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Ikuokaya has been doing business in the world-famous Gion district (home to maiko and geiko and high-culture nightlife) for more than 150 years. They specialize in kanzashi hair ornaments, fans, bags and accessories.

Stepping into the shop, one enters the world of accessories that add to the exotic charm of the geiko: splendid, colorful kanzashi (hair pins), exquisitely designed handkerchiefs, little richly patterned silk bags with draw strings, sandalwood combs. Many of the patterns and designs express the seasonal elements for which Japan is so well known: flowers, bushes, and important symbols like the moon, pine trees, cranes and rabbits.

In a short interview a few years ago, Hiroshi Sakai, the 6th generation owner of Ikuokaya, gave us a peak into the private world of the geiko and maiko, and the world that his shop, the oldest of its kind in Japan, is an important part of.
JV: How did Ikuokaya first get started in this business"

HS: We have only been running the shop for the last two generations. The shop was founded by a Gion geiko. The second generation owner, also a geiko, was the junior partner of a famous geiko called Ikumatsu. She was the celebrated mistress of Katsura Kogoro, who played an important role in the founding of modern Japan during the Meiji Restoration (1868). Ikuokaya, which means "the teahouse of Iku," is named after her. The next owner, in the early Showa Period (1926-1989), almost went bankrupt and that was when m...