
The houses you see wer…
4
The Life of an Apprentice
Look at the facades on this street: dark wood, fine latticework, small wooden plaques by the doors with names written on them. Some of these houses are okiya, where the maiko live with their adoptive mother, the okasan.
A girl who wants to become a maiko arrives here today at about fifteen, after finishing compulsory school. For a year she learns the Kyoto dialect, manners, how to walk in a kimono. Then comes her debut.
For about five years she studies dance, shamisen, singing, flute, the tea ceremony and the hardest art of all: conversation. The okiya pays for her food, her lessons and her …
5
The District Born at a Shrine's Gate
You are in front of the great red gate of Yasaka shrine, at the end of Shijo avenue. For centuries it was called Gion-sha, the Gion shrine. The whole district bears its name.
Gion is the Japanese word for Jetavana, a garden in India where, according to tradition, the Buddha preached. The shrine then mixed local gods with Buddhism.
It all began with the pilgrims. To serve them, teahouses opened around the shrine offering tea and something to eat. Over time, the girls who served were also asked to sing and dance.
From those pilgrims' teahouses came the ochaya and, in the eighteenth century, t…
6
The Ronin's Teahouse
You are at the corner of Hanamikoji and Shijo. Look at the house with bright red walls and a tiled roof: it is Ichiriki-tei, the most famous teahouse in Gion, more than three hundred years old.
You cannot go in. Ochaya work by a strict rule: no one is admitted without an introduction from a regular client. Ichigen-san okotowari: no strangers.
The reason is practical. The teahouse organises the evening, hires the geiko, orders the food and pays for everything. The client receives the bill weeks later. Trust is needed, and trust is inherited.
This house has a famous story. In the early eighte…
7
A Dance to Save Kyoto
At the end of Hanamikoji stands the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo, the theatre where the geiko of Gion present the Miyako Odori, the dance of the capital, every April.
This dance has a very precise birth date: 1872. And a political reason. Three years earlier the emperor had moved to Tokyo. Kyoto, capital for more than a thousand years, was suddenly left without a court, without nobles and without money.
The city decided to hold a great exhibition to attract visitors and trade. The geiko of Gion created a special show: rows of identical dancers moving in unison, something new in Japanese dance.
It wa…
8
The Monk Who Brought Tea
You are at Kennin-ji, the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto, founded in 1202. It contrasts with the district: after the teahouses, the silence of gravel gardens.
Its founder, the monk Eisai, had travelled twice to China. From there he brought Zen Buddhism and something else: tea seeds and the custom of drinking it powdered and whisked. He wrote a book on the health benefits of tea.
From that monks' tea came, centuries later, the tea ceremony. And the tea ceremony is one of the arts every maiko must master. The path you saw in the teahouses begins, in a way, in this temple.
Go into the lecture hall…
9
The Stone That Cuts Ties
You are at Yasui Konpira-gu, a small shrine tucked between houses. In the middle of the courtyard is a huge stone completely covered in thousands of little white papers. In the centre it has a hole.
It is the stone for cutting and binding ties. The ritual goes like this: you write on a slip the relationship you want to end, crawl through the hole from front to back to cut it, then from back to front to draw in a good relationship. At the end you stick your paper on the stone.
People come to break with a bad love, an addiction, a boss, an illness. Read some of the papers, if you can read Japa…
10
The Stone Lane
Step into Ishibe-koji. It is a narrow lane paved with stone slabs, twisting between walls of wood and stone. No signs, no souvenir shops. It is easy to walk past the entrance without seeing it.
This maze was built in the early twentieth century on the grounds of an old temple. The houses became discreet inns and teahouses, away from the eyes of the avenue.
Discretion is the key word in the world of Gion. What happens in a teahouse stays in the teahouse. Geiko hear secrets from politicians, businessmen and artists, and the district's reputation depends on their never repeating them.
Some of …
11
Don't Fall on This Slope
You are on the slopes of Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka: stone steps, two-storey wooden houses, shops selling ceramics, sweets and tea. If you look back, the Yasaka pagoda appears in the distance.
These slopes were the pilgrims' route to Kiyomizu-dera. The houses survive because the area was declared a protected historic district in the seventies.
There is a famous superstition. If you fall on Sannenzaka, the three-year slope, you will die within three years. That is why the shops sell dried gourds as charms: they are said to protect you if you trip.
In fact the name probably comes from elsewhere…
12
Leaping From the Stage
You have reached Kiyomizu-dera. Walk out onto the great wooden stage that juts from the hillside about thirteen metres above the trees. Beneath it, a framework of hundreds of beams fitted together without a single nail holds it up.
The temple was founded in the eighth century. The current hall was rebuilt by the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1633, the same man who embellished Nikko.
Japanese has an expression: to leap from the stage of Kiyomizu. It means making a bold decision, staking everything. In the Edo period many people did it literally, convinced that if they survived their wish would c…
How long does the "Gion: the Closed World of the Geisha That Survived the Twentieth Century" audio tour take?
It has about 21 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 4.19 km walking route (~1 h 5 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 30 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "A Woman on the Riverbank" (coordinates 35.0038, 135.7719). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Kyoto and pick "Gion: the Closed World of the Geisha That Survived the Twentieth Century". No account required to start.
