Yasaka Club

What Is the Yasaka Club?

The Yasaka Club (八坂倶楽部, Yasaka Kurabu) is a two-storey timber building of 1913 at the back of the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo grounds in Gionmachi Minamigawa, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2001.

A large tiled Irimoya-zukuri roof covers a building area of 746 m². The entrance, under an eave-level curved gable (Noki-karahafu), sits toward the west end of the north side, while the east and south sides open toward the garden. Run by Gion Kobu, the Yasaka Club now houses the Gion Kagai Art Museum.

Why the Yasaka Club Was Registered: A 132-Mat Stage Room

Upstairs, the Yasaka Club holds one vast room of 132 tatami mats combining seating and a stage, a banquet hall built for watching dance. The ground floor served the most distinguished guests as a waiting room and a place for tea. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls the upper room a spacious, imposing stage room, and the building is registration No. 26-0087, entered for its contribution to the country's historic landscape.

The Main Building seats a large audience on chairs and in boxes; the Yasaka Club instead puts its guests on tatami, close to the dancers. In 1913 Gion Kobu Kaburenjo was laid out with two quite different ways of watching a performance, a theater and a zashiki room, on the same grounds.

What to Look For: A Building Turned to the Garden, and Kyomai Upstairs

From its east and south sides, the Yasaka Club looks over the pond garden made in 1913. The noki-karahafu entrance at the west end of the north side greets visitors as they come through from the forecourt.

The museum's permanent display covers the dress and belongings of geiko and maiko: hand-painted Yuzen kimono, Nishijin brocade obi, hair ornaments that change with the season, formal black crested kimono and a maiko's makeup kit. Upstairs, a geiko or maiko performs two dances in the Inoue style of Kyomai. Each performance lasts about 15 minutes, with five a day between 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. and up to 60 people each, and needs a 1,600-yen ticket on top of museum admission.

Visiting the Yasaka Club

The interior of the Yasaka Club is open to visitors of the Gion Kagai Art Museum. Same-day tickets for the dance go on sale at the museum from 11:00 a.m., and combined admission-and-dance tickets can be bought online about a month ahead. Personal photos and video are allowed in most of the building, but the dance performance may not be photographed or filmed.

The upper floor is reached only by stairs; there is no elevator. Visitors cannot enter in their own wheelchairs. An indoor wheelchair can be borrowed, but it cannot reach the dance on the second floor. Strollers are not allowed in the old building, and the museum does not store luggage.

Opening hours, admission, closure periods and directions are on the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo page.