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In April 1988 my wife and I for the first time attended the Miyako Odori performance in Gion. At that time it was much less commercialized (or should I say “less vulgarized”?) than it is now. We also did not have to face the immense throngs of people that are herded through the performance today.

We had tickets for the tea ceremony that is performed as an extra by a geiko before the start of the actual theater program. Twenty years ago it was still possible to observe this at ease in quiet surroundings (we were there last year when it was not even possible to drink the tea before being chased out again…).

[Tea ceremony by Toyochiyo during the 1988 Miyako Odori, Kyoto. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

During that long-ago visit we were lucky, because the geiko performing the tea ceremony was non other than Toyochiyo, at that time the top geiko of Gion Kobu (and therefore the top geiko of Japan!). I was able to take some good pictures of her. Assisting in the ceremony was the maiko Kotsuru. The dance performance that followed was also memorable.

A few days ago I put some of the scans of the slides I took in 1988 on Flickr and the feedback I got motivated me to do some research: where was Toyochiyo now?

Well, as I could read on her own website (only in Japanese), she is doing fine! In her profile on the site I read that in all she worked as a geiko in Gion from 1968 to 1989. She retired one year after we saw her, at the still young age of 36.

When still a geiko, she had obtained a license as Ikebana teacher, and she now was invited to join a group that toured the world to spread Japanese culture via ikebana demonstrations. In all, Toyochiyo visited more than 78 countries.

[Tea ceremony by Toyochiyo during the 1988 Miyako Odori, Kyoto. The maiko is Kotsuru. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

In 1999 she returned to Gion and opened a traditional Japanese tea and dessert shop “Kasai” in a 100-year old chaya (the place where geisha entertain their customers) in Hanami-koji. Visiting the restaurant is a golden chance to see a chaya from the inside. The menu features matcha, zenzai, warabi-mochi, etc.

Toyochiyo is very active promoting the culture of Gion by lecturing, both in Japan and abroad. In 2008 she lectured at Kyushu University about her research on the comparative cultures of geisha in Japan and Korea. Among her many accomplishments are the tea ceremony, calligraphy, song and dance, and ikebana. In that last capacity, she now acts as a free ikebana artist and teacher (i.e. not bound to any school) and organizes her own productions and events.

Her present name is Kiriki Chizu.　She also writes a (Japanese) blog on her website called “Gion Saijiki.”

See my Flickr pictures.

All information about Toyochiyo divulged above has been made public on her own website www.c-kiriki.com