Photo Of The Day – Geisha

I went back to Kyoto after I finished my stint as an English teacher for two reasons, both photographic. I had seen images of a temple with many of the vermillion Torii (those gates you see in the header image above) and wanted to spend at least half a day there taking pictures. I also wanted to try and capture one of the elusive Geisha on digital film. When I’d been to Kyoto 10 months before, I didn’t really know what I wanted to see and was new to Japan, so missed out on these two things.

This image of a Maiko Geisha (apprentice) was taken in one of the two main streets of Kyoto where they can be found. With their numbers dwindling, I knew I would be lucky to see one, much less get one in front of the camera. As it happened, this one passed by me walking quickly to an appointment, and I followed for a couple minutes before running in front of her to ask her if I could take her photo. She gave me an annoyed look but relented for 5 seconds while I fired off three frames. Here’s the result.