Shirakawa Hanami: Kotoha and Takahiro

Kyoto Rewind: April 2, 2008Kotoha, a senior maiko of Gion Kobu, smiles beneath the cherry blossoms lining the Shirakawa stream.No cultural tour of Kyoto would be complete without a proper maiko sighting, so half-way through our hanami party in Maruyama Park I led my friends down to Gion's Shirakawa district. Shirakawa-Minami-Dori is one of the very few areas of Kyoto where you can really imagine what the old capital must have been like before the twentieth century onslaught of 'modernization'. Lined on one side by magnificent cherry trees and whimsical willows on the other, the carefully paved lane follows the Shirakawa stream through the traditional teahouse district.