Overview

• Title
• Performer
• Year

• Mythology

  This piece, as with all of Motofuji Akiko's butoh works, was based on mythology. With an awareness of the long history between the body and the earth, her performance is full of the deep joy that comes of dancing with the earth. Coming from novel ideas, it was different to her previous work, but the audience and butoh dancers received this provocative and experimental style well. It demonstrated Motofuji's personal approach to physical expression, while working with the methods of Hijikata Tatsumi.

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akiko Motofuji

  Venue

  Asbestos-kan

  Year performed

  1997

• My Mother

  Ohno Kazuo's masterpiece, first performed in 1981. The work is in memory of his mother, a modern woman who excelled at European cooking and often performed the koto. The programme included writings which hinted at specific events from his mother's life, such as the story of a mother who lost and prayed for her young daughter ('Flower Train'), and the words of a mother on her deathbed ('Last Words'). However Ohno's movements on stage were abstract. The 'ozen' [small dining table] which appears during the piece symbolised his mother.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Kazuo Ohno

  Venue

  Daiichi Seimei Hall

  Year performed

  1981

• My Mother

  Kim Manri's first solo work. This symbolic piece is an expression of yearning and receiving from her deceased mother, a master of classical Korean performance. Wanting to create a female version of Ohno Kazuo's iconic work 'My Mother', she received guidance from Ohno Kazuo and Ohno Yoshito in creating this piece.

  

  Performer(s)

  Performance Troupe TAIHEN

  Director/Choreographer

  Kim Manri

  Venue

  Ogimachi Museum Square

  Year performed

  1998

• My Inner Sylphide

  For Wakamatsu, whose first performance was Les Sylphides, Sylphides had the resonance of youth. Isadora Duncan's Chopin collection was supervised by Fokin, while Glazunov and Keller transformed Chopin's music to create a suite, which they named Les Sylphides, a play on La Sylphide. This was also the beginning of modern ballet. Both Hagoromo [from Japanese mythology] and Sylphide are male ideals - ideals which disappear when they become reality. The more unattainable an ideal is, the more beautiful it is.
  
  - Participated in the ACA National Arts Festival 1978

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu, Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Yomiuri Hall

  Year performed

  1978

• Mushibiraki

  Sending off Hijikata Tatsumi 'Mushibiraki' - Tohoku Butoh Masudama' was an event held in Masudama Village in Yamagata as a sending off event after the death of Hijikata Tatsumi in January 1986. According to the programme nearly 50 butoh dancers participated on 10 stages across the village. 'Mushibiraki' is what Hijikata referred to spreading costumes out on the verandah at the end of the rainy season.
  In the film there are performances by Motofuji Akiko, Kobayashi Saga and Ohno Kazuo, with many other butoh dancers joining at the end. It also includes part of lectures.
  
  - The film is presumed to have been recorded on 25 and 26 July

  

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Venue

  Masudama village, Yamagata Pref.

  Year performed

  1987

• Mu (illusion of Emptiness)

  "Do-zan draws its inspiration from the Japanese performing arts of Noh Drama, Butoh and traditional Japanese Dance (Azuma Style). Each member of Dozan has travelled overseas to pursue intensive training in the Japanese performing arts, only to return to Australia to create works which are highly personal in nature, woven with the richness of Japanese movement techniques, costumes, characters and poetry. Yumi Umiumare created and performed ""Mu"" (illusion of Emptiness) whose program note reads:
  
  Holding breath
  Floating in the haze
  Nurturing the point before
  Releasing your breath sharply with a ""pah""!"
  
  - Participated in the Castlemaine Festival
  - The video was recorded in August, 1994 at St Carthage’s Church where Cherie Whitington, Jill Orr, Tony Yap and Yumi Umiumare presented their own pieces in DO-ZAN.
  - Umimare's words are taken from the program for DO-ZAN presented at Castlemaine Library Hall.

  

  Performer(s)

  Yumi Umiumare

  Director/Choreographer

  Yumi Umiumare

  Venue

  St Carthage’s Church

  Year performed

  1994

• Moon of Day, Night and Morning

  A girl, dead while living, dances wildly among countless parasols scattered around her... The parasols become bright red spider lilies, a toy windmill rattling in the wind... Seen as the 11-headed Avalokiteshvara, the girl lies at the bottom of a lake as the night moon rises in the void. The girl and a young man's journey towards chaos unfolds around the moon. The abundant and dynamic world of Orita Katsuko aims to discover a fundamental encounter between Form and Chaos.
  
