Overview
- The first book in English to treat butoh from the perspective of Japanese Studies and Japanese intellectual history
- Also first book in English to study butoh using Japanese sources including the notebooks, essays, and manifestos of Hijikata himself
- Situates butoh within the development of the wider theater and dance worlds
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History (PSTPH)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
Reviews
“The newly published paperback edition of Bruce Baird’s … is perfectly timed to ride the current wave of interest in butoh. … Baird provides detailed descriptions of all of Hijikata’s dances, including quotations from primary sources and records, and with photographs throughout.” (William Andrews, The Japan Times, japantimes.com, May, 2016)
"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
"Baird's Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh offers English-language readers the single most rigorous treatment of Hijikata's work to date, with a meticulous examination of Hijikata's major works from the late 1950s to the 1970s." - Monumenta Nipponica
"The book is a veritable treasure trove of information . . . which rewards the curious reader who wants to learn about postwar Japan from a different perspective." - SFAQ: San Francisco Arts Quarterly
"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
"Baird's Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh offers English-language readers the single most rigorous treatment of Hijikata's work to date, with a meticulous examination of Hijikata's major works from the late 1950s to the 1970s." - Monumenta Nipponica
"The book is a veritable treasure trove of information . . . which rewards the curious reader who wants to learn about postwar Japan from a different perspective." - SFAQ: San Francisco Arts Quarterly
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Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh
Book Subtitle: Dancing in a Pool of Gray Grits
Authors: Bruce Baird
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137012623
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Palgrave Theatre & Performance Collection, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: Bruce Baird 2012
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-12040-2Published: 17 January 2012
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-137-57902-7Published: 17 January 2012
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-01262-3Published: 30 January 2012
Series ISSN: 2947-5767
Series E-ISSN: 2947-5775
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 293
Number of Illustrations: 55 b/w illustrations
Topics: Theatre History, Asian Culture, Arts, Dance, Performing Arts