the grand entrance

A maiko is a trainee geisha in her final stages of training and here she is led into Yasaka Jinja by her mentor, or “mother, to perform for the Setsubun Festival.

This is a “Komainu” statue outside the main entrance to Yasaka-jinja Shrine in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto.
The word Komainu literally means [...]

bamboo stalk in a shaft of sunlight
it’s a setting that sparks off the imagination like nothing else

When walking through the Arashiyama bamboo grove the wending paths occasional reveal a privileged view of a wall of tall, green stalks snaking away into the distance. The uniformity, the gentle sway and the strange combination of strength and [...]

Higashiyama paths

Higashiyama’s cobbled streets offer the world a taste of the Kyoto of our imaginations. The paths are narrow and cambered, the buildings are quaint and traditional. To see a geisha disappearing down on of these alleys, or even tourists who’ve [...]