Local officials in Japan’s popular Geisha district in Kyoto will shut off access to “paparazzi” tourists who harass and trouble the globally recognised Japanese women artists, starting April this year.
The historic Gion district’s local council has said it will now ban sightseers and tourists into the alleys and streets housing geisha and maiko (teenager trainee geisha) after facing years of complaints over growing buzz of photography.
Oh yeah I read the article, horrible behaviour.
My point is rather that it’s not as much about the photos that banning it would help. It’s more about unrespectful assholes. That sort of behaviour seems crazy. Chasing down people, pulling their hair, throwing cigarette butts at them.
The problem needs to be addressed, and the way they propose to limit tourists access, unless they’re clients, seems fine. They even mention how it won’t apply to the main street of the area, because it’d be a practical impossibility to enforce.
So realistically you can still get photos there and if you’re respectful and ask politely, perhaps even with a geisha.
The problem is that it stopping them at all to even ask for a picture is legit cutting into the time that their clients have paid for. Geisha and maiko’s time is paid for in set blocks of time, and the clock starts ticking from the moment they leave the geisha house and start walking. The longer it takes them to actually get to where their appointment is, the less time they have with their clients.
Oh yeah, that would be rude.
My point is that this isn’t some totalitarian ban, but needed regulation, and you can still admire and perhaps even photograph, if it’s not inappropriate and you have permission.