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 is an annual outdoor geisha event held in conjunction with the neighborhood association, which the public can enjoy free of charge.

Last year I participated in the event for the first time.
Unfortunately, last year was the coldest in recent years, so it was very hard to play the shamisen outside and after the “Hatsuharu no Mai” event, I caught a cold.
I also remembered that a large audience came to see our performance, so I recognized that the “Hatsuharu no Mai” event is an important event for us.

For last year’s event, my geisha mother decided the songs for the event at a meeting a month before the event, however this year my geisha mother didn’t announce the songs as early.

During our new year holiday from December 30th to January 3rd, I felt anxious about which songs we would have to play, so I practiced some songs which might be used for the event very hard every day while I was staying at my parents house in Tokushima prefecture.

In the end, my geisha mother announced the songs for the event the day before the rehearsal.
Indeed the rehearsal was held the day before the “Hatsuharu no Mai” event.
I felt relieved when I heard which songs we would play, since I had already practiced and memorized all of the songs.

On January 7th, we gathered in the early morning in order to prepare and change into our kimonos.
The “Hatsuharu no Mai” event would be held from 1:30pm.

On the actual day, “Hashigo nori”, which is a traditional Japanese style acrobatic performance done on a ladder, was also being held around noon.
I wanted to see it, however since we were very busy I couldn’t.

This year is the centennial anniversary of the establishment of Nakacho, the Hachioji geisha district. Therefore, the floats from Nakacho and next district, which usually are paraded only on the “Hachioji festival” day, were also being paraded.

The venue of the “Hatsuharu no Mai” event was very near to my okiya.
So I sometimes went there in order to check on the progress of all the events.
The time for our “Hatsuharu no Mai” event came soon.

While we were preparing, a large audience came to see our performance.
I felt that the size of the audience was larger than last year.
It was also very cold just like last year, however since a large audience came I was very glad.

3 shamisen players including me and 1 drum player finished getting ready, so my geisha mother, who was also the main shamisen player, started to announce the beginning of the event.

We performed 7 songs, which took about 20 minutes.
Last year, we played for the same length of time and I lost all feeling in my fingers.
However, this year I didn’t loose any feeling in my fingers.

I was satisfied and relieved after the event.