Butoh histories: Seminal and forgotten figures of 1950&1960s Japan

In this episode, Romina Achatz speaks with
writer Stephen Barber, author of Films
Ghost: Tatsumi Hijikata and the Transmutation of 1960s
Japan, about seminal and forgotten figures who shaped
the Japanese avant-garde of the 1960s. The conversation focuses
especially on filmmakers and the remarkable collaborations
between Butoh dancers, photographers, writers, philosophers, and
choreographers surrounding Tatsumi Hijikata and
Kazuo Ohno.


Drawing on his personal encounters, Stephen Barber reflects on
meeting many of these extraordinary artists while they were still
alive. All of them have since passed away, making his memories a
rare first-hand testimony to a generation that profoundly
transformed postwar Japanese culture.


The episode explores figures including Akiko
Motofuji, Hironobu Oikawa,
Eikoh Hosoe, Donald Richie,
Takahiko Iimura, and Nobuo
Ikemiya, as well as key works such as Rose-Coloured
Dance, Anma the Masseur, Hiroshi Nakamura’s Super 8 film Revolt
of the Body, Donald Richie’s Sacrifice and War Games, and Eikoh
Hosoe’s Navel and A-Bombs. The conversation also revisits the
Osaka Expo film Birth, filmed on the volcanic landscape of Mount
Io in Hokkaido.


The episode concludes with a conversation about the importance of
archives in preserving the history of Butoh, as Stephen Barber
asks Romina Achatz about her own experience visiting the
extraordinary private archive and dance studio of the famous
choreographer Nakao Ikemiya, the son of
Nobuo Ikemiya, who worked with Hijikata and
Kazuo Ohno during their recent research in Japan.