After the licensed quarters were brought to an end by law in the postwar years, the profession of the oiran disappeared.
The tayu, however, did not.
As the highest rank of the arts
The tayu was not carried on as a figure of the licensed quarters.
Dance, music, waka poetry, tea, incense — as the highest rank of the arts, master of a whole range of accomplishments, the name lived on into the present day.
The title of tayu was, from the first, one given to those who excelled in the arts. Returning to that origin, one might say, is the very way the tayu has gone on living to this day.
At the Wachigaiya, there are tayu still
Even now, a small number of tayu are affiliated with the Wachigaiya in Shimabara, Kyoto.
The Wachigaiya is an okiya of very long standing, continuing since the Genroku era. That in this place, handed down across hundreds of years, one can still encounter the dance and art of the tayu — there is something quietly moving in it.
The striking tayu dochu
With the seasons, the tayu dochu is sometimes performed, and dances offered, at temples and shrines around Kyoto.
Among these, the tayu dochu — the tayu walking slowly in procession, attended by kamuro — is a sight of real splendour.
In the still, composed air, back held straight, she advances slowly in the uchi-hachimonji. It is not merely beautiful. A long history, and a sense of pride, dwell in that figure.
One step, and then another. In her tread is inscribed the weight of a culture handed down from the past into the present.
Once seen, it will surely become a scene you cannot forget.
To meet that figure
The chances to see a tayu in person are by no means many.
For that very reason, when you visit Kyoto, do look into it. In the calendar of temple and shrine events and offerings, you may find the name.
The beauty that lives on within history is sure to move you. The tayu is not a thing of the past. Somewhere in Kyoto even now, quietly and surely, she carries her art on.