The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance

Bruce Baird, Rosemary Candelario, Bruce Baird, Rosemary Candelario

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781315536118
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance provides a comprehensive introduction to and analysis of the global art form butoh.

Originating in Japan in the 1960s, butoh was a major innovation in twentieth century dance and performance, and it continues to shape-shift around the world. Taking inspiration from the Japanese avant-garde, Surrealism, Happenings, and authors such as Genet and Artaud, its influence can be seen throughout contemporary performing arts, music, and visual art practices.

This Companion places the form in historical context, documents its development in Japan and its spread around the world, and brings together the theory and the practice of this compelling dance. The interdisciplinarity evident in the volume reflects the depth and the breadth of butoh, and the editors bring specially commissioned essays by leading scholars and dancers together with translations of important early texts.

Section 1
Butoh instigators and interlocutors

1
On the Eve of the Birth of Ankoku Butoh

Postwar Japanese modern dance and Ohno Kazuo

Kuniyoshi Kazuko (translated by Bruce Baird and condensed and adapted by the Editors)

In 1926, at the age of twenty, Ohno Kazuo came to Tokyo, and then entered the world of dance in 1936, while working as physical education teacher. Before and after the war, he was involved in the dance world, and then in 1954, he met Hijikata Tatsumi. Eventually, he participated alongside Hijikata in the creative period of ankoku butoh. How did he go from modern dance to butoh, and just what were the reasons that lead to his separation from modern dance? By looking at this period from the vantage point of Ohno, I want to cast light on the eve of the birth of ankoku butoh.¹

The encounter with dance: on the dance of Mary Wigman and the new dance of Eguchi Takaya and Miya Misako

Ohno started dancing with Eguchi Takaya and Miya Misako in 1936. But prior to that time, he was required to teach dance as condition of his employment at the Soshin Girls School, and thus had studied with Ishii Baku in 1933. About Ishii’s actual dance training, he writes that “it was mainly like pantomime…. It was dance like drama, and it was theatrical,” and the basis was classical ballet. He says that he thought, “If it is dance like pantomime, there is no need to study it” (Tsuboi 2002, 66).

He encountered the dance of Eguchi and Miya via reviews and photographs of their 1934 dances Work No. 1 and Operating Room that they performed at their first recital upon returning from Germany (Ohno 1995, 40).² Eguchi said about Work No. 1,

One day, I sat in a chair, and while I was idly moving the fingers on my right hand (which was resting on my knee), when I tried to bend my wrists almost to the square and stand my middle and ring fingers up firmly, I became aware of a sharp and severe sensation, and thought to make that into the basis for creating a ‘Movement.’

Eguchi 1969, 2

And again,

This ‘hand movement’ that I had made with no particular purpose in mind became a ‘stimulus’ and I was able to give birth to various movements all at once using this movement as a base. Although I considered the overall structure and order of movements when I compiled them, it is basically just a work that was only movements.

Eguchi 1961, 18

One person was silver and one person was gold, and the only thing different was their color; their costumes, wigs, and shapes were the same, and they did the same movements, which became a powerful dance that felt quite radical.

Eguchi 1961, 174

Ohno saw photographs accompanying reviews or introductory articles about both dances in the newspapers, and said that this was probably “the first dance in Japan which was truly abstract.” And he suddenly thought, “This is it. I had the feeling that without a doubt, I had finally found what I was looking for” (Ohno 1995, 40).

When you look at pictures of Operating Table, and Work No. 1, they are both duets with Eguchi and Miya, and one can feel clear sharp sculpturality in the forms of their bodies and limbs. It must have been these clear forms that Ohno felt were so fresh and new. It was not a dance with a dramatic exalted feeling, but something that made one feel simple clear forms, (even in the costumes which were subordinate to the movements), and this matched what Ohno was looking for at the time. This was not the descriptive dance achieved through mime that Ohno had seen at Ishii Baku’s studio previously.

