{"id":116780,"date":"2018-12-20T10:27:54","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T01:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?p=116780&lang=en"},"modified":"2019-04-26T18:10:53","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T09:10:53","slug":"meet-geigi-at-the-hakata-traditional-performing-arts-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/meet-geigi-at-the-hakata-traditional-performing-arts-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Geigi at the Hakata Traditional Performing Arts Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Across from Kushida Shrine sits a building with traditional lattice doors. This is the Hakata Traditional Performing Arts Centre, which opened in 2017 to spread the word about Hakata\u2019s traditional arts, like Japanese-style dance, folk singing and Hakata niwaka<\/em>\u2014a kind of traditional improvisational comedy. The Centre, however, is not typically open to the public because it is where geigi<\/em>\u2014another term for geisha<\/em>\u2014are trained by Hakata Kenban, the official association for these traditional entertainers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course, you can enter the Centre when it holds its regular performances, which include singing and dancing by the geigi<\/em>, ozashiki-asobi<\/em> (parlor games) and a commemorative photo with the geigi<\/em>. The Centre affords an invaluable experience because you can usually only interact with geigi<\/em> at teahouses. Depending on the day, you may also be able to enjoy other local traditional performing arts. Be sure to check the homepage<\/a> for performance dates and times.<\/p>\n

Geigi are said to have started performing in Hakata in the middle of the Edo era. Back then, geigi<\/em> from Osaka were invited to perform at teahouses in Nagasaki, but due to a law that limited stays there to 100 days at a time, the geigi<\/em> would come to Hakata to entertain guests for a certain period of time before returning to Nagasaki. After a while, some geigi<\/em> moved to Hakata permanently, making them the forebears of today’s Hakata geigi<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Records indicate that geigi<\/em> numbered more than 2,000 in the Meiji and Taisho eras (1868-1926). The first geigi<\/em> training association, or kenban<\/em>, was established in 1889, and at the peak of geigi<\/em> popularity, the city boasted five kenban<\/em>. The numbers of geigi<\/em> and kenban<\/em> both dwindled over time, and now there is only one kenban<\/em> and around 20 geigi<\/em> in the city. You can see the elegantly-styled entertainers perform every January at the kachi-mairi<\/em> parade at Toka Ebisu Shrine<\/a>, every May at the Hakata Dontaku, and every December at the Hakata Odori.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Fukuoka Now Magazine (fn241<\/a>, Jan. 2019)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Across from Kushida Shrine sits a building with traditional lattice doors. This is the Hakata Traditional Performing Arts Centre, which opened in 2017 to spread the word about Hakata\u2019s traditional arts, like Japanese-style dance, folk singing and Hakata niwaka\u2014a kind of traditional improv comedy. The Centre, however, is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27918,"featured_media":116781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"116780","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4914],"tags":[5145],"class_list":["post-116780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-others","tag-fukuoka-topics","location-fukuoka-city","en-US"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/fn241-fukuoka-topic.jpg?fit=1400%2C1033&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116780"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116827,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116780\/revisions\/116827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}