ABSTRACT
Japan, like many regions of Asia and the “melting pots” of the West, has developed diverse aesthetic and political/religious configurations, and in many cases has welcomed change. Hijikata himself, while decrying the Western colonization of Japan, used the creativity he garnered from German Neue Tanz and European surrealism to invent his “Body in Crisis.” Theater dance in today’s Japan is diverse, ranging from the traditions of Kabuki and Noh to Japanese development of Western ballet and modern dance – and still the continuing evolution of butoh. Dance critic Tachiki Akiko says that butoh often slides into the work of other new dance in Japan (Daiwa International Butoh Festival, London, 2005). So how do we know butoh when we see it in the twenty-first century, and does it still bear a relationship to butoh founders, Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo? Nakamura Fumiaki (1993) calls the current, new performers of butoh “butoh dancers” because they emphasize the beauty
of butoh as choreographed performance. However, those who maintain the spirit of Hijikata and Ohno’s butoh, Nakamura terms “butoh-ists.”