When Eguchi and Miya returned from their time in Europe in the mid-1930s, it had already been about ten years since the form of “New Dance” had emerged in Japan. Interest was increasing in the modern dance that was all the rage in Europe, and many people went to Europe to study, starting with Ishii Baku. Many dancers including Anna Pavlova and La Argentina (Antonia Mercé) also came to Japan in this era. From the 1930s, such dancers from New Dance as Alexander Sakharoff, the Bodenweiser Sisters, Harald Kreutzberg, and Ruth Page came to Japan. The new dance in Germany, which was to exert such a profound influence on the formation of dance in Japan, was introduced by Ishii Baku and also Tsuda Nobutoshi and Kuni Masami. Eguchi and Miya were a new stream who were reacting against Ishii. They spread the form of expressionist dance that they had learned for two years from Mary Wigman. Thus, Ishii and Eguchi and Miya had all studied with the German Expressionist dancer, Mary Wigman, but their choreography was different. Why did Ohno choose the Eguchi/Miya version rather than Ishii’s version? Before thinking about that question, let us think about Wigman’s dance itself.

Of course, Wigman is the first name in German Expressionist dance. Wigman thought of personal experience as the motivation for the creative process. She wrote,

Therefore the dancer-choreographer must turn his inner feelings and perceptions into visible expression, he must clarify and give expression to his personal life experiences through the medium of the dance.

Wigman 1973, 86

That is, Wigman generates in clear movement forms that which is felt in personal experience, and all of the transformations that are a result of natural reactions to it. The process becomes the dancing body, and is embodied. She took it as necessary to search for a method of converting the inner emotions that arise and disappear and the transformations of the spirit into bodily movement forms. Wigman thought that dance was that thing which is transmitted through form when that which is experienced psychologically and mentally is consciously given shape though visible bodily movements. Moreover, she thought that that which was expressed through exceedingly simple strong forms, which were appropriate to convey an experience, would transcend individual experience and obtain a greater universality.

In contrast to this way of thinking, just what was Eguchi/Miya’s dance like? Eguchi explained about the new dance in detail in his 1961 Method of Dance Creation.

Modern dance prizes the ‘construction of space.’ Even the ‘movement’ that I spoke of previously is included in the ‘creation of space,’ and one creates (on the basis of intuitive calculations) that which will make the place of the stage come alive: how, where, and when the movement will unfold, what kind of organization, what movements, what progression, what feeling will be contained therein, and the presentation of things which have what kind of nuance.

Eguchi 1961, 5–6

To summarize Eguchi’s thought, this kind of ‘creation of space’ had not existed in Japan before that time, and instead, there was narrative, to which theatrical gestures were appended.

Eguchi (ibid.) also wrote “I wanted to know other kinds of movements, to seek out all such movements,” and made all the movements of humanity part of his creative process. And, he continued, as a result of pursuing the transformations of the various bodily movements (such as the position of feet on the floor, or the way of bending joints),

I was able to discover that the movements of humans are infinite … and just how it is that the infinite movements are infinite. This is not just that I conquered the world of movements, but coming to this way of thinking was the most important thing for the new dance.

When he went to Wigman’s school, Eguchi was quite shocked to find out that there was connection between what he saw there and the kind of movements he was seeking. Because Wigman grasped the elements of numerous movements, and brought these into her method, Eguchi immediately decided to study with her. In this way, Eguchi and Miya ended up spending two years studying abroad. While learning from Wigman, Eguchi was able to touch the source from which free movements could be freely created, and we might observe that he chiefly learned a method for eliciting new movements. In sum, Eguchi and Miya learned a very analytical approach from Wigman.

On the other hand, Ishii felt the strength of Wigman in her attempt to express through bodily movements the internal transformations of the spirit and the dramatic transformations in the emotion of the individual, and not in the specific transformations of the movements themselves. Ishii thought the task of dance expression was not the expression of the truth of the human through trivial daily life, or the details of real life, but through taking the matters of daily experience, purifying them, strengthening them, and elevating them into a more universal movement. This is what Wigman called “Absolute Dance,” and it corresponds to the expression that is held in the highest regard in expressionist dance and doubles up with the attempt to reach a universal world that transcends the individual. The tendency of Ishii’s dance to treat universal subjects with heightened dramatic movement is due to his having imbibed this part of Wigman.

