KAE ISHIMOTO
I am the staff member of the Hijikata Tatsumi Archive at the Keio University Art Center and the director of Hijikata Research group POHRC. I began Butoh dance career under Yukio Waguri since 2002.
Location Tokyo, Japan
Activity
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I want to emphasis that there are many style in Butoh dance. I can say each butoh dancers has different style. So when you take some workshops you may be surprised the teachers say very different opinions. But it shows how butoh is accepted diversely. In one way to see, this is chaotic (and nowadays there is Post Butoh Movement, it may give even more...
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@MaríaCatalinaSánchezPalacios I met Rhea at Hijikata archive as the first time and the butoh festival in Chile in 2018. It is very lovely to see Butoh seeds are blooming everywhere in the world. I hope I can visit Argentina one day and I have to show Kazuo Ohno's "Admiring La Argentine":)
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Yes, sadly that's true. He stopped dancing at age 80 and he changed the shift to teach young students more. I felt he was becoming weaker in the last few years but his passion to talk and teach was even more strong.
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Andrew Wale
The connection with the atomic bombs is common questions and opinions to describe origin of Butoh, especially in Europe and US. How to receive is of course audience's choice and the grotesque or suffering expressions normally Butoh dancers do looked like that, so some people immediately recall the bombs. But I should say this is a kind of prejudice. I can't...
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Jane Stokes
So I think Hijikata will not show the "process" of rehearsals (He didn't talk about butoh-fu method either), he completed the piece on the performance with reacting to audience.
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Jane Stokes
I think you are right: what is "achievement" in this meaning? I am not sure either. And I like the words Kazuo Ohno said: "If you think you understand, it is the end of the world. What did you understand really?" Of course, we want to understand and satisfy, and keep asking and questioning are very tiring and painful. But it seems Butoh dance requires the...
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Many people says Butoh is anti-ballet and anti-western movement. But to do "Anti", we need something against. What I want to say is Butoh is not coming from nothing. Eventually Hijikata broke many aesthetics or systems but he had time to influenced deeply from "western" elements such as french philosophy and American neo-dada. (I don't talk about what is...
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Well it had some concepts but especially in 60's Hijikata prefer to have coincidence rather than fixed movements. It is interesting to observe how Hijikata changed his style towards to more formalized movement. Nobody knows the reasons though.
I agree what you said. Even though I was born in Japan, but I grew up in southern so I never get used to see...
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In Japanese, body is "karada", kara is empty, so empty body itself is not Hijikata's innovation but he used the idea to the dancer's state, that's unique. To explain empty body, my teacher waguri often talked about a white paper. If the paper is white, it can be any colour but if the paper has colour already, it is difficult to put on new colour. In the other...
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What you described is very close to what Hijikata was looking for. The doll state requests "Passive body" to be everything. When I was doing contemporary dance, I was always struggling as "I". I cannot be anything except "I". I found more possibilities when I met Butoh-fu method and enjoyed the idea of transformation. To do so, the subjective mind is...
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@AndrewWale I can't talk about other notation system but if we just talk about Butoh-fu method, it is very precise and technical indication to dancers who trained the method. For people who don't trained the vocabularies, all indication sounds like a poem for sure. But for us, we know what are those movements when we read. But even though we know how to move,...
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Hijikata referred and borrowed elements from other Japanese art, especially traditional Kabuki theatre, Noh theatre and puppet theater Bunraku. But his references are not only them. I can find some Buddhist images, Japanese religious Shinto and Christianism too. It is just like our chaotic Japanese religious and culture. Many elements are mixing up.
It is a... -
Few years ago I did a personal research with a Bharatnatyam dancer. We compared the buto-fu method and the Bharatnatyam method, and we were amused to find the similarity how to use the emotion and being real.
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Colleen O'Brien
Yes you are right, Hijikata brought the idea from Japanese Puppet Theatre Bunraku. He established the "ningyo tai (doll state)" and the idea is that the dancers have to remove subjective intention. Somebody moves your body so you move, not you want to move. This complete passive state is one of interesting idea of method.
