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A maiko poses for pictures during the new year’s ceremony at the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Theater in Kyoto, Japan.

Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

• Gion, a historic district in Kyoto, is set to bar tourists from entering its private streets from April.
• The move comes after residents complained about tourists misbehaving.
• Gion is famed for its traditional teahouses where geisha work and entertain guests.

Gion, Japan’s popular geisha district in Kyoto, will be barring tourists from entering certain alleys, the news agency AFP reported on Friday.

Isokazu Ota, an executive member of the Gion district council, told the AFP that tourists won’t be allowed to enter specified streets from April onwards. The district council comprises several residents of Gion.

“We don’t want to do this, but we’re desperate,” Ota said, adding that tourists have previously acted “like paparazzi” when taking photos of geishas. Ota, 61, is the leader of the council and a resident who owns a Chinese restaurant, per the local newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

While Gion’s private streets will be closed, tourists will still be allowed to enter the main Hanamikoji Street, which is public, per AFP. The ban follows several incidents of tourists misbehaving in Gion.

In 2019, a resident complained to the district council that a group of tourists surrounded a taxi that a geisha was traveling in, while another said that a tourist had damaged one of the lanterns of their restaurant, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

In October of that same year, the council barred tourists from taking photos of geishas on private roads, which carried a 10,000 yen, or $67 fine, per Asahi Shimbun. Several warning signs were also put up telling tourists not to touch Japanese lanterns, which line the three-foot-long alleys, per the report.

Gion is known for its ochaya, or traditional teahouses, where geishas and maiko, who work as their apprentices, entertain guests. Maikoya, a Japanese tea ceremony company, estimates that there are 70 geishas and 30 maikos who work in 60 ochayas in Gion.

It’s not the first time a popular destination has imposed restrictions on tourists in Japan. In February, Kotaro Nagaski, the governor of Yamanashi, announced that the prefecture would be imposing a 2,000 yen fee to climb Mt. Fuji in order to curb the number of climbers.