"Gion Odori: Maple Dance"

"We're fools, whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."
-Japanese Proverb

The leaves are dancing,
like butterflies in the wind,
showing their reds and golds.

We humans mirror them,
using the wind in our flutes,
dancing in our autumn wardrobes.

Kat & I went to Gion on Wednesday,
and caught the shichi-go-san,
the Seven-Five-Three Ages festival for children.
{Want your heart melted? Watch toddlers run around in kimonos.}

Our real purpose, though,
was to see the geisha and maiko dance.

In all my trips to Kyoto,
I'd never seen a real geisha before.

I don't think I blinked once
the entire performance.

Gion Odori (lit. Gion Dance)
tells the story of a woman
whose life is spared by a demon,
and she must fetch him a gift in return for his "kindness".

There was a live orchestra
of shamisen players
and tayu (chanters).

My favorite character,
the demon Ibaraki
{played by a woman}.

Demon Ibaraki
and his minions,
the stolen maiko children.

A maiko is an apprentice geisha.
You can differentiate between them from
the maiko's long sleeves,
tail-like obi belts,
high geta shoes,
forked nape makeup,
and elaborate hair ornamentation
{not to mention their hair styles & color schemes}.
Maikos are more decorated than their geisha masters,
like adolescents and adults.

I get to visit Kyoto
two more times
before I leave Japan.
If I don't make it back to America this December...
...it's because I'm in training to be a geisha.

{Music via Kat-Tun & Eri}