An Empty Room: Imagining Butoh and the Social Body in Crisis

An Empty Room is the first book about butoh authored by a scholar-practitioner, combining personal experience with ethnographic and historical accounts and over twenty photos. It explores butoh dance history from its roots in post-World War II Japan to its diaspora in the West, highlighting seminal visual and written texts and offering an original view of butoh through literary criticism, photo studies, folklore, political theory, and performance.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 03 May 2022
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press

An Empty Room is a captivating exploration of butoh, an avant-garde performance art form that emerged in Japan in the late 1950s and has since gained widespread recognition worldwide. This groundbreaking work is the first book on butoh authored by a scholar-practitioner who seamlessly blends personal experiences, ethnographic and historical accounts, and over twenty stunning photographs. Author Michael Sakamoto takes readers on a journey through the history of butoh dance, tracing its roots in post-World War II Japan to its flourishing in the West during the 1970s and 1980s.

An Empty Room delves deep into the rich archive of butoh dance, collecting testimonies from a diverse range of artists across Japan, the United States, and Europe. The book also showcases seminal visual and written texts, including Hosoe Eikoh's renowned photo essay, Kamaitachi, and Hijikata Tatsumi's early essays. Through the lens of literary criticism, photo studies, folklore, political theory, and his extensive experience performing, photographing, teaching, and lecturing in 15 countries across the globe, Sakamoto offers an original and thought-provoking perspective on what butoh has been, is, and can potentially become.

This captivating book not only provides a comprehensive understanding of butoh but also offers a profound insight into the artistic and cultural landscapes of Japan and the world. It is a must-read for anyone interested in dance, performance art, and the evolution of artistic expression.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780819580658