Butoh and Japanese Cinema of the 60s

Programme

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  Tatsumi Hijikata (Motoharu Jonouchi, 1968)

  Tatsumi Hijikata documents the performance Revolt of the Flesh (Nikutai no hanran) by butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata. The film connects this performance to uprisings, employing Jonouchi’s unique methods of cinematography and editing, characteristic of his films around the same time that documented student protest movements and their aftermath.

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  Gisei (Donald Richie, 1959)

  Gisei features Hijikata and members of his Asbestos Hall, filmed just months after Hijikata’s first public butoh performance. Film scholar and experimental filmmaker Donald Richie met Hijikata through their mutual friend Yukio Mishima, and together they decided to make a film about segregation.

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  Anma (Takahiko Iimura, 1963)

  Anma by Takahiko Iimura is a classic example of butoh dance, performed by Tatsumi Hijikata, co-creator Kazuo Ohno, Yoshito Ohno, and Akira Kasai. The film captures the performance of Anma but is also a cine-dance: film and choreography are intertwined. Iimura not only films the dance but also moves with the camera among the dancers, incorporating images of the audience, giving the film a dynamic, experimental character.

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  Navel and an A-Bomb (Eikoh Hosoe, 1960)

  Navel and an A-Bomb features Tatsumi Hijikata and his choreography, linking the Japanese body to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film depicts the ‘birth’ of a new Japanese identity in the aftermath of the atomic catastrophe, Japan’s subsequent defeat, and the occupation. Hosoe, a leading figure in Japanese photography at the time, continued to collaborate with Hijikata including on his groundbreaking photobook Kamaitachi.

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  Wargames (Donald Richie, 1962)

  Wargames is an avant-garde parable (a symbolic story) about war, in which young boys fight over a goat and kill it on a beach, made with the involvement of the legendary butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata.