"Gion Beverly Hills," Traditional Japanese Tea House Coming In 2022 As A Fully Immersive & Educational Cultural Experience

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Nov. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As of February 14, 2022, Angelenos will be treated to a historic one-of-a-kind cultural entertainment and dining experience like never before seen in the United States. 

Set to be located at 420 N. Camden Drive in Beverly Hills, CA, Sean Sprawling's Gion Beverly Hills will be a mesmerizing Japanese Tea House* featuring renowned geisha from Tokyo, Japan.

With a mission to provide a genuine and encapsulated Japanese cultural and educational experience for its guests, Gion Beverly Hills will be the first American Japanese Tea House to have legitimate trained and officiated geisha coming from the cultural emblem where geisha originated. 

In fact, amongst rare surviving Hanamachi (geisha region in Japan), the Gion district in Kyoto is literally the most exclusive and well-known geisha region in all of Japan, and why Sean is honored to pay homage to the country's significant culture by naming his tea house after it.

Making history as the only male geisha in Japan, Sean is thrilled to announce that Eitaro Matsunoya will be one of the geisha performing at Gion Beverly Hills; marking a truly historic genesis for the presence of geisha in the United States. Trained to be a geisha by a highly regarded master of Japanese traditional dance and instruments in Tokyo, Eitaro has been performing his skills and art for the last 20 years, bringing joy to numerous audiences. With a studied effeminacy, he has perfected the gestures and dances of a woman's profession beautifully and is an alluring portal into a rich history of non-normative gender expression in Japanese performing arts. 

"Eitaro is a rare find, as he has been trained with hundreds of years old skills that very few people in the world have had access to learn," explains Sean Sprawling, filmmaker and owner of Gion Beverly Hills. "I am honored Eitaro agreed to be the subject of an upcoming documentary I am working on, as well as support me in this new venture as a cultural educator with Gion Beverly Hills. His story is very compelling; he is not a member of the LGBTQ+ community but performs in a female role without the intent of breaking tradition, as it wouldn't be allowed if not for the unique circumstances of his childhood." 

Sean continues, "I really can't wait to share with the world Eitaro's story and the arts he has dedicated years of his life to master. He truly is special, and it is an honor to have him be a part of Gion Beverly Hills."

Those wishing to experience this one-of-a-kind artistic dining experience will have to make a reservation via Gion Beverly Hills' website (coming soon). The menu will consist of upscale Japanese cuisine, and there will also be traditional Japanese tea ceremonies, dances, and shamisen* performances. 

Furthermore, not only will guests indulge in traditional entertainment from renowned Japanese geisha, they will also be encapsulated by beautiful 3D mapping that feature life-like and authentic projections of ancient Kyoto's nature and surroundings, immediately transporting them to the other side of the world. Gion Beverly Hills' menu and atmosphere, including smells, decor, and scenery, will change with the Japanese seasons, so every time a person visits, a different experience is sure to be felt.

Ultimately, the goal behind Gion Beverly Hills is to change the perception and narrative of geisha, as they are so often wrongfully portrayed as subservient and sexualized beings. In Kyoto dialect, Gei means "art," while Sha means "person". Geisha, therefore, are highly trained upscale masters in the art of entertaining, that of which preserve Japanese traditions from hundreds of years ago.

Gion Beverly Hills promises to uphold to these classic Japanese standards and practices and cannot wait to open its doors this February.

For more information on Gion BH or to interview owner Sean Sprawling, contact Eileen Koch of EKC PR, a Full-Service Branding, Marketing and Public Relations Firm, at 310-441-1000 or [email protected].

* Tea House is a Japanese term that refers to a full dining experience with geisha and is not in a literal sense about a tea drinking experience. 

* Shamisen is a three-stringed traditional Japanese instrument.

SOURCE Gion Beverly Hills