To reduce overcrowding and save its geisha community, Kyoto, the former capital of Japan, has banned tourists from visiting several of its historic sites.
Kyoto has already had to alert visitors that it is a real town and not a theme park, similar to several other historical cities in Italy with artifacts lining the streets. The city, where tourists swarm to view picturesque gardens, convoluted passageways, teahouses, and temples representing “old Japan,” is now adopting a more assertive stance: trying to bar tourist groups from entering certain private streets in the Gion area, which is renowned for its geishas.
You can find geisha and their maiko apprentices practicing, dancing to music, and putting on shows while donning intricate hair ornaments and traditional kimonos, all while sporting full white makeup in all Kyoto. Because of the spectacle, a lot of people come to the streets in the vicinity in the hopes of seeing the geishas and taking pictures of them.
However, the allure is starting to cause issues.
Although the number of foreign visitors to Japan climbed to 22 million in 2023, it was still 9 million less than the record of 31 million set in 2019. However, overtourism is occurring in the nation at certain locations. It has responded by enacting visitor fees at Itsukishima Shrine’s famous crimson “floating” Torii gate and Mount Fuji.
In Kyoto, on the other hand, where visitors have been known to harass geishas by ripping at their clothing and hairstyles and even stabbing them with cigarettes, the strategy will be more extreme: starting later this spring, visitors will not be allowed to enter any portion of the city’s historic center.
Meanwhile, everyone will still be able to use Kyoto’s public streets.
It is debatable if the signs have any legal significance. In the past, Kyoto has tried to control the behavior of its visitors by implementing public awareness campaigns, asking visitors to get permission before taking any photos, and warning signs that forbid photography or warn of the possibility of fines of ¥10,000 (about 61 euros) for infractions. They have mainly gone unnoticed.
Shaming on social media is an alternate strategy for influencing the behavior of tourists. In Berlin, where taking selfies is not uncommon, a blogger started a series dubbed “Yolocaust” in which he exposes tourists who take careless pictures at Holocaust memorial sites and only removes the photograph from circulation if the offending party contacts him.
In another incident, some visitors in Venice who insisted on snapping pictures on a gondola ended up tipping themselves and their phones into the water.
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