  -From the ORITA KATSUKO DANCE RECITAL
  -The brains behind Orita's work during the 1980s were:
  Script - Konno Yuichi
  Artwork - Maeda Tetsuhiko
  Lighting - Sawada Yuji

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Katsuko Orita

  Venue

  Sogetsu Hall

  Year performed

  1980

• MOKUJIKI

  UHF Television Yamanashi's 20th anniversary programme 'Travel... the man who became a smiling Buddha: Retracing the steps of Mokujiki Shōnin over 20,000km'. The programme retraces the footsteps of Mokujiki Shōnin, who until the age of 93, travelled from Hokkaido to Kyushu at the end of the Edo period carving Buddha statues with iconic smiles, which later came to be known as 'Smiling Buddhas'. Starring Goi Teru, a butoh dancer from Hokkaido.

  

  Performer(s)

  Television Yamanashi Co.,Ltd.

  Year performed

  1989

• Mettarohozu

  A scene from a dance therapy presentation held at Seinan Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Hachinohe, Aomori. Sessions were initially held by Ishii Mitsutaka, who went on the invitation of photographer Hanaga Mitsutoshi. However, after Ishii began teaching at other hospitals, other butoh dancers such as Uno Man also began teaching here. Ishii later stated that butoh therapy is 'the truest form of human beings'.
  
  The 1981 presentation 'Baroquekikizu' was credited as a dance therapy event. However, this film of 'Mettarohozu' is credited as a butoh therapy event."

  Performer(s)

  Seinan Hospital

  Director/Choreographer

  Hajime Chiba

  Venue

  Seinan Hospital (Aomori)

  Year performed

  1982

• Metaphysical Emotion V – Dew of a Wildflower

  ""How can we be, how can we erase these bodies that feel warm and cold, and be as a wildflower in the field?""
  Butoh dancer Takai Tomiko (1931-2011), who studied under Ohno Kazuo and Hijikata Tatsumi, began her 'Metaphysical Emotion' series in 1967 under Hijikata's direction. Takai presented 'Part II' in 1986, and continued the series for the rest of her life. 'Dew of a Wildflower' is 'Part V', and was performed in Frankfurt and Paris. Several characters make an appearance in the work, including a fiancée, a pregnant woman and an old woman looking back on her past.

  Performer(s)

  Studio 200

  Director/Choreographer

  Tomiko Takai

  Venue

  Studio 200

  Year performed

  1990

• Materiality and Freedom of Seeing (Tokyo Scene 88)

  TOKYO SCENE 88 featured four works between 8-11 December 1988, with the theme ""pure collaboration between space and acoustic sound"". On the third day was a collaborative piece with Goji Hamada's installation/performance, and Kiyoshi Matsumoto's improvised cello music.
  
  Part 1: Performance (In a Black Cage 'I' Sing)
  Part 2: Talk (Kiss my Body with Words)
  Part 3: Performance ('I' Sleep Outside the Cage)

  Performer(s)

  Studio 200

  Director/Choreographer

  Goji Hamada

  Venue

  Studio 200

  Year performed

  1988

• The March of the Lemmings

  During an abnormal outbreak, lemmings migrate in groups, sometimes dying in large numbers while crossing rivers and such.
  This has given rise to a theory that this is a form of selection, influencing the view of human cultural history.
  This performance depicts the lemming's dance of death.
  In the midst of an unusual outbreak, a dancing frenzy suddenly erupts. The whole group, except for the blind lemming (Wakamatsu), dances wildly and joyfully while jumping into a river to drown.
  The blind lemming stands still, and transforms into a human being.
  The scene becomes a street corner. A pregnant woman, holding the hand of an infant, passes by.

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu,Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Tokyo Post Saving Hall

  Year performed

  1989

• Manual Waiter and others (from ‘Satie – Mamako – Suru’)

  From 'Mamako the Mime: Satie - Mamako - Suru' performed in Shizuoka in 1988.
  The event was arranged by pianist Omura Yoko, who invited Mamako to create work inspired by Erik Satie songs such as 'Gymnopédie'.
  Works performed included: 'Acrobat', 'Sympathy for the Poor Eyesight Developed by a Word Processor and a Barcode', 'The Eggplant-shaped Japanese and Bean-shaped foreign worker', 'Manual Waiter' and 'Glass Castle'.

