I was on business to Washington DC for the 46th Annual Sakura Matsuri (cherry blossom festival www.sakuramatsuri.org). Four talented and beautiful geisha from Akasaka, Japan traveled specifically to perform on stage at this Japanese Street Festival, located on 12th street and Pennsylvania Ave. and at the Japan Information Culture Center (JICC http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/jicc/) on Saturday April 14, 2007. JICC gave away 150 free tickets to see the special geisha performance at the Culture Center. These tickets were given away in a record breaking three hours! Here is a photo from their performance.
Outdoors on Pennsylvania Ave. and 13th street the geisha performed on a special prepared stage. Their performance had more than 300 spectators. Thereafter, two of the geisha stayed and walked to JNTO-Visit Japan Campaign booth a block away where the public huddled. Most people wanted to take pictures with the genuine geisha, such as portrayed below. However, we did spot some imitation male geisha.
H. Matsui
