Niigata company keeps local “geigi” culture alive for 30 years

January 11, 2018

Niigata- Niigata-based Ryuto Shinko, the first Japanese company to train and dispatch "geigi" traditional female entertainers to event venues, has marked the 30th year of its establishment.

Geigi, also known as "geisha" or "geiko," women belonging to the company perform dances and play music at party halls in the central Japan city almost every day.

"We hope to globally promote the unique geigi culture (in Niigata)," said Susumu Nakano, 86, chairman of the company.

According to Nakano, Niigata has developed as a logistics base since the middle of the Edo period. Famous cultural figures and key politicians gathered in the city, and entertainment services by geigi were generated.

Niigata's Furumachi district had been as famous as the Gion district in Kyoto for geigi services, having 400 such entertainers in its heyday.

But the number of geigi women has dropped sharply, chiefly because "okiya" management houses for such women have seen fewer and fewer sponsors in line with changes in the times.

To prevent the Furumachi geigi culture from disappearing, Nakano decided to create a geigi entertainment company like Takarazuka Revue Co., the all-female musical theater troupe, and solicited financial support from local businesses. In December 1987, Ryuto Shinko came into being.

As president of the company, Nakano initially struggled to recruit those who wanted to be geigi. But as a result of his continued promotional efforts, such as setting up a website and offering performances at local festivals, Ryuto Shinko now has 10 geigi women.

The company provides kimono and housing to recruited women. It even accepts amateurs. These unexperienced newcomers are trained as geigi by receiving eight lessons a month on dancing and playing traditional musical instruments.

Yui, 23, who joined Ryuto Shinko five years ago, said she finds it easy to continue to work as geigi thanks to sufficient support programs. Her family can feel safe because she belongs to a stock company, she added.

Ryuto Shinko has geigi members from across Japan. In spring this year, a woman from Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan, will join the company.

The firm now has been dispatching them to not only "ryotei" high-end Japanese restaurants and parties at hotels but international meetings.

The Ryuto Shinko geigi's dance performances "wowed" agricultural ministers from the Group of Seven major countries at their meeting in Niigata in April 2016, Nakano said.

He aims to double the geigi number so his company can offer fancier entertainment services. "The geigi culture will certainly become a major attraction (in Niigata) for foreign tourists," Nakano stressed. Jiji Press