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@MaríaCatalinaSánchezPalacios Maybe I have to say, it sounds like intimidating but it was not too negative. Hijikata was strict for sure, but the students respected him a lot.
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To know more about Waguri's Butoh-fu, you can go to the website and see the actual choreography
https://butoh-kaden.com/en -
I have heard that Takao Kawaguchi, the artist who is known for a piece "About Kazuo Ohno" will create Rebellion of body. But I am not sure what's going on because of corona virus.
At Hijikata archive, we have Hijikata's red dress from the performance so please come to the archive when the world will be settle down. -
Even as Japanese, I don't really understand the meaning of 'Ailing Dancer' because of ambiguous and nonsensical sentences. And the living style is very unique in north region and some of habits / traditions were gone already so I, as a contemporary Japanese, need many explanations to understand. But I have to say, even though I don't really understand, I could...
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to EnGr Au
Or it is the time to change established "Butoh" and reborn it? There are some Post-Butoh movements but I want to see more in the world!
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@SylwiaHanff I agree what you said: the connection Butoh - Nietzsche is more complicated.
Not so much people talked about the connection Butoh - Nietzsche so it is interesting way to see. Hijikata didn't really mention about Nietzsche but I have checked his book collection and found out one fact. Hijikata has Also sprach Zarathustra printed in Japanese in... -
@KrzysztofSleczka In fact, nobody knows what is butoh, and what is butoh like, so it not possible to discuss from one point of view. I personally like how you say though: focus on the pitiful and animalistic side of human existence.
I don't know Mishima's interest so well but at least I can say Hijikata was inspired from Mishima's work but not from the... -
KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Teri Szucs
Here we need to think carefully how this teacher-student relationship is important for the butoh training. Pretty much all students who learned from Hijikata directory said the intense training (live together and rehearse everyday whole night) was important and this is the essence of Butoh. Some of them said it is impossible to lean Butoh from "workshop"...
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Teri Szucs
I like how you say...great abusive directors in theatrical history, LOL. And it was really true in Hijiakta's company indeed.
Everything has good and bad side and here we can see, the precise and deep method came because of the strict control as a positive perspective. Because Hijikata never allowed dancer for their "free" and subjective expressions, he... -
This performance has recorded with the original music and the famous Hijikata's solo scene came with the song "bailero" (Chant de bergers de Haute-Auvergne).
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In fact, Hijiakta stopped performing then focused only his creation of Butoh-fu method after 1973. And till his death, He never came back on stage but there were some people who said Hijikata was thinking to perform again for the performance in 1986 or soon later. But we never know because he passed away before the plan become realized.
I agree your...
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In Aichi Expo 2005, there was one performance that related with contemporary dance and avant-garde theatre. J.A Seazer (originally came from Shuji Terayama's company Tenjyo Sajiki) was the director and producer was Akiko Kitamura who is one of the most powerful contemporary dancer and choreographer.
But yes, i agree. Expo in Japan changed the character... -
KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Tanja Grgic 王玛丽
There is not so much document left about Kazuo's early works.
To know about Kazuo Ohno's general information, you can refer this site. http://www.kazuoohnodancestudio.com/english/In Hijikata archive, there are some photos from Hijikata and Kazuo's rehearsals in early time also performance of "happening" event. And we have Kazuo's photos from shootings...
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I have a bad news guys.... Mr. Morishita's desk is now gone because of renovation of the office. I have to dismantle his desk, that was very hard physically and emotionally. Please visit the new office in Keio University Art Center once corona virus is settled down.
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Cat Westwood
Nothing comes from nowhere. Hijikata innovated the new dance Butoh and the notation system Butoh-fu, but he was based on German expression dance, jazz dance (and sort of Spanish dance not exactly flamenco), also American neo-dada, fluxus, French philosophy, surrealism, Informalism etc. So what we can lean is how to use or transform our experience and...
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Teri Szucs
Hijikata was inspired from Mishima's book and the performance was also directly influenced. One day Mishima found unknown young artist Hijikata "used" his idea without the permission. Mishima visited with the photographer Mr. Ootsuji to Asbestos studio to see the rehearsal. The photo in the middle of this page is from their visit.
