Home

Majutsu

Butoh

Japanese Culture

Mushin

Guestbook

Butoh

by Pylon Sentinel

When I first began to study butoh some while before - I asked the question - "What is butoh?" The myriad of answers I received left me all the more puzzled. Now after having studied and performed butoh myself when asked the same question I find myself still somewhat at a loss for a precise answer- and the search continues. Butoh, is many things, many things to many individuals- for butoh comes from and is within each individual. Do not take this article for any worth as to what butoh is, for this is only my butoh- I can not speak for what is your butoh. Butoh is a lifestyle and a philosophy- first and foremost. There are also some conventions which exist however they are not required specifically for butoh to be butoh.

The Birth of Butoh :

1960's post war Japan saw the birth of butoh. A time of great uncertainty, America who had been Japan's greatest enemy was now its provider. Rapid industrialization was taking place which would alienate the traditions which many strived to maintain. In the dance world there was mainly traditional Japanese dance, such as noh and buyo, versus the strong influence of Western dance. The chaos of this time influenced Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ono to create a modern style which carried tradition and could be representative of the currents and contradictions of the time.

The Philosophy:

This is not something of a steady current in itself either, but I will focus on the ideas of Tatsumi Hijikata and his 'Ankoku Butoh' (Dance of Darkness) which I feel to be of more importance to the LHP initiate, and it is also where the bulk of my own research has been. For the non-initiated butoh may simply appear as a conventional style of dance defined by white body make-up, shaved heads, contorted limbs, and grotesque facial expressions. And it is true that some performers fall into this- what appears upon the stage is simply a show of butoh technique - an unspirited moving statue. First and foremost what is central to butoh is the struggle of the spirit against limiting factors of the body and the self. Such examples are abound in the original text and ideas of Hijikata, here follow two of his core ideas:

The Ash Pillar:

Old Shinto religion the gods were counted by pillars as well human sacrifice was called the 'human pillar'. A man's body is burned and what remains is the ashen corpse, the form which is that of a human. It stands-desperately trying to retain its shape, and yet the slightest gust of wind could destroy it at any moment.

Izumai Walking:

Parents would spend the days picking rice out in the fields, and during this time children would have their legs bound and wrapped in sheets, they lay in baskets staring at the sky. Cries unheard. At the end of the day the children would be freed of their bonds, yet they could not walk- for the legs had become useless through the binding of the day. Limp legs try to stand- the legs which run away- out of control of the child. There is this eternal struggle- to overcome, to balance, as one is torn between the cosmos and the earth. Walking corpses, doomed to
die from the moment of birth, and it is the Will to dance, to cry, to laugh that will conquer. Spritual and physical crisis. Deformations of the body imposed by powerful forces. The body is let go of - and one searches inwardly for freedom. The body becomes deconstructed through change into various forms of the non-human, various animals, psychic states, and the grotesqueness that can be viewed on any street by day. The body gives into urges of the most primal programming-the subconscious runs free. What ballet has made into the beautiful form reaching for heaven, butoh has turned and taken the body off from its pedestal and ground it into the earth. Thus we see butoh's dichotomy of the subliminal dissolving of the body while the spirit ascends and strengthens through this process.

Ultimately it is a door through death, the phoenix from the ashes - the resistance which brings the resurrection. I was recently meditating on the last time I danced out on the street. The performance itself had small moments of what I would classify as butoh, but the moments of true butoh occurred when I was in between performances. I stood up, and felt I would collapse from the heat, tired and racked- I had sprained my neck- but I would dance again. Every time I dance, the pavement scrapes off the healing scabs on my knees and feet. These moments, these moments of triumph are what has really been my truest butoh. Butoh is, every moment with in us- however 90% of the people out there are unaware of this- they remain the spiritless corpses that make up the world of the dead we live in.

Finally, butoh could be well summed up in what Kazuo Ohno said in one of his lectures (paraphrased from memory); "The sperms rush to the egg, and only one will enter the
egg, and survive to become a child. It is like passing a small and narrow bridge. And through death one passes over this same bridge. But I do not fear death, for I know I will continue to dance after death."