Hatsuharu no Mai - the Hachioji geisha's new year event -

After the new year holidays, a new year event, called "Hatsuharu no mai" was held.
It was an outdoor geisha event in conjunction with the neighborhood association, which everyone could enjoy free of charge.

It was the second time for me to perform the shamisen outside in front of a large audience.
However this time it was harder to perform, because it was too cold.

In December, we all decided that which music we would perform at the event.
So I practiced some songs which I would perform during the new year holidays.
By the way, In Hachioji, the geisha takes their new year holiday from Dec 30th to Jan 3rd.

The new year holidays ended all to soon.
The day before the "Hatsuharu no mai", we checked and cleaned the float on which some shamisen players would perform.

After checking the float, my geisha mother, the main shamisen player and we had the last joint practice session. At that time, I couldn't imagine that it would be so hard to perform at the event the next day.

The event day came.

Even though the starting time was 1:30pm, we gathered at the "Okiya" around 10:30am in order to put on our make up and kimonos. After finishing our preparation, we also prepared the microphones and speakers etc.

While I was getting the event place ready, my hands rapidly became cold, and I realized that it's difficult to perform outside on such a winter's day.

After preparing the place, we went back to the Okiya to wait for the starting time.
My geisha sister and I prepared hot water bottles in order to heat our hands during the event.

Finally the starting time came.
A large audience gathered to see the geisha performance even on such a cold day.
Again I felt it was the important event.

While I was playing the shamisen, I couldn't feel how I was holding the "Bachi", plectrum because of the terrible cold.
My geisha sister, who danced, also said that she felt like she was going to drop her "Sense", fan.

At that event, some members of the neighborhood association helped us. I remembered some of them. I felt glad that they also remembered me.

After the event, my geisha mother and some of my geisha sisters caught colds, however since this month is the busiest, we have to take care of ourselves.