  Performer(s)

  Mamako Yoneyama

  Director/Choreographer

  Mamako Yoneyama

  Venue

  Sizuoka City Culture Hall

  Year performed

  1988

• A Man in White

  16mm film of Ohno Yoshito performing. It was discovered in Yoshito's home in 2018, and details of how it was filmed are unknown. A silent film, it was potentially a work in progress. The costume and make-up closely resemble Yoshito's poster from his solo performance in 1969, and it is speculated that it may have been recorded by the sea in Kamakura while he was preparing for his performance.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Yoshito Ohno

  Year performed

  1969

• The Maids

  Everything can be told through the gestures of women". Inspired by Jean Genet's 'The Maids', a masterpiece of French avant-garde theatre, it premiered in Tokyo the previous November. Guided by Genet's words and boldly reinterpreted, the 'three' maids connect, share, snoop and reveal. The me inside myself, the you inside me (inside a woman). Katsumata Keiko (Sōmōjuku) and Sakurai Yuri (Zokucho no Tabi) were invited to join Tanaka Mutsuko for a celebration of women's butoh, in which their three personalities collide.
  
  - Butoh-sha Tenkei Special Performance.
  - Participated in the 4th OSAKA DANCE EXPERIENCE & the Hijikata Tatsumi '98

  

  Performer(s)

  TORII HALL

  Director/Choreographer

  Ebisu Torii

  Venue

  TORII HALL

  Year performed

  1998

• Lusty Woman, 69th Generation

  Directed by John Salt, a researcher of Japanese culture, this butoh piece is based on 'The Life of an Amorous Woman' by Ihara Saikaku. With the aim of transforming the emotions of people who lived in the Edo period into butoh, the piece represents a new turning point for Motofuji Akiko. Performed by Takada Keitoku and the Asbestos-kan troupe, with guest performance by Nishimatsu Fuei on shamisen and vocals, the work brings the world of Saikaku's men and women to life in the modern day through kouta, hauta, jiuta and contemporary poetry. Performed twice, at 15:00 and 19:00.

  

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  John Solt, Akiko Motofuji

  Venue

  Asbestos-kan

  Year performed

  1999

• Lunch in Sunlight

  A pictorial and romantic piece in which the gesture of opening the mouth to eat is choreographed to Erik Satie's Trois morceaux en forme de poire [Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear]. Presented at ’DANCE HOUSE PART 1’.

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Katsuko Orita

  Venue

  ABC Hall

  Year performed

  1982

• LONG DISTANCE LOVE

  Tokyo and New York. Connected by the internet, female actors from two cities perform a single work at the same time, crossing the Pacific Ocean and the International Date Line. What is this, if not Long Distance Love!? Although Yubiwa Hotel had drawn out the dramatic potential of various spaces in the past, this work attempted to make the very time and space between two cities into a theatre. This global spirit was interrupted by 9/11 after the opening of the performance. Even as New York City still reeled, we encouraged each other to return to the next performance.

  

  Performer(s)

  YUBIWA Hotel

  Director/Choreographer

  Shirotama Hitsujiya

  Venue

  club asia P

  Year performed

  2001

• Lone Dance 4: The Darkness of the Body (Tokyo Scene 88)

  TOKYO SCENE 88 featured four works between 8-11 December 1988, with the theme "pure collaboration between space and acoustic sound. Looking to the future of people and materials". This piece was a collaboration between Kawamura Namiko, who began her 'acts of perception' in 1974 at Kujukuri beach, walking nude in nature over 100 times which led to her performance piece 'Hitori Odori' from 1986, and Noguchi Minoru, who has worked with Tanaka Min and other dancers and artists to create pioneering electronic music.

  

  Performer(s)

  Studio 200

  Director/Choreographer

  Namiko Kawamura

  Venue

  Studio 200

  Year performed

  1988

• Sasayaka ni Shiawase [A Little Happiness] / ELCK

  Sasayaka ni Shiawase' [A Little Happiness] premiered in 1988. 60 minutes long, it is a drama following five groups, inspired by a poem by Bertolt Brecht. In this world, things happen unexpectedly - let us be happy with our current reality.
  'ELCK' premiered in 1989. 40 minutes long, it is inspired by the painting of the same name by Pieter Bruegel and means 'each' or 'everyone' in Dutch. 'People stand on a broken earth, and greedily desire objects of the world.' If only Eve hadn't eaten the apple...
  
  - Sasayaka ni Shiawase': Winner of the 20th Dance Critics Society Award (1988)
  - Yonei Sumie Dance Performance 1991
  - Video recorded 24 May. 'ELCK' was performed along with other works at a matinee, while 'Sasayaka ni Shiawase' was performed at the soirée on 25 May.

  

  Performer(s)

  Sumie Yonei

  Director/Choreographer

  Sumie Yonei

  Venue

  Sogetsu Hall

  Year performed

  1991

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