Academic literature on the topic 'Hijikata, Tatsumi, Butō. Dance'

Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata are recognized as the most influential creators of the contemporary Japanese dance form known today as butoh. Since its wild and avant-garde beginnings in the late 1950s, butoh has evolved into an established and appreciated art form throughout the world. Despite its popularity and strong influences on the international modern dance world, butoh only recently became an accepted subject for academic research in Japan as well as in the West. With the new opening of butoh research centers and archives—such as the Ohno Dance Studio Archives at BANK ART 1929 in Yokohama, the Kazuo Ohno Archives at Bologna University in Italy, and the Hijikata Tatsumi Archives at Keio University in Tokyo—serious scholarly attention has been given to the art of butoh's founders. However, the lack of firsthand sources by butoh artists reflecting their own work still poses great limitations for a deep understanding of the art form. Kazuo Ohno's World from Without and Within is not only the first full-length book in English about the master's life and work, but also offers a rare inside view of butoh.

For the first time in English, we present many of Hijikata's aesthetic and poetic texts. These texts are put into context by Kurihara Nanako's introductory essay. The section includes an interview with Hijikata and a conversation between Hijikata and Japanese experimental theatre innovator Suzuki Tadashi. Hijikata Tatsumi died in 1986, but his impact on Japanese and world performance remains strong. One of the founders of butoh, Hijikata's dances were “blistering images of emaciation and death”, yet beautiful.

How does the representation of bodies change in times of war? How can dance be political activism? This paper considers the dances of Hijikata Tatsumi and Mary Wigman in relation to their experiences of war, and explores their use/representation of the body as a political statement. In both cases, these artists sought to use dance to rescue the body from its subjugated social standing.Mary Wigman's dance technique is influenced by German korperkultur, and had its birth in her work with Rudolph Laban and at the natural paradise of Hellerau. Wigman admired Nietzsche's desire to rescue the body from “despisers of the body,” who saw the physical body as an obstacle that must be denied in order for the soul to reach salvation. For Wigman, the “sensuous dancing body” that Nietzsche referred to in Zarathustra “became the vehicle to an authentic life.”Hijikata's idea of dancers as “lethal weapons that dream” offered a view of bodies that were aware of personal agency and chose to step outside of usefulness for the elusive “advancement” of society. He explains, “in this sense my dance, based on human self-activation … can naturally be a protest against the ‘alienation of labor’ in capitalist society.” Douglass Slaymaker's writing on post-war Japanese literature frames Hijikata's sentiment in the time: images of body as nikutai [flesh] were considered counterhegemonic because they defied the notion that the individual body belonged to the national body. Hijikata redirected the body's sacrifice away from productivity and toward the creation of art.

Dance
Ph.D.
ABSTRACT This study investigates performer training in ankoku buto dance, focusing specifically on the methods of Japanese avant-garde artist Hijikata Tatsumi, who is considered the co-founder and intellectual force behind this form. The goal of this study is to articulate the buto dancers preparation and practice under his direction. Clarifying Hijikata's embodied philosophy offers valuable scholarship to the ongoing buto studies dialogue, and further, will be useful in applying buto methods to other modes of performer training. Ultimately, my plan is to use the findings of this study in combination with research in other body-based performance training techniques to articulate the pathway by which a performer becomes empty, or nothing, and what that state makes possible in performance. In an effort to investigate the historically-situated and culturally-specific perspective of the body that informed the development of ankoku buto dance, I am employing frameworks provided by Japanese scholars who figure prominently in the zeitgeist of 1950s and 1960s Japan. Among them are Nishida Kitaro, founder of the Kyoto School, noted for introducing and developing phenomenology in Japan, and Yuasa Yasuo, noted particularly for his study of ki energy. Both thinkers address the body from an experiential perspective, and explore the development of consciousness through bodily sensation. My research draws from personal interviews I conducted with Hijikatas dancers, as well as essays, performance videos and films, and Hijikata's choreographic notebooks. I also track my own embodied understanding of buto, through practicing with these various teachers and using buto methods to teach and create performance work.
Temple University--Theses

From Introduction: Ankoku Butoh is a performing art devised in Japan in the wake of the Second World War by the dancer and choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata (born Akita, 1928; died Tokyo, 1986). A highly aesthetic and subversive performing art, Butoh often evokes "images of decay, of fear and desperation, images of eroticism, ecstasy and stillness." Typically performed with a white layer of paint covering the entire body of the dancer, Butoh is visually characterized by continual transformations between postures, distorted physical and facial expressions, and an emphasis on condensed and visually slow movements. Some of the general characteristics of Butoh performance include "a particular openness to working with the subtle energy in the body; the malleability of time; the power of the grotesque."