In contrast, Ohno felt that such exalted dramatic dance is unnaturally forced, and he could not get used to such lofty spheres and a universality that surpasses everyday human emotion, and for the same reason, he felt extremely uneasy with the movements that are born as a result (Ohno 1995, 41). Reflecting on Eguchi’s dance training, he also said that since all the parts of the body are influenced by every single movement, limitless movements are born. Moreover, that he understands what Eguchi means when he says that all the body’s parts are connected to each other, so even in the movement of one joint, there are innumerable movements, but movement is also naturally related to problems of the heart/mind, soul and life. In the case of movement, first there is some kind of necessity and then a movement. Ohno says that first you think of going, and then the legs follow. He also says that he spent five years in trial and error trying to figure out the foundations of movement. It is interesting that during his period of establishing his dance studio, he was not worried about all the variations of a movement, but rather had an interest in what movements would come out when the “thought comes first” (Ohno 1995, 41). In particular, we can say that Ohno was proceeding by trial and error in stimulating himself internally, and also in the thinking about the connection between his own existence and expression, all the while taking lessons from Eguchi and Miya, and earning his livelihood.

The era of independence and recitals 1949–1953: Ohno’s method of composition as a modern dancer

In 1949, Ohno established the Ohno Kazuo Dance Studio, and almost immediately held the First Ohno Kazuo Dance Recital. As if a dam had broken, Ohno held recitals every year until 1951, and then skipped a year and held a fourth recital in 1953. There were usually solos interspersed with group dances for a total of twenty-nine dances. In his review of the first performance, Eguchi Hiroshi wrote:

Ohno Kazuo’s recital was full of extremely eccentric ideas, and while there was certainly uniqueness in his expression of them, I feel a dull regret that his intentions are not sufficiently expressed. For example, in a work entitled Statue of the Ernst Family, which at first glance is certainly strange work, the treatment of the protagonist Owl had a certain strange flavor to it, but the work as a whole never developed beyond conceptual boundaries. This tendency gives birth to strange works such as Flower and Chair, Good Morning Praying Mantis, and Fetters, but each of these lack a thorough treatment, and there is a tendency for only the ideas to be particularly glittering. When it comes to the short works, Ohno’s individuality is honestly expressed. For example, Tango displayed a fresh individuality which was different from common practice. There’s no doubt that this is a newcomer with a singular personality.

Eguchi Hiroshi 1949 ³

The representative phrases are ‘extremely eccentric,’ ‘strange,’ ‘strange works,’ and ‘strange flavor.’ These are connected to ‘singular personality,’ ‘uniqueness of expression,’ and ‘individuality.’ The conclusion is that the works are not particularly dance-like in terms of rhythm, melody, and movement, that they have a conception which is difficult for the usual spectators to understand, and that they are on the whole more literary rather than dance like. In general, rather than appraising his skill as a dancer, the reviewer focuses on the world of the performance, the uniqueness of the images, and the unprecedented nature of the works.

In another view of this same performance, the critic Nagata Tatsuo locates Ohno’s distinctiveness in Praise of Jacob and Tango, which were short works. Although Ohno lacks power, he writes, “we should praise the intention of his poetic expression in his choreography, however, it is necessary for him to be precise about the organization of his bodily expression,” thus indicating that in general, Ohno and his dancers are lacking in bodily training (Nagata 1949).

In 1950, Ohno held his second dance recital, and not surprisingly, there was a short review in the Tokyo newspaper by Eguchi Hiroshi:

There are no parallels for the eccentric pieces in Ohno’s modern dance … The dance lacks the feeling of movement, but has a peculiar kind of feminine lyricism, and the fact that the result is not as he intends, is likely due to the uniform and monotonous choreography. But when compared with last year, both the pieces in the dancing have a feeling of stability.

Eguchi Hiroshi 1950

In this review for the second recital, there is the familiar refrain of the unique works and the lack of movement, but also a recognition of “feminine lyricism.” In a letter from some time probably in 1951 between the se...