I’d hardly arrived in Kyoto’s brand-new Capella hotel when a maiko, or apprentice geisha, materialized in the intimate reception area and, in front of a small, golden screen, began presenting slow and graceful dances. Afterward, she answered questions (the hardest thing about her job, she said, was keeping her hair intact for long stretches) and posed prettily for photos. Then she handed each of the six of us in attendance a name card and vanished into the dusk.
I’ve been living around Kyoto for more than 38 years, and I’d never viewed a private geisha performance before. It seemed a perfect introduction to the Capella, which—along with the nearby Imperial—this spring became the first luxury hotel to open in the heart of Kyoto’s most celebrated geisha quarter, broadly known as Gion. The “flower-and-willow world” is a marvel of whispers and suggestions, of narrow lanes and wooden walls, and the sound of a plaintive three-stringed shamisen drifting out of an upstairs window. From my suite, on the third floor of the hotel, I enjoyed an unobstructed view of what may be the oldest Zen temple in the city, Kenninji, and, behind it, of the eastern hills that have long drawn both poets and monks.
