Ichimame enjoying the plum blossoms of Kitano Tenmangu shrine, in full bloom just in time for the Plum Festival (Baikasai) thanks to the unusually warm weather.If you are a geisha enthusiast like myself, chances are you already know Ichimame, the beautiful young maiko blogging away from her okiya in Kamishichiken, Kyoto's oldest and most traditional hanamachi (literally 'flower town', where geisha live and entertain). I first saw Ichimame perform last spring, when a wonderful series of unforeseeable events resulted in a free front row seat to Kitano Odori (the spring dance of Kamishichiken), convieniently positioned directly infront of her. At the end of the show, she smiled down at me, tossing one of her signed handkerchieves into my lap.
When I first discovered Ichimame's blog, I was so excited I wanted to post a link to it here. Being written completely in the Kyoto dialect of Japanese, I figured very few people would be able to read it and so decided against it. Thanks to the incredible number of visitors her site has been recieving from all around the world, she has begun a professionally translated English version of the blog, although it seems to be slow going. I wish I could volunteer to do it for her! I'd have that smack updated post haste! Until they get caught up, I'll post my own translation of the most recent entries here:
Starting tomorrow! Must sleep...
4 comments:
that would be awesome! :D
i am so curious to "read" what she actually writes in her blog. i had been following the english translated site but it's kinda slow... to slow for me! ^_^
Ichimame is too kawaii!
I've been looking at her site but I can't read much japanese unfortunately ><
Thank you for doing the recent translations Melissa! :) I think she is one of the prettiest maiko right now. I wish I could see all the plum blossoms too. I believe there may be some around England, but not many.
Yatta! An English version! Thanks so much for pointing that out for us!
Wow, and you have one of her hankercheifs? SUGOI! ^__^ <3
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