ABSTRACT
Shibusawa Tatsuhiko occupies a unique space in post-war Japanese culture. He is perhaps best known as the translator of works by Marquis de Sade, but is also credited as a widely learned critic who introduced and popularized many notions pertaining to Western art and history, especially surrealism and the occult. It is safe to say that butoh pioneer Hijikata Tatsumi had a great respect for this decadent scholar of his own generation. Shibusawa Tatsuhiko was born to Takeshi, a bank clerk, and Setsuko, his wife. Although related to Shibusawa Eiichi, a banking tycoon sometimes dubbed "the father of Japanese capitalism," his immediate family led a modest life. The chapter focuses on how several aspects of Shibusawa's draconian hemisphere might have influenced Hijikata's practice of butoh, and how Shibusawa perceived Hijikata's performances. Special attention will be paid to Shibusawa's view on human body as objet, the idea he nurtured through his studies on surrealist art.
