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A Close Encounter with Butoh Dance at the Kyoto Butoh-kan

June 30, 2017 By Michael Lambe

Today we have a special guest post from Florentyna Leow on the world’s first theatre expressly devoted to regular Butoh performances.

Butoh is an avant-garde dance style originating in Japan. First developed by Kazuo Ono and Hijikata Tatsumi in the 1960s, one of the central features of Butoh is its very indefinability – it is difficult to attach a definition or set of ‘rules’ to the dance form. There are at once rules and no rules. It is characterized by its exploration of taboo topics, the absurd, and grotesqueness. At the same time, it’s often hard to agree on what Butoh is or isn’t. What is clear, however, is that its emergence irrevocably changed the world of dance from that point onwards.

Given the international acclaim that Butoh enjoys, the lack of a national Butoh theatre or spaces where one can experience Butoh performances, strikes one as odd. This what Art Complex seeks to rectify by establishing Kyoto Butoh-kan, a permanent space in central Kyoto hosting regular professional performances. Here, veteran Butoh dancer and former core member of Byakkosha, Ima Tenko, performs her routine ‘Hisoku’ weekly. The two women who make up Okaeri Shimai – translated roughly as the ‘Homeward Sisters’ or ‘Returning Sisters’ – provide musical accompaniment to her performance on the shamisen. The all-female cast here is somewhat unusual for Butoh, but appropriate as they carry on the long tradition of female performers in Kyoto.

Ima Tenko

What’s particularly interesting about the Kyoto Butoh-kan is the space itself. Performances take place in a late-Edo period ‘kura’ or earthenware storehouse. According to the staff, it is around two centuries old. Amazingly, though much of Kyoto was set on fire during the skirmish between the rebels and shogunate forces during the Hamaguri Rebellion of 1864, this particular storehouse escaped unscathed. Instead of being demolished, the storehouse has now been reimagined as a space where visitors can experience the magic of Butoh at close quarters.

Walking into the storeroom, one is greeted by the pentatonic melodies of shamisen. The space is slightly larger than the average shoebox apartment in Tokyo, with a perilously steep wooden staircase leading to the upper floor, where the shamisen musicians are stationed. The Butoh-kan only accommodates 8 audience members, though as a preview that day there were 11 of us seated there. It felt quite intimate huddling against the wall together, to say the least.

Kyoto Butoh-kan – Photograph by Florentyna Leow

It is precisely the intimacy of the space which makes the Butoh performance more powerful. Sitting in close proximity to Ima Tenko makes you feel as though you are a part of this performance – you are so close to the energy radiating from her movements that you feel yourself being drawn into the dance. It also makes the impact of her performance that much more visceral: to the initiate, Butoh is not conventionally beautiful or graceful, and the expressions and explorations of the human body by Ima can come across as slightly shocking or grotesque. (A note to the uninitiated: her performance doesn’t shy away from partial nudity, either.) The handmade plaster walls of this small space also seem to make the shamisen melodies resonate more richly than they would in a more conventional space.

Each session is around 50 minutes – just right for the intensity of the performance. Any longer and one might be overwhelmed or bored! I’ll be the first to say that I don’t have a deep understanding of Butoh. But I enjoyed the performance nonetheless, and especially the experience of Butoh in such a special space and atmosphere – watching a video of a Butoh dance just isn’t the same. If you’ve always been curious about Butoh, this is a perfect place to experience it.

Kyoto Butoh-kan is located just north of the intersection of Koromonotana Street and Sanjo Street at Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto 604-8202. Here is a MAP of the location. For more information on showtimes and ticket prices, please visit: http://www.butohkan.jp/

Florentyna Leow is a writer and photographer based in Kyoto who has written for outlets such as Lucky Peach, Roads & Kingdoms, and ZenVita. Her interests include food, doors and Thomassons. Her blog is updated at furochan.wordpress.com. She Instagrams regularly at @furochan_eats.

 Text and original images by Florentyna Leow – All rights reserved.

A First View of Kabuki

April 27, 2015 By Michael Lambe

"A Scene from A Play" by Masanobu Okumura (1686–1764), depicting Edo Ichimura-za theater in the early 1740s - public domain.
“A Scene from A Play” by Masanobu Okumura (1686–1764), depicting Edo Ichimura-za theater in the early 1740s – public domain.

My latest article for Inside Kyoto is about a visit to Kyoto’s Minamiza Theater to see a kabuki show. Going to see kabuki is one of those things I have long wanted to do, but somehow I had never gotten around to – until now. I had strong doubts before going about whether I could enjoy it, as I knew that the language would be archaic and difficult to understand. In the event I couldn’t understand a lot of what was going on in the show, but nonetheless I enjoyed it immensely. Find out why by clicking on the link!

Kabuki At Kyoto’s Minamiza Theater

The refreshment stand in Kyoto's Minamiza Theater.
The refreshment stand in Kyoto’s Minamiza Theater.

World Heritage Kyoto by John Dougill

October 29, 2014 By Michael Lambe

Our good friend, John Dougill, recently published a wonderful (and beautifully illustrated) book on Japan’s World Heritage Sites. Today he has been good enough to write a guest post on the many World Heritage properties of Kyoto, with some excellent personal recommendations.

WHS Cover

To research my book on Japan’s World Heritage Sites, I travelled the length of Japan from Hokkaido to Okinawa to visit all the 17 sites. (With the recent addition of Tomioka Silk Mill there are now 18.) It’s a peculiarity of Unesco registration that a single one of Japan’s sites – namely Kyoto – boasts no fewer than 17 ‘properties’, each of which can claim to be a World Heritage site in its own right.

Kyoto was capital of Japan for over 1000 years, and in its river basin was fostered much of the country’s culture: courtly aesthetics, Zen, Noh, the tea ceremony, Kabuki, Ikebana, and geisha arts. Small wonder that the city is recognised worldwide as a glittering gem. ‘Kyoto embodies all the values that Unesco treasures,’ declared Director General, Irina Bokova. ‘It is blessed by glorious nature. It has many intangible assets, like the Gion Festival. And it has wonderful people.’

At Kozan-ji Temple
At Kozan-ji Temple

In 1994 the ‘Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)’ was officially registered as a World Heritage site. The cumbersome title allows for the inclusion of Enryaku-ji on Mt Hiei, which lies within the boundaries of Otsu City, as well as Byodo-in and Ujigami Shrine in the small town of Uji. Altogether there are 13 Buddhist temples, 3 Shinto shrines and 1 castle. Or put another way, there are over 200 buildings and gardens of the highest aesthetic and cultural significance. They include well-known places for which people fly across the world – the Golden and Silver Pavilions, Nijo Castle, Kiyomizu Temple, the Ryoanji rock garden, etc.

Ujigami Jinja
Ujigami Jinja

Yet there are also obscure properties, unfamiliar even to people who live in Kyoto. Take Ujigami Jinja, for instance, or Kozan-ji. Who would have thought these modest places would outrank such omissions as Daitoku-ji, Fushimi Inari, Katsura Villa or the Gion geisha district? The list of places left out could easily match those that have been included, which begs the question: how exactly did the 17 properties get selected? It’s a question I tried to enquire into, without ever getting a satisfactory answer.

Kozan-ji
Kozan-ji

So apart from the obvious, what are my tips for visitors? Two underrated places are Ninna-ji and Daigo-ji, which belong to the Shingon sect of Buddhism. ‘No, not another temple’ is a common complaint of visitors to Kyoto, but sites such as these are much more than places of worship. In fact, you could easily enjoy both of them without even stepping into a temple hall.

Ninna-ji 1
Ninna-ji

Ninna-ji contains the Omuro Palace that exemplifies the aristocratic lifestyle of former times. Covered corridors; fusuma paintings; ancient tea houses; gorgeous garden and exquisite view over pond and pagoda. Nearby is a grove of late flowering cherry blossom, named after the palace.

Ninna-ji 2
At Ninna-ji

Daigo-ji too has an attractive villa named Sambon-in, though technically it’s a subtemple. The ruggedness of the garden reflects samurai values and is filled with rocks assembled by Hideyoshi from all over Japan. Nearby, within the precincts proper, is Kyoto’s most ancient pagoda and a picturesque Benten pond to which photographers throng in spring and autumn.

Daigo-ji
Daigo-ji

In addition to the man-made beauty both sites provide access to the wildness of the surrounds, where nature is augmented by a spiritual dimension. At Ninna-ji if you exit by the north-west gate, there is a miniature 88-temple pilgrimage which winds around a hill. And at Daigo-ji you can walk uphill for an hour from Lower Daigo to Upper Daigo, where a collection of ancient buildings has connections with Shugendo (mountain asceticism).

Daigo-ji 2
Daigo-ji

Those of us who live in Kyoto know that it would be well-nigh impossible to visit in their entirety all the gardens, temples, shrines, museums, villas, festivals and other items of interest with which the city is blessed. The historical associations and buildings which once housed the great figures of the past mean that Kyoto is far more than merely the proud possessor of 17 Unesco ‘properties’. It’s surely a World Heritage Site in itself!

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Text and pictures by John Dougill. John Dougill is professor of British Studies at Kyoto’s Ryukoku University and the author of Kyoto: A Cultural History, In Search of the Hidden Christians, and Japan’s World Heritage Sites. He is also a contributor to our book, Deep Kyoto: Walks.

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Kyoto’s 17 World Heritage ‘properties’, in no particular order

ujigami 2
Purification at Ujigami Shrine

– Kamigamo Shrine
– Shimogamo Shrine
– Toji Temple
– Kiyomizu Temple
– (Hieizan) Enryakuji Temple
– Daigoji Temple
– Ninnaji Temple
– Byodoin Temple
– Ujigami Shrine
– Kozanji Temple
– Kokedera/Moss Temple
– Tenryuji Temple
– Kinkakuji Temple/Golden Pavilion
– Ginkakuji Temple/Silver Pavilion
– Ryoanji Temple
– Nishi-Honganji Temple
– Nijo Castle

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