This is a lovely part of town for walking, jogging, and cycling – something which a lot of locals, and visitors do. The cafes and restaurants each side of the river, oversee the water flow and many come here during cherry blossom season to enjoy the view. This is a day for revisiting the shops near Gion and Kawaramachi and a day for taking it slow.
“On a branch
floating downriver
a cricket, singing”
The statue of Izumo no Okuni stands proud by the Kamagawa River, on the NE side of the Shijo Bridge, diagonally from the Minamiza Kabuki Theatre. This is the woman that brought us -in 1603- the highly skilled, highly entertaining and most colourful performance of kabuki. This shrine maiden, together with a troupe of equally skilled women dancers, brought her dramatic plays to Kyoto, to raise funds. It worked out quite well, and lots more women decided to have a go at romance and swordplay on stage, until the days of 1629 (barely 26 years later), when all women were forbidden from acting on stage.
It wasn’t Cromwell who was to blame for this, as he was yet to make his move, but one could give credit to the butterfly flapping its wings theory. For whatever happened in 1629, put an end to women dressing up and staging Kabuki plays, and no son of Charles or …. thought of restoring that right. Perhaps 2103 may be the year.
When I was in town, they had a special Appreciation and Experience programme, with English interpretation, so that visitors who had never seen a performance before could find out about the art. For anyone who wishes to check programme performance or special events like this one, Kabukiweb.net is a good starting point. Otherwise, showing up on the day, and booking a ticket for an act or the full performance may be the next best option.
Across the bridge there’s a Chinese restaurant fortunately placed by the river, with a veranda where anyone wishing to be near the sound of water, can find a table and order some food and drinks. The scenes from many a novel Hemingway wish he could have written probably take place by the side of this river. If you have time, traveller…no…make some time and sit down, either at one of the establishments facing the water-and-people-flow, or by the side of it, as many do, and listen.
I concluded the walk by walking back and forth from Kawaramachi and Gion – partly due to navigation skills, and proceeded to purchase pickled plums of various sizes, plum jam, ice cream and a kimono.