After 1957, when prostitution was made illegal, the remaining tayû in Kyoto’s Shimabara licensed district were declared a special variety of geisha. In the 1970s, Shimabara in Kyoto was still considered an active hanamachi, and people spoke of the rokkagai (six hanamachi) of Kyoto. Now, in the 21st century, Shimabara has been dropped, and the geisha of Kyoto as a group are now the gokagai (five hanamachi.) Shimabara exists primarily as a living museum, with three or four women trained to play the role of the traditional tayû of the old licensed quarter. Their presentations of music, dance, and tea ceremony are mostly given for tourists in the setting of one of two historical buildings that have been preserved.



This is a video of Shimabara’s Kisaragi Tayû that I filmed in 2007:

