Thoughts on the Tourist Ban in Gion, Part I
Gion has been in the news a lot recently.
Two typical headlines are: “Tourists banned from private alleys in Kyoto’s geisha district” (The Japan Times) and “Kyoto bans tourists from parts of geisha district amid reports of bad behavior” (The Guardian).
Even before I start reading, I spot mistakes. Some of the photos accompanying the stories identify tourists dressed as maiko as authentic maiko or label other parts of Kyoto such as Ponto-cho as being part of Gion. The Japan Times article is the only one I’ve seen with a photo of a real maiko in Gion Kobu.
As I read, I have to wonder if the writer has even been to Gion Kobu, let alone spoken to anyone from the area. In most cases, I would say the answer to both is no.
I do live in Kyoto, and I have been to Gion Kobu countless times in the past 22 years, mostly as a photographer, sometimes as the friend of a resident, and occasionally as a guide. I know people there personally.
The tourist ban that all these stories talk about was supposed to start at the beginning of April. I went to Gion Kobu on Thursday, April 4, to visit a friend, and I’d like to share some of the things I saw. I think it’s important that people have accurate information about what is happening there, and I’m sad to say I don’t believe many of the articles I’ve seen in the last month have been either accurate or informative.
This is a complex issue, so this will be the first of a series of monthly blog posts I will write about it. If you’re new, I publish on the first Sunday of the month around 5:00 p.m. Japan time.
This is also not a new issue. I started this blog in 2011, and one of my goals has always been to get photographers and tourists to treat maiko and geiko respectfully. I wrote a series called Photographing Geisha back in 2012. The first post is “How to Photograph Geisha: The One Goal You Must Have.
First thought: Businesses for tourists will attract tourists!
When I go to Gion Kobu, I get off the subway at Sanjo Station and walk down Hanami-koji towards the district. Hanami-koji is the main artery through Gion, often jammed with tourists, but just a few minutes north of Gion (near Sanjo Dori), the street is mostly deserted. All the shops on the East side are shuttered and have been for years. The buildings are dilapidated.
Once you cross the Shirakawa River, things begin to change. Hanami-koji is lined with bars and restaurants. There are some new hotels, too. Who stays in hotels? Tourists!
As I get close to Shijo Dori and Ichiriki, the most famous tea house In Gion Kobu, I start to see tourists dressed in kimono. Some men are dressed in hakama (wide-pleated pants). There are couples and groups of friends. Many of these tourists are not Japanese, but some are.
There are quite a few of these kimono rental shops. I just googled “kimono rental shops Gion Kobu” and found 16 shops within a five-minute walk of the Hanamikoj-Shijo intersection, the center of Gion.
People who dress up in kimono are going to want photos of themselves in their costumes. And since they are dressed in traditional attire, it stands to reason that they want to take these photographs in front of traditional buildings. And where are the most photogenic buildings and alleys? Gion Kobu, of course!
In addition, many of the mom-and-pop shops on Shijo Dori (a bookstore, a shop that sold authentic maiko and geiko hair ornaments) have disappeared over the years. What replaces them? Convenience stores, souvenir shops, and the like. Who goes to souvenir shops? Tourists!
This is cause and effect. If businesses that cater to tourists open in an area, tourists are going to come to that area, especially an area as beautiful as Gion Kobu.
Two decades ago, Gion was Different
This is a radical change from the Gion Kobu I first encountered in 2002. I would call the Gion Kobu of 2002 unfriendly to tourists at best. Back then, most of the restaurants in the area served kaiseki-ryori, traditional Japanese haute cuisine that is as expensive as it is delicious. The starting price for many of these restaurants was 10,000 yen and up, so about US$100, and this was 20 years ago.
However, you often couldn’t tell how expensive the restaurants were because the prices were written in kanji. If you couldn’t read Japanese, you wouldn’t know what the restaurant served or how much it cost.
I first went to a kaiseki-ryori restaurant in 2004. I knew the chef and some of his staff because they would slip out the side door of the restaurant for a smoke break at night, and I would be standing there with my camera hoping for a maiko or geiko to pass by.
We started talking and became friendly, so when some of my family visited me, I asked the chef and the staff if we could come to the restaurant and how much it would be. Since they knew me, they explained how much it would cost and put in a good word for me with the owner. If I hadn’t known them, I would have been afraid to even approach the restaurant. I knew instinctively that I would not have been welcomed.
From late 2002 to 2006, I photographed in Gion Kobu as a street photographer, so I was usually there once a week, sometimes in the late afternoon, sometimes in the evening until 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. In all those years, I do not remember seeing tourists enter any of the restaurants in the area. Ever. The establishments in Gion Kobu were not a place for outsiders or tourists. They were exclusive, for insiders only.
Ordinary people like me could walk down the streets, but we could not go inside. And we were tolerated on the streets, not welcomed. Now that I think of it, it reminds me of the green light at the end of the dock from The Great Gatsby. I longed to see what was inside these restaurants and tea houses, but I never thought I’d get to.
Things Change
Over the years, things began to change. The chef at the restaurant I mentioned earlier told me he was leaving. He and the staff were going to work at a restaurant in New York. Other kaiseki-ryori restaurants closed, too. Now on the street where my friend lives, there are two Italian restaurants. I have been to one, and it is much more reasonably priced than a kaiseki-ryori restaurant.
Think about that: on one of the main streets in Gion Kobu, one of the most famous and traditional areas in all of Japan, there is not one but two Italian restaurants. The times they are a-changing, indeed!
I almost fainted one day when I passed a restaurant on this same street and saw a sign that said, “We have English menu.” A restaurant in Gion Kobu welcoming foreigners? I couldn’t believe it. This was about ten years ago.
It might have not been intentional, but over the past two decades, Gion has gone from a place that tolerated tourists on the streets (not in the teahouses or most of the restaurants) to one that has some restaurants and more than a few shops in the area or nearby that cater to tourists.
Combine this with so many people wanting to travel after the COVID-19 years with the weakness of the Japanese yen (which makes Japan cheaper to visit), and you get the situation we have now.
Please don’t get me wrong. I am not defending rude tourists. I wouldn’t mind a complete ban on tourists in Gion. It would make photographing the maiko and geiko I work with much easier.
I stopped photographing maiko and geiko outside on the streets years ago because of how uncomfortable some tourists made me and the maiko and geiko I work with feel. It was easier to stay inside.
I hear complaints about tourists in Gion, but no real attempts at solutions. As someone wrote to me recently on Instagram asking for advice about coming to Gion, “Unfortunately it seems like in my research there is a lot of what not to do and not a lot of what to do.”
If you don’t understand the problem, you won’t be able to find a solution.
Stating only that there are too many tourists and that they need to stay out of certain streets and private roads is not going to do much to solve the problem, as I saw on April 4. The problems were just as bad as ever.
Two of the biggest ones are oblivious tourists and negligent tour guides. I’ll write about both next month. In the meantime, if you have any questions or thoughts you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I will respond to every one!
Key posts in my photographing geisha series are:
Photographing Geisha: Avoid the Hanamikoji Herd