Today’s book is by an incredibly famous Japanese photographer who has been taking images of the karyukai since the 1970s. Hiroshi Mizobuchi (溝縁ひろし) has produced numerous exhibitions of his photographs and have had many of them used in books by various authors, but the ones that he has published himself are true gems. His newest is the featured book this week and his most precious jewel of all.



Book’s softcover courtesy of Amazon Japan.

京都の花街 (Kyoto No Kagai) - The Kagai in Kyoto by Hiroshi Mizobuchi 溝縁ひろし (ISBN 978-4-8381-0526-7)

Date of Publication: 2015

Language: English and Japanese (Full)

Format: Softcover

Availability: Can find it easily online through Japanese websites or other places that sell Japanese books

Price: $30-35

Errors: 2 (English Issues)



I cannot even begin to think of how many times I’ve read and re-read this book from start to finish, but it must be in the dozens of times by now. What makes it so special (besides the stunning photography, which I’ll get to in a second), is that it gives an intimate view of all five hanamachi and it shares time with all of them equally. For the section on misedashi you’ll see at least one from every district. For the dance sections you’ll see multiple pictures of the same events over different years to get a taste of how the programs change from year to year. And, the best part, it’s all completely written with both Japanese and English captions. Each line of text contains the Japanese words followed by a direct English translation. It is one of the only “true” dual language books that I’ve seen do this (the other being Nihongami No Sekai that I covered last week).



For the most part this is a book based on images as the author is a photographer, but there’s just the right amount of text with the images to keep you hooked. The author’s artistic skills have been honed for decades and it’s his truly masterful approaches to his subjects that will leave you in awe. This is not to say that other photographers can’t, but Mr. Mizobuchi is basically the king of kagai photography. You’ll be pouring over the details over and over again and each time you read through the book you’ll notice things that you never saw the first time around.



To give a quick breakdown the book is divided into sections:



-Introduction - Gives a basic background about the kagai and how the world works

-Chapter 1: The Elegance of Maiko and Geiko - Goes into details about maiko hair styles and monthly hair ornaments as well as images of maiko and geiko.

-Chapter 2: Splendor of the Dance Stage - A showcase of all of the dances put on by each hanamachi.

-Chapter 3: Four Seasons in Kagai - Starts at the beginning of January and goes through all of the events that each kagai celebrates all the way up to December 31st.

-Chapter 4: Gion Between 1973 and 1985 - The only section devoted to a single hanamachi. These are among his earliest works and show just how much the kagai has changed, and yet has stayed the same, over the decades. On page 194 you can find an image of then maiko Mamezuru doing her Hassaku greetings back in 1976. Mamezuru-san is now the most senior odori performing geiko in Gion Kobu with a very illustrious career.

-Chapter 5: Transition From Maiko to Geiko - The 5 Year Record of Satsuki in Gion Kobu - A wonderful photographic timeline of Gion’s top star from her earliest days as a shikomi right up until just after her erikae. What makes this amazing is that her erikae took place in February 2015 and this book was sent to print within the first week of April of the same year!

-Introduction of the Gokagai - Gives little blurbs about each hanamachi and lists all active ochaya for that district (sorry, but they don’t translate the ochaya’s names into English). To make up for the lack of English they do include maps of each kagai and where all of the ochaya are located.



At the end of the book there’s a blurb about the author and the exhibitions he’s put on and what books his work can be found in, but that part is in Japanese only (likely because all of the previous books were in Japanese only).



As for errors, the only ones I could find were simple spelling mistakes or small translation issues. On page 161 there’s an image of geiko Kimika of Miyagawa Cho dressed as Tomoe Gozen for the Jidai Matsuri. The English caption says that she’s a maiko (which she wasn’t at the time) yet the Japanese text never mentioned her being a maiko or a geiko. On page 276 they accidentally misspelled Satsuki’s name as “Satuki” (again, very minor).



If you’d rather skip over all of the text and just buy this book for the images then it would still be a worthwhile investment. The vast majority (90%~) of the pictures were taken within the last three years, with the outliers being a few years older than that, so you know that you’re getting a book with images of active maiko and geiko. There are some images that were taken almost two decades ago and I’m fairly sure that they were included to show how the color and splendor of the karyukai has changed when it comes to fashion trends and how a shot that would have taken ages to get before has now become like a second nature.



I may be a bit biased, but this book does hold some personal meaning for me. Since I could not make it to Japan to see Satsuki’s erikae last year I sent a friend who was studying abroad to meet up with Julie Podstolski (whose image I shared last week. Please visit her website at http://www.juliepodstolski.org for wonderful photographs, fantastic stories about her adventures, and her absolutely stunning colored pencil work) so that they could experience it together. Julie’s head can be seen on page 284 and at that moment she was speaking to my friend about the crowds (which were apparently the largest ever seen for any event in Gion Kobu). For myself specifically there’s an image of Satsuki with Sayaka, Kyouka, and Sachiho for kotohajime on page 269 and she’s wearing the little swan kanzashi that I got her as a thank you gift for an event that she had helped with. In a way it shows how interconnected people are to the karyukai, even among those who have never been or those who have never even met face to face.

This book is truly magical and an exquisite feast for the eyes.



Rating: ✪✪✪✪✪ (out of 5)

