Okiya News! New member of Hanafusa okiya - Shikomi Kyoko

Kyoko was born in a small mountain village called Shiragawago in the Gifu prefecture of Japan. Her parents were workers in a nearby company, where they met each other. They were often out for work, so Kyoko had to take care for her three smaller siblings herself for a lot of the time. In this way, she already learned quite early to stand on her own feet, although still being quite young… and still having to attend school. But even during that time, Kyoko didn’t lose that one interest she had all her life. As far as she remembered, she was always in love with the traditional japanese arts like: dances, music or caligraphy.

One of her earliest encounters with these skills was at her aunt’s home, where she had seen a TV broadcast of geikos dancing. Their beauty and grace immediately fascinated the little girl and the images didn’t leave her mind since then. Sometimes they were not that important, as when she was caring for her siblings… but they never really left. And her family knew, that one day, little Kyoko would leave the village for her dream. It was shortly after her 15th birthday, that Kyoko decided to leave school and instead to apply at an Okiya in Kyoto; to make her dream come true and learn about the traditional arts. After a long good-bye, she traveled to the big city and finally applied there at Hanafusa Okiya, where she was allowed to begin her training as a Shikomi. The long way of becoming a Maiko has begun... but Kyoko was sure that she would fully go there.