Hijikata Tatsumi

AbstractThis chapter traces the career of the founder of butô, Hijikata Tatsumi. It starts with his short narrative dance vignettes, most memorably manifest in the 1959 debut of the homoerotically themed Forbidden Colors. It then moves to his happenings-style performances of the mid 1960s, and then describes his late dances choreographed using his generative dance method or Hijikata method. This method started with Hijikata’s attempt to understand himself and all the social processes that had formed him. It then blossomed into a way to modify dance steps using surrealist imagery work. The chapter argues that this method should be understood as an attempt to contest Japanese ethnocentrism while exploring Hijikata’s own identity, and as an attempt to find different means of political participation other than demonstrations and socialist-realist performances. It contains in-depth descriptions and analysis of dances such as Hijikata Tatsumi and Japanese People: Rebellion of the Body (1968), Seaweed (1970), Twenty-seven Nights for Four Seasons (1972), Summer Storm (1972), Lady on a Whale-String (1976), and Tohoku Kabuki Plan 4 (1985).