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Barber street or district, Japan

Gion, Kyoto

Kyoto's geisha district, where maiko wear traditional nihongami of their own hair, changed with the seasons by their kanzashi.

Gion, the old entertainment district of Kyoto along the Kamo river, is the best-known home of geiko, as Kyoto calls geisha, and maiko, their apprentices. Maiko wear nihongami, traditional Japanese hairstyles, made from their own hair by specialist hairdressers, and decorated with kanzashi that change with the month. Full geiko wear a wig instead. Brides at Kyoto's shrines wear similar styles under a white hood.

Maiko hair

A new maiko wears the wareshinobu, a rounded style with a split bun at the top decorated with red silk. After two or three years she changes to the ofuku, and for some festivals and stages there are special styles. The hair is dressed with wax by a specialist hairdresser about once a week, so maiko sleep on a raised pillow, the takamakura, to keep it in shape. When she becomes a geiko, in the ceremony called erikae, she starts to wear a wig.

Kanzashi and brides

The kanzashi of maiko follow the seasons: pine, bamboo and plum at New Year, plum in February, cherry blossom in April, wisteria in May, willow or hydrangea in June and maple leaves in November. In December they wear maneki, small plaques signed by kabuki actors at the Minamiza theatre's kaomise performances. Japanese brides in Shinto weddings wear the bunkin takashimada, a formal shimada style or wig, under the white hood called tsunokakushi, said to hide the 'horns' of jealousy.

Hairstyles of Gion, Kyoto

NihongamiThe traditional styles of maikoKanzashiSeasonal hair ornaments of maikoTsunokakushiThe white bridal hood worn over a shimada

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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