How We Write Our Kyoto Guides
Planning a trip around geiko and maiko culture means relying on details that change: dance dates, opening hours, prices, and customs in the geiko districts. The guides on this site are produced and maintained by the Maiko & Zen Kyoto Editorial Team, part of MindFree Inc. in Kyoto, to help you plan with details that are as accurate and current as we can make them. Here is how we make them.
How We Check and Record Facts
The dates, prices, opening times, and rules in our new guides are recorded together with their sources and the date we checked them. A new guide is not published until every fact recorded for it has been confirmed. Every guide shows the date it was last revised.
Where Our Facts Come From
Wherever we can, we check facts with the people and places that set them: the temple or shrine itself, the organizers of each event, and public tourism bodies such as the Kyoto City Tourism Association. For background and history, we also use reference works and news reports. The sources for each guide are listed at the end, so you can follow up yourself. When we find that a source has changed, we update the guide and the date shown at the top of the page.
A Person Reads and Approves Each New Guide
Before a new guide is published on this site, a member of our team reads it and approves it. Our checks also hold back a new guide while any fact recorded for it is still unconfirmed.
We Write From Kyoto, Where We Host Maiko Sessions
MindFree Inc. runs Maiko & Zen Kyoto, which hosts a maiko session at Ikka-in, a sub-temple of Tofuku-ji. Hosting guests in Kyoto keeps us close to the questions travelers ask and to the customs that matter to geiko and maiko. When a guide mentions our session, a short note at the top of the page says that we operate it, and we describe the session factually, so you can decide whether it suits you. Out of respect for the people we write about, we do not publish where or when to wait for geiko and maiko in the street. More about us is on our About page.
Found something that has changed or seems inaccurate? Please let us know through the MindFree website, and we will review it.