Mishima was extremely... -
KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Auriel Lancashire
First Hijikata showed more interests and were inspired from French philosophy and American neo-dada movements but after the photo shooting with Eikoh Hosoe in his hometown Akita, Hijikata looked back his origin. You can see the radical change if you compare his pieces in 60's and 70's.
I believe that Hijikata weave his origin (Akita and Japan) into his... -
Thank you for sharing your experience. I agree, there are many choreographers who use words for their choreography. Hijikata is one of them. But I want to emphasize that Hijikata created the notation system and it is complicated and unique. But Hijikata is not only one who create dance method either.
The Butoh-fu method is created for non-trained dancers so... -
Till 80's Hijikata didn't really refer Haiku for his creation but many students in Hijikata's last years told that Hijikata started to correct and use Haiku for his creation in 80's. There is not so much research about this topic, so I don't know really well. I am sorry.
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Just to clarify about the butoh-fu technique, Hijikata required the dancer to be an empty body. Because the empty body can "be" everything without doubt. So in that meaning, the choreography is not suggestion and doesn't allow interpretation by dancer's subject. To understand the relationship, puppet and puppet master is the good example to explain. Dancer's...
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Judah Attille
I don't think that Hijikata has strategies to shifting around the categories. But his diverse connection with other artists from different genre and his curiosity and creativity towards to the art naturally invite many categories to describe his art and it looks like it is beyond one particular category.
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Judah Attille
It is good question indeed! I want to know the answer too.
Hijikata has two different artistic stages: one is before 1972 and it has more connected avant-garde movements. other is after 1972 and it moved to establish a method so it is a gap between "avant-garde" as an art movement. But Hijikata's method is still very experimental so in that case, Hijikata...
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There was a sound operator but Hijikata was always in the tech booth during the performance. He improvised and gave instruction to the operator so each performance is very active and nothing was same. Light and music keep changing so dancers cannot refer them. It gave good tension to dancers.
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Inez J
The butoh-fu choreography has serious of poetic imaginary words instead of practical instruction like move forward and hands up then sit down etc. But even though the butoh-fu choreography sounds like poetic, they are very practical instructions for dancers in Hijikata's company. Because they know the vocabulary through rehearsals so even one word "Beardsley'"...
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Sue Jansons
Aubrey Beardsley is one of the important references but the image always comes with "Peacock Lady". When dancers dance "salome", the reference was from Gustave Moreau's "salome".
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In one way to see, the butoh is based on some kind of traditional martial arts or traditional performing art trainings. But the buto-fu method is the notation system not the training method. This is the tool to choreograph dancers (but off course, to dance those choreography, dancers need to know how to move through training)
Each movements doesn't have...
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There is a video to know more about our "project rebirth"
https://vimeo.com/391662590
I am sorry all subtitles are in Japanese but you can refer the visual images.
Some people remembered about the performance at Pepsi kan and they talked about the reason why Hijikata and the company had to stop performing. It was because Hijikata used birds in the... -
@JudahAttille There was no female "agency" under Hijikata's Butoh troop. But female are important in the troop. Tomiko Takai and Natsu Nakajima contributed in the early stage in Butoh then 3 female dancers (Yoko Ashikawa, Saga Kobayashi and Momoko Nimura) became main dancers and called as "san nin musume" (literally meaning is 3 girls / sisters) in 70's. Also...
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Jasmine Lin
There is no film of the performance unfortunately. There are some vague pictures and photos from rehearsals in Hijikata Archive.
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KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Imani Teague
We cannot ignore the fact that Kazuo was the great inspiration for Hijikata to create a new dance. But Hijikata was the director and he choreographed Kazuo however, there was deep respect between both of them.
Let's take an example from Kazuo Ohno's masterpiece "Admiring La Argentina" (1977). Yoshito suggested to ask Hijikata to choreograph his father Kazuo... -
KAE ISHIMOTO replied to Judah Attille
The course focus more about Japanese Avant-garde but it is not possible to make it separated from European and American art movements. Hijikata and his colleagues were also very influenced from them but I should say the influences are not only from European avant-garde movements.