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The present study comes with the intention of deepening understandings of relations between political dynamics of territorial creation and the creation of artistic languages, from the analysis of the Tatsumi Hijikata’s work. The central question of our work come into sight through an interdisciplinary study that implicates foundations of philosophy, aesthetics, phenomenology and semiotics. Among the studied authors represent mainly Bergson, Bachelard, Deleuze, Guattari, Uno, Tancelin and Greiner. Based in concepts of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation of Deleuze and Guattari, our hypothesis is that in front of a type of deterritorialisation, which puts a group of people in an abrupt changing contexts situation, there would be a consequent reterritorialisation. Between other forms this reterritorialisation could manifest itself through the insurrection of subjectivities towards the world. This insurrection, in certain cases, would be established through the actualisation of aesthetic territories. When these manifestations are shared with public, it would be as if the insurrection of a new aesthetic territory comes to light. This idea, of an aesthetics territory, we developed during this study, to help with our thought’s évolution. Through butô and a large written production, Hijikata questions the concept of the body, and the functions of art, in a way which seems to meet in a several ways with concepts created and/or developed by Deleuze and Guattari, relatively at the same epoch. Concepts as body without organs, devenir, and immanence plan, are brought into analysis in the course of this study, with proposals developed by Hijikata. Beyond the resonances of a period of crisis in a culture, what we want to analyse is possible resonances into political panorama in long term, provoked by aesthetics experiments.
O presente estudo surge com a intenção de aprofundar compreensões da relação entre dinâmicas de criação de territórios politicos e a criação de linguagens artísticas, à partir da análise da obra de Tatsumi Hijikata. As questões centrais deste trabalho surgem de um percurso de estudo interdisciplinar que implica fundamentos da filosofia, estética, fenomenologia e semiotica. Entre os autores estudados figuram principalmente Bergson, Bachelard, Deleuze, Guattari, Uno, Tancelin e Greiner. Baseando-se nos conceitos de desterritorialização e reterritorialização de Deleuze e Guattari, nossa hipótese é de que em frente a um tipo de déterritorialização que coloca um grupo de sujeitos em uma situação brusca da modificação de contexto, haveria uma consequente reterritorialização. Entre outras formas, essa reterritorialização pode se manifestar através de uma insurreição da subjetividade em relação ao mundo. Esta insurreição, em certos casos, seria estabelecida por meio da atualização de territórios estéticos. Uma vez ques estas manifestações são compartilhadas com o público, haveria uma insurreição de um novo território estético. Este conceito, nos o desensoveremos para nos ajudar na evolução do pensamento deste estudo. Através do butô e de uma grande produção escrita, Hijikata problematisa o conceito do corpo, e a função da arte, de uma maneira que parece confluir em vários aspectos com conceitos criados e/ou desenvolvidos por Deleuze e Guattari, relativamente à mesma época. Conceitos como o corpo sem órgãos, o devir, e plano de imanência, são colocados em análise com propostas desenvolvidas por Hijikata no decorrer deste estudo. Além das ressonâncias estéticas de um período de crise em uma cultura, o que analisamos é a possível ressonância no panorama político à longo prazo, produzida à partir de experiências estéticas
La présente étude s’établit dans le but d’approfondir compréhensions de la relation entre dynamiques de création de territoires politiques et la création de langages artistiques, à partir de l’analyse de l’oeuvre de Tatsumi Hijikata. Les questions centrales de ce travail émergent d’un parcours d’étude interdisciplinaire qu’implique fondements de la philosophie, esthétique, phénoménologie et sémiotique. Parmi les auteurs étudiés figurent principalement Bergson, Bachelard, Deleuze, Guattari, Uno, Tancelin et Greiner. Tout en se basant dans les concepts de déterritorialisation et reterritorialisation de Deleuze et Guattari, l’hypothèse est que devant un type de déterritorialisation que met un groupe de sujets dans une situation brusque de changement de contexte, il y aurait une conséquente reterritorialisation. Entre autres formes cette reterritorialisation pourrait se manifester à partir d’une insurrection des subjectivités vers le monde. Cette insurrection, dans certains cas, serait établie à travers l’actualisation de territoires esthétiques. Une fois ces manifestations partagées avec le public, il y aurait l’insurrection d’un nouveau territoire esthétique. Cette idée de territoire esthétique nous la développons pour nous aider dans l’évolution de la pensée de cette étude. A travers le butô et une vaste production écrite, Hijikata remet en question le concept du corps et la fonction de l’art, d’une manière qui semble confluer dans plusieurs aspects avec concepts crées et/ou développés par Deleuze et Guattari, relativement à la même époque. Concepts comme le corps sans organes, le devenir, et le plan d’immanence, sont mis en analyse dans le parcours de cette étude, avec les propositions développées par Hijikata. Au-delà des résonances esthétiques d’une période de crise dans une culture, ce que nous analysons sont des possibles échos dans le panorama politique à long terme, provoqués à partir d’expériences esthétiques