Now re-issued, this compact book unravels the contribution of one of modern theatre’s most charismatic innovators. Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo combines:
• an account of the founding of Japanese butoh through the partnership of Hijikata and Ohno, extending to the larger story of butoh’s international assimilation
• an exploration of the impact of the social and political issues of post-World War II Japan on the aesthetic development of butoh
• metamorphic dance experiences that students of butoh can explore
• a glossary of English and Japanese terms.
As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today’s student.
PREFACE TO 2018 RE-ISSUE, Sondra Fraleigh
INTRODUCTION
BUTOH SHAPESHIFTERS
Kaze Daruma: the origins of butoh
Hijikata’s butoh
Nature, mud, and butoh morphology
Butoh alchemy in global circulation
Hijikata: a corpse standing desperately upright
Yoneyama Kunio
Studying Neue Tanz
The drug of Ohno
Tokyo
New names
Dancing life: Ohno Kazuo
Born to dance
Together and apart
Together again
Ohno’s international stage
Ohno is a bridge
Butoh, community, and healing
THE WORDS OF HIJIKATA AND OHNO
Hijikata-speak
The criminal and the fool: writing/living darkness
Body as spirit: writing/speaking the butoh body
Being a corpse
Hijikata’s butoh-fu: what is an image?
Words that dance: Ohno’s images
Spiritual darkness: inside Ohno’s studio and Konpaku
How Ohno prepares: words for the speech of the body
The Ishikari river’s hooked-nose salmon
Body as universe: Kazuo and Yoshito speak of love and care
DANCES OF DEATH, SACRIFICE, AND SPIRIT
Two butohists: why they dance the way they do
Dance as experience: shedding the social body
Challenging modernization
Kinjiki (Forbidden Colors, 1959)
Barairo Dansu (Rose Colored Dance, 1965)
Nikutai No Hanran (Rebellion of the Body, 1968)
Note on Natsu No Arashi (Summer Storm, 1973)
La Argentina Sho (Admiring La Argentina, 1977)
Suiren (Water Lilies, 1987)
Interview with Ohno Yoshito – on Suiren
The future of butoh
DANCE EXPERIENCES
Introduction to metamorphic explorations
Nakajima Natsu: becoming nothing/ becoming something
Ohno Yoshito: the patience of not starting
Yoshioka Yumiko: body resonance
Morita Itto and Takeuchi Mika: psychosomatics of butoh
Takenouchi Atsushi’s Jinen Butoh
Frances Barbe and the practice of butoh-fu
Harada Nobuo: butoh is everything
Waguri Yukio and Butoh-Kaden CD-Rom
English glossary of terms Japanese glossary of terms
Biography
Sondra Fraleigh is Professor Emeritus of dance and somatic studies at the State University of New York at Brockport. She chaired the Department of Dance at SUNY Brockport and has been a Faculty Exchange Scholar for the State University of New York. Her innovative choreography has been seen in theaters in New York, Germany, and Japan, and she is often a guest lecturer in Europe, America, and Asia. Fraleigh is the founding director of Eastwest Somatics Institute for the study of dance and movement therapy, a member school of ISMETA, International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.
Tamah Nakamura is a professor at Chikushi Jogakuen University, Fukuoka Japan. Her areas of expertise are contemporary Japan, popular culture and gender. Research interests include artistic inquiry, and butoh. She has published articles and presented on butoh in Japan and internationally.
