" The Body as Dance "
An Introduction to The Study of Butoh-ology (3)
("Dance Seminer a nishiazabu" chapter 3 English Version)

9.   Noteworthy Butoh Dancers are Considering the Problem 
      at the Point in Time Hijikata  Quit 



     "Sankaijuku" for example, its origin is Hijikata or his pupil  
Akaji Maro (1943- ).  To put it rudely,  "Sankaijuku" streamlined 
the original style of Ankoku-butoh by removing the tangible and 
fine folk custom-like details of "north eastern" and or Japan.  
The only things remainingt are bowlegs, bandy legs, and low 
bent posture etc.  But these are the major elements and if these 
are some kind of a reduction, it may be a modernistic reduction.  
They thought that by making the contours clear, they will be 
able to obtain internationality (universality).  That is why they 
presented in alphabet "BUTOH", as an Asian body expression as 
something that can be captured as an anthropologic paradigm by 
obliterating the outer layer and the fine details which were 
absolute conditions for Hijikata.  Are not the simple body after 
removing the detailes or the abstractive expression after 
reducing , hakkoichiu  ("one home under the heaven", a slogan 
used at the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere of Japanese 
militalism)?  They removed the outer layer since they thought 
it was only an outer layer, then to the contrary, the body 
underneath became the outer layer, so then the reality and 
materiality of the body no longer possessed a strong meaning.  
In other words, such "Asian bodies" are only symbols that do 
not exist anywhere, but there are details in each Asian dance 
when we look at them.  They might have forgotten the fact that 
details support dances.  Even if we do not so far as to say it is 
"hakkoichiu", it may only be "Asia as an illusion" which does not 
exist. 
   On the other hand, things do not work that smoothly for the 
dancers such as Yoko Ashikawa and or Saga Kobayashi who were 
once thoroughly schooled by Hijikata.  In their cases, their 
Ankoku-butoh style are already in the nature of being "bonish" 
flesh masked.  Under these premise of the "body that has become", 
they have to start all over again.  Moreover, different from the 
time they were dancing under Hijikata, in order to dance now, 
they have to accept as a matter of course that they are subjects 
themselves.  And so, they haveno choice but to return to where 
the dancer, Tatsumi Hijikata quit once.  No matter how they try 
to dance, they present the reflex influenced body first.  By going 
against their own body movements, from the opposite direction 
of Hijikata, they may be able to establish a place where the body 
and form conflict.  That is to say, it is competely different from 
inheriting Ankoku-butoh as a mere traditional performing arts.  
So, I do not think it matters if the quality of Ankoku-butoh is 
changed by people like them who stand on particular footing.  
I think it is an inevitable change.  
   In addition, there is Masaki Iwana (1945- ) from a field 
unrelated to Ankoku-butoh.  Until ten years ago, he had been 
doing a performance kind of thing, for instance, standing naked  
for one hour, and or just walking, taking a long time.  However, 
to look back on it, I think that he was thinking of the possibility 
of objectifying a normal body in a different sense from Hijikata's.  
(Same thing can be said for Min Tanaka.)  Athough he still does not 
move much, he is now in a more dance-like field.  He stands on 
tiptoes near naked and bears this position for a long time, (not 
wearing toe shoes).  He starts shaking gradually, then of course he 
falls down at the end.  Or in a sitting position, he winds his foot 
behind his head bringing it over the opposite shoulder to the front, 
like in Yoga, and licks his toes.  He takes a long time to achieve 
these.  So much detail can be seen during this time. It is a 
beautiful passing of time.  Concerning "to become", the time 
seems to lay at rest  forever until it "becomes".   Various lines 
will be drawn in his movement since he takes so much time doing 
that.  The friction between the force that "tries to become" and 
the  physical resistance can be seen clearly.  If you look at this 
as a possible extension of Tatsumi Hijikata's dance, it is very 
meaningful.
   Or there is Setsuko Yamada.  She is a pupil of Akira Kasai.  
Like in yoga, aikido and or "tamafuri" (soul shaking, one kind of 
training in Shintoism) she considers soul or something spiritual 
as energy, and she has transformed it as dance form.  Wherever 
the energy comes from, what surprises me is that there exists 
several force arrows in various moments of her movement. 
That means that the force is working everywhere.  Moreover, 
the center of gravity is dispersed so it seems like it exists in 
more than one place.  This is quite surprising.  Of course, if it is 
a crouched, tired body like in Hijikata's dance, it can be said 
that movement is of numerous minute force and the center of 
gravity is clamoring.  In her case, it is different.  Her movements 
are big and the ouline of the form is very clear.  In other words, 
it can be considered at the same level with regular dance.  
For example, in comparison with the level of "poly-centralized" 
Forsythe or Cunninghams' simple disjointed movement, 
Setsuko Yamada's is very fissioned.　I do not know where it is 
brought out from but, the energy acts and amplifies in the body.  
It is a "tamafuri".  As energy amplifies in the body, it tries to 
go beyond the limit or bounds of the body.  As a result the body 
gets controlled.  But the will power tries to control the energy 
and formalize.  There is this conflict of force function and 
disfunction. I think in this, there is also a possibility as we saw 
in Hijikata.  Her dance that can be seen this way is like the 
"hitofuri" (one movement) in Noh composition mentioned earlier, 
not the dancer itself becomes the energy.  But the materiality 
and presence of the body as a footing, the soul or rather the 
energy is made visible by vibration of air.  The image remaining 
there is her dance.
   I feel that all the noteworthy dancers are now thinking about 
the problem of the time Hijikata quit.  Although there are more 
dancers I should talk about, the people that I mentioned here are 
typical and are considered noteworthy possibilities in Butoh.

Also, there are many foreign students studying Ankoku-butoh.  
They are trying hard to make their faces like a crumpled man or 
turning up their eyes.  You can see how raw the materiality of 
foreign bodies are and so different from Japanese.  Their bodies 
somehow cannot become "objects".  They tend to be flabby.  
Their resistance to killing something living, the Japanese way 
of immoderated use of physical power is strong.  The "I do not 
want to be like that " consciousness may be acting somehow.  
Therefore they move softly as well regarding forms.  For 
instance, people often say that "Ankoku-butoh is wriggle", but 
the wriggle is really quite rigid.  When foreigners do it, they are 
at the tracing level since it is snake-like at a glance.  But I will 
be surprised if their bodies after much traning  acquire the 
materiality and presence, become the bodies "have become".  
Their Butoh must be realized from their bodies that have 
basicaly different quality from the Japanese bodies. I would 
really like to see that. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　    (1994 )

                                              

!!! No part of this article may be reproduced or utilized  without permission. !!!

[ This essay is included in "BUTHO KADEN ", two CD-ROMs and an extensive guide book 
which revails BUTOH's choreographic notation orally handed down to Hijikata's disciple,
Yukio Waguri. ]

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