Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh: Dancing in a Pool of Gray Grits

Hijikata Tatsumi's explosive 1959 debut Forbidden Colors sparked a new genre of performance in Japan - butoh: an art form of contrasts, by turns shocking and serene. Since then, though interest has grown exponentially, and people all over the world are drawn to butoh's ability to enact paradox and contradiction, audiences are less knowledgeable about the contributions and innovations of the founder of butoh. Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh traces the rollicking history of the creation and initial maturation of butoh, and locates Hijikata's performances within the intellectual, cultural, and economic ferment of Japan from the sixties to the eighties.

"A wonderful study of the origins, development, and heart and body of butoh ... Baird's book is of great importance to anyone interested in butoh, the performing arts, the avant-garde, or Japanese society. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and faculty." - CHOICE

"Bruce Baird's work. . .is an epic leap forward in archiving, describing, and analyzing the important art form of butoh, in English ... It's not an exaggeration to say Baird has laid the foundation for butoh study in the West, and provided an invaluable resource for all those interested in the dance form." - Rob Schwartz, Metropolis

Butoh is always an unfinished project,' writes Baird, and this form of contemporary Japanese dance, now appreciated around the world, can be seen, in his words, 'as an art form with meaning yet which resists finalized interpretation.' Central to the development of the form is the work of Hijikata Tatsumi, both as a choreographer and a dancer, and this detailed and sympathetic account of his performances and his writings is, in my opinion, by far the most complete and rigorous available in any language. Baird's meticulous and evocative descriptions of Hijikata's performances, often accompanied by rare photographs, is brilliantly managed, and the dancer's often oblique writings, as explicated here, go a long way to help place Hijikata's accomplishments firmly in the social, political, and spiritual milieu of postwar Japan. This is a study which should be of great significance, not only to those with an interest in postwar Japanese arts and cultural history, but to anyone who appreciates the achievements of modern dance." - J. Thomas Rimer, professor emeritus of Japanese Literature and Theatre, University of Pittsburgh

"Baird provides a marvelous guide into the dizzying yet compelling world of butoh and its innovative aesthetics and intriguing juxtapositions. Students and scholars of performing arts and the avant-garde will relish his gorgeous and stimulating analysis." - Laura Miller, Eiichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Endowed Professor of Japanese Studies and professor of Anthropology, University of Missouri-St. Louis

"A wonderful study of the origins, development, and heart and body of butoh ... Baird's book is of great importance to anyone interested in butoh, the performing arts, the avant-garde, or Japanese society. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and faculty." - CHOICE

"Bruce Baird's work. . .is an epic leap forward in archiving, describing, and analyzing the important art form of butoh, in English ... It's not an exaggeration to say Baird has laid the foundation for butoh study in the West, and provided an invaluable resource for all those interested in the dance form." - Rob Schwartz, Metropolis

Butoh is always an unfinished project,' writes Baird, and this form of contemporary Japanese dance, now appreciated around the world, can be seen, in his words, 'as an art form with meaning yet which resists finalized interpretation.' Central to the development of the form is the work of Hijikata Tatsumi, both as a choreographer and a dancer, and this detailed and sympathetic account of his performances and his writings is, in my opinion, by far the most complete and rigorous available in any language. Baird's meticulous and evocative descriptions of Hijikata's performances, often accompanied by rare photographs, is brilliantly managed, and the dancer's often oblique writings, as explicated here, go a long way to help place Hijikata's accomplishments firmly in the social, political, and spiritual milieu of postwar Japan. This is a study which should be of great significance, not only to those with an interest in postwar Japanese arts and cultural history, but to anyone who appreciates the achievements of modern dance." - J. Thomas Rimer, professor emeritus of Japanese Literature and Theatre, University of Pittsburgh

"Baird provides a marvelous guide into the dizzying yet compelling world of butoh and its innovative aesthetics and intriguing juxtapositions. Students and scholars of performing arts and the avant-garde will relish his gorgeous and stimulating analysis." - Laura Miller, Eiichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Endowed Professor of Japanese Studies and professor of Anthropology, University of Missouri-St. Louis

