笠井叡 舞踏をはじめて <7>
Akira Kasai Begins Butoh <7>
Akira Kasai studied under Kazuo Ohno, interacted with Tatsumi Hijikata, and gave birth to the word "butoh". He will talk about his life and his own butoh.
Following "Rose Colored Dance," Akira kasai appeared in Tatsumi Hijikata's work "Seiai Onchogaku Shinan Ezu, Tomato" held at Shinjuku Kinokuniya Hall in July 1966.
"Seiai Onchogaku Shinan Ezu, Tomato" was originally supposed to be titled "The Grace of the Gods". However, Mr. Hijikata said, "I don't think 'grace' is a good word, and 'chastise' would be better," and finally changed the title to "Onchogaku".
The work was inspired by René Hockey's "The World as a Labyrinth," which was written about Mannerism. Ms. Junko Yagawa, Mr. Shibusawa's former wife, and Mr. Suehiro Tanemura translated the book and introduced for the first time a genre of art that was almost unknown in Japan at the time. Mr. Hijikata read it and decided to turn it into a dance.
Various illustrations from the book were incorporated into the stage images. For example, it is Michelangelo's "The Creation," and Mr. Hijikata had this painted in watercolor behind the stage. It was a large painting, like those found in public bathhouses, and since it would not have been interesting for a stage designer to paint it, he asked a local paint shop to do it for him. Mr. Hijikata said it was "very interesting" until it was finished. However, he did not like the finished product very much. He sprayed paint and other things on the finished painting, returning it to its unfinished state after all the hard work had been done. From a distance, you could tell that it was "The Creation" somehow.
When the curtain opened, four paintings were lined up at the back of the stage. In front of them stood Mr. Hijikata, Mr. Kazuo Ohno, and two other dancers, each of whom was pushed gently from behind. They were pushed toward the front of the stage, and the paintings were dropped toward the audience. That is how the stage begins.
There were also movements such as Mr. Hijikata spinning a shaved ice machine in the audience to make shaved ice, Mr. Kazuo Ohno appearing with a plastic bag filled with water inside his cape and dancing with goldfish swimming in the plastic bag, and four old-fashioned light bulbs hanging above the stage, where chicks were heated and hatched. I remember that the light bulb broke and I almost stepped on it while dancing, which was a bit difficult.
The month after "Seiai Onchogaku Shinan Ezu, Tomato," Akira kasai performed his first recital, "Butoh Shu, Crucifixion Virgin," at the Ginza Gas Hall.
I performed in two of Mr. Hijikata's works in succession, "Rose colored Dance" and "Seiai Onhchogaku Shinan Ezu, Tomato," and learned about Mr. Hijikata's method of creating dance. At that time, I learned about Mr. Hijikata's way of creating dance. I thought, "This is not what I want to do", I thought, "I will make dance in my own way". I was still inexperienced, and since I had come to know Mr. Hijikata, perhaps I should have learned more. I think now that I am not humble, but I must have been dissatisfied with myself at the time.
There are two ways to look at dance: work-oriented and dancer-oriented. The idea of Work-ism is that the work-creator does not look at the work as something the creator himself created, but rather the creator himself tries to go to the audience to look at it in a sense, even though it is something the creator himself created. In contrast, what I do is dancerism. My body becomes my work.
Mr. Hijikata was more of a "work-oriented" person. He was a person who thought a great deal about how things should be seen and was also a very calculating person. That is why Mr. Hijikata would bring in things at crucial points. For example, he brought Victor's dog. That is one of Mr. Hijikata's most characteristic features. However, I did not think it was my style to create a dance with such objects. I stuck to dancerism. That became my style.
Mr. Hijikata presented what he does in a dance by presenting objects. That was the part I was most dissatisfied with. For me, dance was something done with the body. Essentially the dance is made up of time and space, in that sense, it is not possible to create dance only with objects. What Mr. Hijikata was trying to do was the essence of things, something that can only begin when things and the human body meet. In that sense, I am perhaps overconfident in my body because I try to do things only with my body.
The human body by itself is really an abstraction, whereas a concrete object is a substance. In Mr. Ohno's case, it is neither concrete nor abstract, but semi-concrete. What Mr. Ohno means by semi-concrete is what emerges when the material and the physical meet. That is the starting point of his dance, and in that sense, I think Mr. Ohno and Mr. Hijikata have something in common. However, in Mr. Hijikata's case, he does not see the setting of objects and the body as an image. That is the difference between him and Mr. Ohno. Mr. Hijikata sees objects and the human body as equivalent on stage, and see the body as an object. If Victor Dog and Kasai were standing side by side on the stage, Kasai would tend to be presented as a material, just like Victor Dog.
Begins "Butoh"
What I wanted to do in this recital was only one thing. To create a new dance using only the body. What exactly is movement, and what is the root of dancing without using objects? The premise is movement. I wanted to find a starting point for the body and movement without relying on objects. In this case, I thought that the word "dance" would not be enough. The word "dance" has an image of something that has already been created. Therefore, I decided to use the word "butoh" for what I was about to start. At that time, I used the word "butoh" for the first time.
The word "Yo (meaning dance) " in the word "buyo" has the image of beautifully flowing, while the word "toh" in the word "butoh" has the image of stepping vertically. That is one of the reasons why I chose the word "butoh". It may also be that "butoh" is more dance-like than "buyo" (dance). I did not put much thought into the word "butoh"; rather, I had a stronger sense of wanting to use other word than "buyo (dance)". In my mind, "butoh" means a single body, without any assumptions or assistance, and is the most basic form of movement. Dancers naturally have a trained body, but instead of assuming a trained body, I tried to create one.
I went to Mr. Hijikata and said, "From now on, I will do what I want to do. From now on, I will use the word "butoh" instead of "buyo (dance),"" I cheekily declared. I think it was around May of 1966. I was in my third year of college. Mr. Hijikata listened attentively. However, in July of that year, Mr. Hijikata performed "Seiai Onchogaku Shinan Ezu, Tomato," which he called "the dissolution performance of the dark butoh school," and he has used the word "butoh". The subtitle of "Rose Colored Dance," which Mr. Hijikata performed the year before his maiden recital, is said to have been a "commemorative performance to celebrate the affiliation of the Dark Butoh School," but he did not use the word "butoh" at that time, and instead he had used the word "dark buyo". Thus the word "buyo" was changed to "butoh" sometime later.
Continue to Akira Kasai Begins Butoh <8>.
Profile
Butoh dancer and choreographer, who became friends with Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno at a young age in the 1960s, and gave numerous solo butoh performances mainly in Tokyo and elsewhere. In the 1970's, operated Tenshikan Butoh dance school where he trained numerous butoh dansers. From 1979 to 1985, studied abroad to study in Germany.Studied Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy and eurythmy. After returning to Japan, he did not perform on stage and was away from the dance world for 15 years, but returned to the stage with "Seraphita". Since then, he has given numerous performances in Japan and abroad, and has been praised as "the Nijinsky of Butoh". His masterpiece "Pollen Revolution" was performed in various cities around the world. He has created works in Berlin, Rome, New York, Angers, the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine de France, and elsewhere. https://akirakasai.com