A morning programme on KBS television this morning saw a pair of maiko visit Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto. Maiko are young trainee geisha in Kyoto, aged between 16 and 20. These days many are from distant parts of Japan and are unfamiliar with Kyoto and its tourist sights. I recently saw a film ‘Maiko wa Lady’ which was a musical (done by the director of Shall We Dance?) based on the idea in My Fair Lady of a young woman being trained in how to speak and behave properly. In the Japanese version it involved the maiko learning the Kyoto dialect and geisha manners.
In the tv programme the pair of maiko went up the main ‘sando’ (approach) of Fushimi Inari, passing through the tunnel of torii to the small area where fox faces are filled in on the shrine’s ema, before returning and exiting along the ‘urasando’, or back approach, which is lined with souvenir shops.
Maiko and Inari are a winning formula for a television programme. Maiko tend to be treated like film stars and photographed wherever they go. For its part, Fushimi Inari was recently voted the most popular attraction in Kyoto, outranking even Kiyomizu temple, and it has become a no. 1 destination for foreign visitors too.
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For a detailed description of Fushimi Inari, see Cali and Dougill Shinto Shrines, p.101. For an illustrated visit, click here. For the Fushimi sai festival, see here. For Fushimi as Kyoto’s no. 1, see here.
The main approach to Inari leads up to the magnificent romon gate
One of the guardian foxes has a ball of wisdom
... the other has the key to the rice granary
After saying their prayers, the maiko headed up the hill behind the shrine...
through the tunnel of torii.....
... to the place where the ema are filled in with do- it-yourself pictures of foxes
There's a rock there (Omokaru ishi) which you have to lift up to see if it feels heavy or light
... if it's heavy it means bad luck, but if it feels light then you're in for good fortune
Afterwards the girls headed back to the exit where they stopped at a traditional rice cracker shop
The shop has been in existence for more than 100 years and specialises in fox-shaped rice crackers
The girls also bought fortune cookies
... and were delighted to find they had 'Daikichi' or Good luck. It brought their visit to a happy end, and next time they declared their intention to climb up to the top of Inari Hill
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