"A wonderful study of the origins, development, and heart and body of butoh ... Baird's book is of great importance to anyone interested in butoh, the performing arts, the avant-garde, or Japanese society. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and faculty." - CHOICE

"Bruce Baird's work. . .is an epic leap forward in archiving, describing, and analyzing the important art form of butoh, in English ... It's not an exaggeration to say Baird has laid the foundation for butoh study in the West, and provided an invaluable resource for all those interested in the dance form." - Rob Schwartz, Metropolis

Butoh is always an unfinished project,' writes Baird, and this form of contemporary Japanese dance, now appreciated around the world, can be seen, in his words, 'as an art form with meaning yet which resists finalized interpretation.' Central to the development of the form is the work of Hijikata Tatsumi, both as a choreographer and a dancer, and this detailed and sympathetic account of his performances and his writings is, in my opinion, by far the most complete and rigorous available in any language. Baird's meticulous and evocative descriptions of Hijikata's performances, often accompanied by rare photographs, is brilliantly managed, and the dancer's often oblique writings, as explicated here, go a long way to help place Hijikata's accomplishments firmly in the social, political, and spiritual milieu of postwar Japan. This is a study which should be of great significance, not only to those with an interest in postwar Japanese arts and cultural history, but to anyone who appreciates the achievements of modern dance." - J. Thomas Rimer, professor emeritus of Japanese Literature and Theatre, University of Pittsburgh

"Baird provides a marvelous guide into the dizzying yet compelling world of butoh and its innovative aesthetics and intriguing juxtapositions. Students and scholars of performing arts and the avant-garde will relish his gorgeous and stimulating analysis." - Laura Miller, Eiichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Endowed Professor of Japanese Studies and professor of Anthropology, University of Missouri-St. Louis

"The book is a veritable treasure trove of information and reflects the many years it took to complete the project . . . it is also a book which rewards the curious reader who wants to learn about postwar Japan from a different perspective." - Tokyo Notice Board

"A meticulously researched description and analysis of Hijikata's most significant choreographic and textual productions . . . Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh is a major contribution to the Anglophone literature on butoh, particularly through its extensive referencing and explication of archival materials and texts not available outside of Japan. For scholars of postwar avant-garde Japanese arts, Baird's work brings dance fully into the conversation, particularly with literature and visual art. For butoh dancers, this book is significant for the way Baird challenges the mystification and mythologizing that has grown up around Hijikata (and was indeed often generated by Hijikata himself) . . . Baird presents his readers with the many socially constructed layers of Hijikata that influenced and were reflected in his productions (e.g., the Tohoku of his childhood, Tokyo in the 1960s and 1970s, Japanese and European surrealists and avant-garde artists), while leaving open the possibility of other interpretations. This openness to interpretation is Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh's greatest gift." - Asian Theater Journal

Hijikata Tatsumi's explosive 1959 performance Forbidden Colors sparked a new genre of performance - butoh: an art form of contrasts, by turns shocking and achingly serene. Since then, interest has grown by leaps and bounds, and now people all over the world are drawn to butoh's ability to enact paradox and contradiction. However, knowledge of butoh's founder has lagged behind. Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh traces the rollicking history of the creation and initial maturation of butoh, and locates Hijikata's performances within the intellectual, cultural, and economic ferment of Japan from the sixties to the eighties.

Bruce Baird teaches Japanese theatre, cinema, philosophy, and popular culture in Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

Introduction: And, And, And * Outline of the book * Forbidden Eros and Evading Force: Hijikata's Early Years * A Story of Dances that Sustain Enigma * Pivoting Panels and Slashing Space: Rebellion and Identity * My Mother Tied Me on Her Back:Story of Smallpox* The Possibility Body: Embodying the Other, Negotiating the World * Metaphorical Miscegenation in Memoirs: Hijikata Tatsumi in the Information Age * Epilogue: The Emaciated Body in the World