Access
Access to the Ichiriki is the height of exclusivity; fierce ties to the ochaya must first be established before one can become a patron. Relationships to the ochaya can often be traced back generations, and only these wealthy honored patrons and their guests, with reservations, are allowed in.
For a brief period of only a few nights in 2006, Ichiriki Chaya, along with other ochaya (one from each of the five Kyoto geisha districts), offered general access to a small number of tourists who were unaccompanied by patrons, as part of a tourism promotion program, at the request of the Kyoto City Tourist Association.
Read more about this topic: Ichiriki Chaya
Famous quotes containing the word access:
“Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major—perhaps the major—stake in the worldwide competition for power. It is conceivable that the nation-states will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for control over access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor.”
—Jean François Lyotard (b. 1924)
“Oh, the holiness of always being the injured party. The historically oppressed can find not only sanctity but safety in the state of victimization. When access to a better life has been denied often enough, and successfully enough, one can use the rejection as an excuse to cease all efforts. After all, one reckons, “they” don’t want me, “they” accept their own mediocrity and refuse my best, “they” don’t deserve me.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)