ツインテールの舞妓さんが可愛い！外国人観光客が惚れ惚れ！芸舞妓さんが行ったり来たりする京都祇園の夜。The twin-tailed maikos are so cute! Kyoto.

ツインテールの舞妓さんが可愛い！外国人観光客が惚れ惚れ！芸舞妓さんが行ったり来たりする京都祇園の夜。The twin-tailed maikos are so cute! Kyoto.

ツインテールの舞妓さんが可愛い！外国人観光客が惚れ惚れ！芸舞妓さんが行ったり来たりする京都祇園の夜。

[4k映像 60fps]鴨川に夕焼けが沈む頃、京都祇園の石畳に高く鳴く下駄の音が響き渡る。朱色の提灯に照らされた路地を、まるで浮世絵から抜け出したような可憐な存在が颯爽と通り過ぎていく。鮮やかな刺繍の帯を締め、桃色の襟元からほのかに香る白粉の気配──それが「桃割れ」と呼ばれるツインテール風の伝統髷を結った舞妓さんたちの群れだ。

その髷はまさに芸術品。左右に分かれた髪は椿油で光沢を帯び、赤い絹糸で編んだ「みずら結び」に季節の花簪が揺れる。二十代前半の若さが滲むほほえみの奥に、実は厳しい修業の跡がにじむ。三味線の調べに合わせて小鼓を打つ仕草には、京都の老舗茶屋で五年間の「仕込み」を積んだ美意識が宿っている。

夜更けの花見小路では、舞妓たちの往来が次第に慌ただしくなる。明日の朝稽古に備えて早めに帰宅する者、料亭での宴席に急ぐ者──それぞれが京都の伝統を背負う「生きる文化財」としての自覚を、しなやかな背中に宿している。イタリア人カップルが「アマーレ！」と叫んだ先には、振袖の袖を翻して人力車に乗り込む舞妓の後ろ姿が、紅葉の枝垂れ柳のように消えていく。

祇園の夜は、千年の都が育んだ美意識が現代に脈打つ劇場だ。ツインテールの舞妓さんたちが紡ぐ刹那の優美さは、観光客の心に「もう一度京都へ」と刻まれる文化の種子となる。この街の伝統が生き続ける限り、石畳を彩る朱色の簪は、世界中の憧れを集めながら輝き続けるだろう。

The twin-tailed maiko are so cute! Foreign tourists are enchanted! A night in Gion, Kyoto, Japan, where geisha and maiko are coming and going.

[4k video 60fps]As the sun sets over the Kamo River, the high-pitched sound of geta sandals echoes across the stone pavement of Gion, Kyoto. A pretty presence, as if it had come out of an ukiyo-e painting, passes briskly through the alleys lit by vermilion lanterns. They are wearing vibrantly embroidered obi belts, and the faint scent of white powder from their pink collars is a hint of the maiko in their twin-tailed traditional topknots called “momoware”.

The topknots are truly works of art. Their hair is parted to the left and right, lustrous with camellia oil, and seasonal flower hairpins sway in their “mizura musubi” woven with red silk thread. Behind the smiles that exude the youth of their early twenties, the traces of their rigorous training are in fact faint. The way the ko-tsuzumi drum beats to the tune of the shamisen is imbued with the aesthetic sense that has been cultivated for five years at a long-established teahouse in Kyoto.

In the late hours of the night, the traffic of maikos on Hanamikoji becomes increasingly hectic. Some return home early to prepare for their morning practice, while others rush off to a banquet at a traditional restaurant – each carries the awareness of being a “living cultural asset” that carries the traditions of Kyoto on their shoulders in their supple backs. An Italian couple shouts “Amare!”, and the back of a maiko with her long-sleeved kimono sleeves flips up as she gets into a rickshaw, disappearing like a weeping willow tree with autumn leaves.

Nights in Gion are theaters where the aesthetic sense nurtured by the 1,000-year-old capital pulsates in the present day. The momentary grace spun by the maikos with their twin-tailed hair will be the seeds of a culture that will make tourists think “I’ll come to Kyoto again.” As long as this city’s traditions live on, the vermilion hairpins decorating the cobblestones will continue to shine, attracting the admiration of people from all over the world.