Kikugawa and Kurokami
Misconceptions about TAYU and Dance
When I first met Kikugawa, I knew next to nothing about tayū.
One of the many misconceptions I had was that tayū only danced Inishie or Olden Times. On the rare occasions I encountered a tayū at an event in Kyoto, she always danced Inishie.
There was a good reason for this. As Kikugawa told me, “Inishie is the main dance of tayū. Only tayū can dance Inishie. Younger tayū learn this dance from older tayū, so geiko or maiko cannot dance Inishie.”
Kurokami
Of course, geiko and maiko can dance Kurokami or Black Hair. I wrote about Kurokami in my book Now a Geisha, and I will excerpt a few paragraphs here:
For the maiko of Gion Kobu, Kurokami or the Black Hair dance is synonymous with the erikae period. “We dance it when we beomce geiko,” Manaha said. The lyrics of Kurokami describe “the sad feelings of Tatsuhime, who was sleeping by herself and waiting for her partner, Minamoto no Yoritomo,” Mameharu said. “She knew that he was with another woman, Hojo Masako, and would never come to see her.” Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder of the Kamakura Shogunate, and he ruled Japan from 1192 - 1199. Tatsuhime knew Yoritomo would not be coming to see her because Yoritomo married Hojo Masako, who came from one of the most powerful clans at the time. Yoritomo married Masako for political reasons, not love. Mameharu likes the song because “A woman’s hopelessly sad and lonely feelings appear both in the song and in the choreography.”
Kikugawa’s Dance style
I have photographed maiko and geiko In Gion Kobu dancing Kurokami many times, and Kikugawa’s version of the dance looks nothing like the Gion Kobu version.
Why?
Because there are different styles or schools of dance, and each has its’ own version of a dance if it is in their repertoire.
Kigugawa explained it to me: “In Nihon buyo (Japanese dance), there are mai and odori. Odori is more like Kabuki dance, and there are five schools. As for mai, there are four schools: Yoshimura-ryu, Inoue-ryu, Yamamura-ryu, and Umemoto-ryu. I belong to Yoshimura-ryu, one of the four schools of mai.”
Geiko and maiko in Gion Kobu belong to Inoue-ryu, so they perform Kurokami differently than Kikugawa.
When I asked Kikugawa to elaborate, she told me, “My school, Yoshimura-ryu, originated in Goten-mai (A traditional Japanese dance style developed at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto). So it is Gosho-hu (Imperial-Palace-like), in which some essence of Noh is mixed. Therefore, the form is more structured. You don’t jump or do anything like that.”
Since Kikguawa’s hair ornaments weigh five kilograms and her kimono and uchikake weigh about twenty kilograms, it’s probably good that she doesn’t have to jump. It would be difficult!
The Portrait Kikugawa and Kurokami
I photographed several variations of Kikugawa dancing Kurokami on this day in February 2016, but this portrait and pose stood out to me.
First, I love the contrast of the lines and curves. We have the sharp straight lines of her hair ornaments (the dangling orange nagasaki, the tortoiseshell hairpins) and the left sleeve of her uchikake (outer robe), the jagged lines of her fan and the folds in her obi, and the curves of her hair, cheek, collar, and shoulders.
I also love the way the reds, greens, and blacks stand out starkly from the purple background. The glittering gold and silver of her obi and uchikake are visual icing on an already rich cake.
Tayu are even more flamboyant than maiko, and that’s saying something! They are also rare and precious. Kikugawa’s hair ornaments, collar, and red kimono are all irreplaceable. They are no longer made in this modern age.
It was a privilege to know her and photograph her!