Century-old Tokyo geisha festival revives dying art

For seven days from May 21st, the geishas will perform in full splendour at the 100-year-old Azuma Odori festival at a theatre in the heart of the Japanese capital. 

This year for the first time ever, around 180 geishas from 19 Japanese regions are participating in the annual festival, as well as those from Tokyo's Shinbashi district who usually perform. In Japanese, the word geisha means "person of the arts", a woman or man trained in traditional Japanese performing arts.