Geisha expo bridges cultures at US Air Force base in Japan

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Traditional geisha performances, Japanese music and cultural activities drew hundreds of visitors to this airlift hub in western Tokyo for the first geisha exposition on base in recent memory.

Organizers said the Geisha Showing and Community Expo offered military families a rare opportunity to experience a centuries-old Japanese tradition while performers from the Hachioji area engaged directly with the American community.

“For a lot of families, they don’t have the opportunity to go see the geishas,” Chris Burns, staff adviser for the Japanese Cultural Engagement Club, told Stars and Stripes during Saturday’s event. “The idea is, can we bring it into a place and a space where it’s a lot more accessible for them?”

The three-hour event at the Taiyo Community Center featured traditional Japanese dance performances, “ohayashi” festival music, geisha parlor games, cultural presentations and a Q&A session about geisha traditions.

For instance, a higher hair style indicates a younger geisha.

Geisha are professional entertainers who attend to guests during meals, banquets and other occasions, according to Japan-Guide.com. They are trained in traditional Japanese dance and music and the art of communication. They first appeared about 300 years ago.

At Yokota, expo guests had opportunities to take photos with the 10 geisha performers and browse booths offering handmade arts and crafts, miniature 3D-printed figures and other items from local vendors.

The event, three months in planning, attracted about 300 people, according to its organizers.

The idea originated with Yokota’s Japanese Cultural Engagement Club, which spent the past year connecting military members with local cultural experiences, said Bob Thomas, one of the group’s advisers.

Thomas said the club developed ties with the Hachioji geisha community through a Japanese language instructor who helped facilitate introductions. Since then, club members have organized several off-base geisha events before working to bring the performers to Yokota.

“This is the first time that it’s the other way, where they came here to us,” Thomas said.

The event required funding, base access and the logistics associated with hosting a traditional cultural performance on a military base. Many of the volunteers were students at Yokota High School.

Thomas said many of the performers had long hoped to engage more directly with the U.S. military community.

Musician Kenji Kinoshita, chairman of the Hachioji Matsuri Bayashi Rengokai, said performing “ohayashi,” or traditional Japanese festival music, for an American audience was a first in his 55-year career.

“We are very much hoping to come and perform again,” he said.

For Burns, a memorable part of the event was watching the cultural exchange extend beyond the stage.

“It was just as exciting to them to see these parts and facets of American culture as it is for the people at the booths,” he said, recalling geisha performers stopping to take photos and interact with vendors throughout the expo.

Megumi, a Hachioji geisha who has performed for 42 years, said one of her favorite parts of the event was teaching children traditional geisha games and interacting with military families.

“We had so much fun. Today was a very special day,” she said through a translator. “This opportunity to perform for such a unique audience is very rare.”