If you’ve ever visited Japan’s former capital, Kyoto, you might have seen geisha, women with white-powdered faces and beautiful kimonos, hurrying to appointments on the narrow streets of the famous Gion District.
People call it a “magical moment.”
Geisha, who are an iconic part of Japanese culture, are professional entertainers trained in various traditional arts including dance and music.
But now Kyoto is closing off some privately owned alleys in the Gion District.
“We will put up signs in April instructing tourists to stay away from our private streets,” said local district official Isokazu Ota to the AP news agency.
Tourists often crowd the narrow and ancient streets of Gion, sometimes even following guides who take them around, occasionally stopping to talk at length about interesting things.
Gion is a popular destination – this maze-like district is famous for its temples, gardens, and beautiful tea houses.
Here is also where geisha and maiko apprentices wear kimonos (traditional Japanese clothing) and ornate hair decorations, showcasing dance and music.
Equipped with cameras, visitors often flood the Gion area in hopes of catching glimpses of the women on their way to dance classes or luxurious dinner parties.
‘Excessive Tourism’
Complaints about tourists being ‘overzealous’ have arisen years ago, and local authorities reported that “unruly” tourists harass geisha and sometimes coerce them into posing for photos or touching their kimonos.
When the Covid-19 pandemic led to a tourism slump, this issue wasn’t as pressing, but now visitors have returned to normal levels. ^^^^^^^^
Isokazu Ota, the secretary of the Gion district council, said tourist groups sometimes “act like paparazzi” when geisha emerge from the narrow alleys, which are only one or two meters wide.
Public streets in this district will remain open to tourists, so this area and other parts of Kyoto will continue to be filled with visitors, both from Japan and around the world.
More than 25 million visitors came to Japan last year, wanting to enjoy delicious Japanese cuisine, high-tech electronic gadgets, beautiful gardens, and also see natural wonders like Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms.
In 2019, the number of tourists entering Japan totaled nearly 32 million people – dropping to just 250,000 people in 2021 – but this year’s figures could approach or even surpass the 2019 record, experts say.
This surge has overwhelmed many residents in the Gion area.
The local council, hearing the complaints, concluded that there was a lack of local enthusiasm for the influx of visitors a few months ago, stating that “Kyoto is not an amusement park.”
