Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/06/out-of-control-behavior-kyoto-bans-tourists-from-geisha-district.html
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Ugh… I’m sick of a few assholes ruining everything for the rest of us…
This is especially fucked up, because it implies the person believed that Geisha are simply high end prostitutes…
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For some reason that’s been a common Western notion of what a Geisha is, spread by the media. Though some men treat all women (or particular classes of women) that way, so…
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Orientalism and misogyny are the reasons.
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This includes waiting in photography-prohibited areas and ignoring local customs and rules, touching and pulling the kimonos worn by geisha, obstructing geisha’s paths, demanding poses for photos, pulling their hair ornaments, and flicking cigarette ash on them.
What the fuck? These people are assholes, it’s never okay to touch a stranger without permission. Disgusting behavior.
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Maybe they think that they’re in a theme park and they’re angry that the “cast members” aren’t doing their job.
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These assholes think everywhere is Disneyland, where everyone has to bend back for them.
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The article is pretty vague about who the “tourists” are and why they act the way they do. I wonder if a lot of this isn’t driven by social media stars trying to get content. There was some Boing Boing coverage of “nusiance youtuber” Johnny Somali last year. There may be an increase in bad behavior because people are trying to get the best photos and videos for the content on their social media pages. Or are more people are just assholes today?
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yes to both i think
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Gross dudes apparently do the room key thing to Disney princesses at theme parks, too:
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No, it’s LONG been a problem well prior to social media, people, especially westerners, treating Geisha like trash. It likely started back when that book Memoirs of a Geisha came out and drove a new interest in the artform from western tourists.
I don’t doubt that social media made it far worse, like many other things, but this sort of thing isn’t new in Kyoto at all.
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This is a bummer as someone who would’ve really enjoyed visiting the area, though if i ever have a chance to visit Kyoto in the future i’m sure i can find other places to enjoy. Still it’s upsetting that some assholes are not just giving tourists a bad name but actively making things difficult for those visiting Japan going forward.
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I think there are still places in Kyoto to visit Geisha, such as in the tea houses they work in, but you just can’t go to where they live.
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This! I’ve had to educate people that Memoirs of a Geisha is about as accurate as Abraham Lincoln: Zombie Hunter.
Before that Madame Butterfly, and the whole Japan fascination in the late 19th to early 20th century around when the country was opened by Commodore Perry.
It hasn’t at all been helped by the colonization of Asian countries by the US military and the sex trade that develops around military bases then spreads like a cancer throughout a country as tourists come for said sex trade.
Sorry, no point here. Just general anger and disgust that this shit is still going on.
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Yeah, those would be the reasons.
Though misogyny certainly does the job on its own (though especially coupled with othering) - some blonde friends were talking about the various countries they couldn’t go to without men routinely thrusting a handful of cash while grabbing them.
That’s probably a pretty charitable description of what film audiences took away from it…
There really is this thing with Americans where they think the rest of the world is basically a theme park where everyone is playing a role just for them and secretly are all just like Americans (and speak English, etc.). It’s fucking weird.
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Yeah, and it’s not limited to the geisha districts, either. I was visiting Sanjusangen-do during a trip to Kyoto a few years ago, and despite the prominently-posted signs prohibiting photography, there were several asshole tourists doing it anyway. I gave 'em a wide berth, 'cuz I didn’t want to be associated with them at all. IIRC, the same thing was happening at Nijo Castle, too, where photography was not allowed inside.
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I’ve visited Kyoto several times over the past 30 years. It was great early on, then got busier and busier as Japan encouraged more tourism, especially when Chinese tourism took off, until it became disappointingly crowded.
I had an excellent visit during the Covid crisis, at the point in time where someone with a Japanese spouse could get a visa but not general tourists. The city was practically empty. The hill leading up to the Kiyomizudera temple, formally crammed with bodies, was an easy-breezy to walk. I felt sorry for the shop-keepers, whose livelihood depends on a good flow of tourist dollars.
The fact is that mass tourism kills everything it touches. Only the largest of cities, like London, can absorb the impact of millions of visitors a year.
This is not to excuse the behaviour of the Geisha botherers. That’s just selfish rudeness in operation.
If you are going to visit Japan, there are very many other fascinating and beautiful places to go apart from Tokyo and Kyoto.
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Even characters at a theme park should not be touched without asking.
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I doubt that, simply because the book hasn’t been out that long and the West has been jerks about geishas for as long as they’ve known about them.
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That’s a rather outdated stereotype. The linked article really doesn’t say who the worst offenders are but there are many other nationalities that have developed reputations for badly behaved tourists.
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