Century-old Tokyo geisha festival revives dying art

But for seven days from Wednesday the women are performing in full splendor at the 100-year-old Azuma Odori festival at a theater in the heart of the Japanese capital. The geishas' choreography, watched by their instructors and accompanied by live musicians at the rehearsal, includes playful touches such as miming the movements of a fox. With the future of the geisha profession uncertain, for Iwashita, "the fact that such a theatre still exists, and that it is the 100th anniversary (of Azuma Odori) is nothing short of a miracle".