Business Aspects of the Kyoto Hanamachi: Introduction

摘要

When people hear "Kyoto," what probably comes to mind is a maiko (apprentice geisha) in a Japanese hairstyle decorated with floral hairpins and wearing the long, trailing darari obi. It is also not unusual to see tourists waiting in front of ochaya (tea houses) and okiya (geisha houses) to catch a glimpse of maiko heading toward banquets when evening falls in Gion, where the rows of houses with their latticework doors and cobblestone streets radiate the atmosphere of the old imperial capital, Kyoto. In 2006, more than 48 million tourists visited the city of Kyoto. Nowadays there is a Kyoto boom, and there are a large number of publications of photograph collections and mass communication materials introducing maiko.