A maiko's silk hair ornaments — hana-kanzashi — change with the calendar. Once you know the wheel, you can read the season off a passing hairstyle.
Pine, bamboo and plum together — all auspicious — with sparrows, battledores and ears of rice for the New Year.
Trailing deep-pink plum, the first flower of the year. Flower-ball pins appear for Setsubun.
Yellow rape blossom and daffodils, with peonies and butterflies as spring gathers pace.
Sakura — the most beloved ornament of the year, worn through the Miyako Odori season.
Trailing purple wisteria, with flag irises — the longest, most graceful cascade of the year.
Green willow with pinks, or blue hydrangea — imagery for the rainy season.
Folding and round fans, sometimes carrying Gion Matsuri float motifs for the festival month.
Cool, spare summer designs, worn through the heat — and through Hassaku's black-kimono rounds on the first of the month.
Violet bellflower, mixed with bush clover and other early-autumn flowers.
Chrysanthemums in autumn colours, for the season of recitals.
Trailing maple leaves with ginkgo — the ornament matches the maples turning outside.
Two small wooden name-boards, copies of the actors' boards raised at the Minamiza for the year-end kabuki. A maiko may ask a favourite actor to sign hers.
Photographs of each month's ornament, taken in these streets, will be added as the year turns.