My meat-world name is John.

I started studying shamisen and tsuzumi more than 30 years ago. My teacher also teaches music to some of the Asakusa geisha, so I get to hang around with them (I have performed with them--osaraikai or 'study' performances) from time to time.

I have been in something a bit like ozashiki--I performed once at the Omotenashi Experience, once, for example. I have been in kabuki productions a few times, and I have also accompanied a Bunraku puppet performance. But I am still doing my day job!

Once I figure out the protocol, I will try to get some photos up. I'm sort of an old geezer, so I sometimes come up against technical barriers.

Any, I am glad to be part of the men's contingent here. Douzo yoroshiku!

Regards,
JL

Youkoso! Nice to see more guys in the geisha/kimono world lol

(I love that: "meat-world" hehe) Wow, your experience is impressive, I'm sincerely jealous. You'll have to share tons and tons of pics, lol. I really hope you enjoy the forums here

Glad to meet you! I'm really looking forward to your pictures and any knowledge you can impart to us about shamisen and tsuzumi .

Hi taikomochi , Nice to have you here

Hi! Nice to meet you! Musicians are always welcomed! And we need more nice, interesting guys in our forum

yay, our men here really need some support XD
but more important than this is your experiences - i know so less about the traditions in tokyo and asakusa, i hope i can learn more from you.

Okay, I will try a photo here:

See if this works.

Well, it's not working. I suspect my photos are too big.

But the link in the next message is okay.

JL

Well, here is a link to a photo album. Let's see what happens.
http://www.photoshop.com/user/Tasajo/?w ... df51b8b78b

Regards,
jl

The link in the previous message is photos of a party at the Asakusa kemban. Okamoto-san, the landlord of our keikoba, decided to throw his own birthday party there. He invited several geisha friends and and other musical performers. His wife also danced on the program. He is quite a patron of the arts (there was some Western music, as well as Japanese).

Hope you enjoy.

JL

Great photos. Thanks for sharing them!

That is a wonderful photo album and everyone is right, we do need more guys around here

Welcome! I'm sort of an old geezer too. There aren't enough of us!

Thank you so much taikomochi for sharing your photo's
I realy enjoyed looking at them.
Being part of a japanese party in the midle of several geishas, to me it looks like a ones in a lifetime experience

Thanks for the nice comments!

It *was* a very nice party. You can see they didn't spend much on the food--in that sense (and also the location) it wasn't a real ozashiki, but it was much more personal, and the scale of the entertainment was also bigger--full accompaniment of jikata and debayashi/kagebayashi for the dancers--that was more like kabuki or a nihon buyo performance in a theater. The program included Tokiwazu Sanbaso, Edo-style shishi mai, sawagi, and Okamoto-san's wife danced Horai. Plus there were piano and baritone performances, plus the group Kamui, which is guys who do tachimawari--choreographed fighting, as in Kabuki. (here is their website:

http://www.k-kamui.com/

So, yes, it was a once in a lifetime thing.

Regards,
JL