Butoh and Being a Physical Body :The Daily Practice and Collective Living of Butoh Artists in Japan

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  • Coker C.
    京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科

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Other Title
  • 舞踏の肉体 : 現代日本における舞踏家たちの日常実践と共同生活
  • ブトウ ノ ニクタイ : ゲンダイ ニホン ニ オケル ブトウカ タチ ノ ニチジョウ ジッセン ト キョウドウ セイカツ

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Description

This paper examines an ideology of the physical body known as "nikutai" in the context of Hijikata Tatsumi's Butoh and the significance of the collective lifestyle practiced under Hijikata. This lifestyle emerged in the pursuit of Butoh, a daily practice in which Hijikata's apprentices probed into the physicality of their own existences. This paper focuses on the experience of the artist and discusses how the simple act of "being a physical body" can become an inquiry into the nature of the human condition and even an act of resistance to the pre-existing social order. The body has a latent political nature that cannot be denied. Butoh is a form of avant-garde performance that began in 1960s Japan. These artists not only made dance pieces that have come to be considered as revolutionary in dance history, but their very decision to become Butoh artists placed them outside of mainstream society. This paper asserts that their artistic and social stance was realized through their daily practice, which focused on the physical nature of their bodies. This research is based on interviews with and workshop participant-observation of 7 Butoh artists who were apprentices of Hijikata.

Journal

  • 人文學報

    人文學報 107 73-101, 2015-09-30

    THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES, KYOTO UNIVERSITY

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