How Many Geisha are Left in Japan? 2026 Numbers by City

How Many Geisha are There in Japan Today?

Here are the most recent figures we could confirm. Each district counts its own members, and the survey years differ, so treat the national total as an estimate.

• Kyoto (five districts): 211 geiko and maiko total (155 geiko and 56 maiko, April 2024, Kyoto Traditional Musical Art Foundation)
• Tokyo (all districts): about 274 geisha (2015; the most recent Tokyo-wide count we could find)
• Asakusa, Tokyo: about 20 geisha (2026, our own count)
• Atami, Shizuoka: about 100 geisha (Atami Geigi Kenban; the date of this count is not stated)
• Other regional districts, such as Kanazawa and Niigata: smaller communities, often a few dozen or fewer each
• Japan in total: no official figure; likely in the high hundreds, under 1,000

Why There is No Official National Count

Geisha are not counted by the government as a profession. Each district runs its own kenban, the registry office that manages bookings and membership, and publishes numbers only when it chooses to. Some districts share their numbers every year, others rarely. That is why articles online quote very different totals, and why you should look at the city figures first.

Geisha Numbers Over Time: From 80,000 to Today

The decline has been steep, but it happened over a century, not overnight.

• Before World War II: as many as 80,000 geisha across Japan
• About 100 years ago, Asakusa alone: more than 1,060 geisha and around 300 teahouses and restaurants
• 1965, Kyoto: 548 geiko and 76 maiko
• About 55 years ago, Asakusa: more than 140 geisha
• 2006, Kyoto: 202 geiko and 71 maiko
• 2015, Tokyo: about 274 geisha
• 2019, Kyoto: 175 geiko and 79 maiko
• 2024, Kyoto: 155 geiko and 56 maiko
• 2026, Asakusa: about 20 geisha

Regional hot spring towns tell the same story. Atami had more than 1,000 geisha in the busy tourist years of the late 1950s and 1960s, and about 100 today. Niigata’s Furumachi district had around 400 at its peak and about 60 by the 1980s.

How Many Geisha Are in Kyoto?

Kyoto is the largest geisha city in Japan. Its five districts, called the Gokagai, are Gion Kobu, Miyagawacho, Pontocho, Kamishichiken and Gion Higashi. In Kyoto, a fully qualified geisha is called a geiko, and an apprentice is called a maiko.

In July 2020, the five districts had 251 geiko and maiko in total:

By April 2024, the total had fallen to 211. In 1996, Kyoto set up a foundation (the Ookini Zaidan) to support the districts and train new performers.

Fewer Maiko Than Before

The number of maiko matters because they are the next generation of geiko. Kyoto had 79 maiko in 2019 and 56 in 2024. A maiko usually begins training in her mid to late teens and lives in an okiya, a geisha house, during her apprenticeship. We explain how the two roles differ, including the change from a red collar to a white one, in our guide to the difference between maiko and geisha.

How Many Geisha Are in Tokyo?

In 2015, Tokyo had about as many geisha as Kyoto, spread across more districts. This is often overlooked because Kyoto’s maiko appear in so many travel photos. The traditional six districts are Shinbashi, Akasaka, Kagurazaka, Yoshicho, Asakusa and Mukojima. You can read about each one in our guide to the six geisha districts of Tokyo.

The 2015 figures put Tokyo’s total at about 274 geisha:

No Tokyo-wide count has been published since 2015, but newer district figures suggest the total has fallen. Asakusa has about 20 geisha today, down from 26, and the Akasaka geisha association says it now has just under 20, down from 22. Mukojima is still the largest district, with about a third of all geisha in Tokyo.

In Tokyo, an apprentice is called a hangyoku (“half jewel”), not a maiko. A full-fledged Tokyo geisha usually wears a wig called a katsura rather than styling her own hair.

Asakusa: About 20 Geisha Today

Asakusa is our home. A century ago it had more than 1,060 geisha. When our okami, Chikage, debuted as a hangyoku at fifteen, about 55 years ago, there were still more than 140. Today there are about 20, all registered with the Asakusa kenban. Asakusa is also the only place in Japan where taikomochi (hokan), male geisha entertainers, still work formally.

For the full story of how Asakusa went from over a thousand geisha to twenty, see our article on what happened to Asakusa’s geisha.

Geisha Outside Kyoto and Tokyo

Geisha also work in a few regional cities and hot spring towns. Atami, a hot spring resort town less than an hour from Tokyo by Shinkansen, has one of the largest communities outside the two big cities, with about 100 geisha. Kanazawa has three chaya districts (Higashi, Nishi and Kazuemachi), and Niigata’s Furumachi, Fukuoka’s Hakata and other cities keep smaller communities. Most of these groups have only a few dozen members.

Why Did the Number of Geisha Fall?

There is no single cause. From what we have seen in Asakusa, and from the history of other districts, these are the main reasons:

• Business entertainment changed. Companies once hosted clients at ozashiki banquets as a matter of course. As those customs faded, especially from the 1990s, demand fell.
• “Introductions only” kept new guests out. Many teahouses served only guests introduced by existing customers, a system that worked like credit in an era of deferred payment. It also meant the houses never learned to advertise, so as regular customers aged, few new ones came.
• Land became more valuable than the business. Many teahouses sat on family-owned land in central Tokyo. Without a successor, selling the plot was often the sensible choice.
• The training is long and demanding. Becoming a geisha takes years of lessons in dance, shamisen and etiquette, and fewer young women choose that path than in the past.

When teahouses close, geisha lose the places where they perform, and fewer geisha means fewer reasons for teahouses to stay open. That cycle is the core of the decline. You can read more about the world geisha belong to in our article on karyukai, the “flower and willow world”, and about daily life in the okiya.

Do Geisha Still Exist in Japan?

Yes. Geisha are still working in Japan, and new maiko and hangyoku still debut every year. The word geisha means “person of the arts” (gei = art, sha = person). Geisha are professional entertainers trained in classical dance, music and conversation, not courtesans. For a fuller answer, including how the role began with male entertainers in the Edo period, see our article on whether there are still geisha in Japan and our guide to what geisha means in Japan.

A geisha’s work today looks much as it did decades ago: performing dances, playing the shamisen and other instruments, leading ozashiki games, and keeping the conversation going at private banquets. What has changed is who the guests are. More districts now welcome first-time and overseas visitors, and many geisha explain their dances and customs in English.

Where Can You See Geisha Today?

Because there are so few geisha, meeting one usually means booking a banquet or attending a public performance, not spotting one on the street.

• Kyoto: Several districts hold public dance performances in spring and autumn. For a private banquet, most ochaya still require an introduction.
• Tokyo: Some districts welcome first-time guests through teahouses and restaurants. In Asakusa, we opened our ozashiki to first-time and overseas guests without an introduction, and bookings can be made online in English.
• Hot spring towns: In Atami, the geisha perform public shows at their kenban’s rehearsal hall.

At Miyakodori, the only machiai-chaya in Asakusa, guests enjoy dance, live shamisen and ozashiki games with Asakusa geisha, together with seasonal kaiseki. Halal-friendly options are available. If you are wondering what an evening with geisha involves, our article on a Tokyo VIP evening at Miyakodori walks through one, and our tea ceremony guide covers matcha with geisha.