慶應義塾大学アート・センター　Keio University Art Center

The 39th Anniversary of Hijikata Tatsumi’s Death: Talking together about Hijikata Tatsumi

We will be holding our annual event, Talking Together about Tatsumi Hijikata, on January 21, 2025. Sculptor Shozo Yoshie has been invited as the guest speaker for this year to discuss Hijikata’s stage design.
Yoshie worked alongside Hijikata at Asbestos Studio on the stage design for the series of Hakutobo performances which took place there between 1974 and 1976. While most people speak of Hijikata’s work through the lens of dance, he often exercised his creative genius during this period by also making suggestions about stage design. The unusual and distinctive lighting techniques that Hijikata helped develop at this time imbued his productions with life. Ultimately, the dancers’ physicality, music, art, lighting, and costumes all came together to create enrapturing performances.
In the preceding 1960s, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Tadanori Yokoo, Akira Shimizu, and others collaborated with Tatsumi Hijikata in both art and design. It was through this “endless dialogue” (a la Nakanishi) between the butoh dancer and these other artists that they were able to perform acts of creation that transcended the regular director-artist relationship.
But what of Shozo Yoshie in the 1970s?

At this time, we will explore exactly what type of world Hijikata was trying to conceive through his stage design and what expansive creativity took place within the limited confines of Asbestos Studio. Join us as we see for ourselves how Tatsumi Hijikata and Shozo Yoshie’s joint efforts came alive on the stage by examining preserved set pieces from these productions and screenings of recorded performances.
2024 saw many butoh performances and an increase in opportunities for interactions about this artform around the world. Will this trend continue in 2025? We would like to take this day to visit the past of butoh as we think about its present and future together.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　(Morishita)

 

*Please note that the format and content of the event may be subject to last minute changes. We recommend checking the Keio University Art Center’s website before the event for the most recent information.

 

★Flyer：Download

Date

Tuesday, January 21, 2025 18:00 start (doors open 17:00)

Venue

Global Research Lab (G-Lab), 6F East Research Building, Mita Campus, Keio University (“13” on the campus map)

Audience

Open to everyone / Visitors are welcome to enter and leave the venue at any time
Event will be streamed online (via Zoom Webinar)

Cost

Admission Free

Enquiries and bookings

Ms. Ishimoto, Keio University Art Center Tatsumi Hijikata Archive
Tel: 03-5427-1621 Email:

Discussion［Talking together about Tatsumi Hijikata］

Date

Tuesday, January 21, 2025 18:00 start (doors open 17:00)

Venue

Global Research Lab (G-Lab), 6F East Research Building, Mita Campus, Keio University (“13” on the campus map)

Audience

Open to everyone / Visitors are welcome to enter and leave the venue at any time
Event will be streamed online (via Zoom Webinar)

Cost

Admission Free

Booking

No booking required

Lecturer/Performer

Guest speaker: Shozo Yoshie

Shozo Yoshie
Sculptor. Graduated with a degree in sculpture from the Graduate School of Fine Arts at the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1974. In 1979, he also completed a degree in design from the Tokyo University of the Arts. From 1975 to 1976, Yoshie worked at Asbestos Studio on the stage design for their series of Hakutobo performances. In 1985, he won an Award of Excellence for his first exhibition of an “encasement sculpture” at a festival for contemporary art held at the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama. He created another of his “encasement sculptures” for Yukio Waguri’s butoh stage performance of The Blue Pillar (held at Studio 200, Ikebukuro Seibu). Since then, he has remained a known collaborator with butoh artists on stage design, working with Yukio Waguri, Saga Kobayashi, and others. He has held multiple art exhibitions of his “encasement sculptures,” ranging from the Striped House Gallery in 1995, the Span Art Gallery in 2001, and the Matsumoto City Museum of Art in 2003. In 2003, he displayed an “encasement sculpture” for Surrealism of the Body: Perspectives on Hijikata Tatsumi’s Butoh at the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki. In recent years, he has exhibited other “encasement sculptures” at his solo exhibition, kyōkai wo meguru kabe (provisional translation: walls around boundaries) held at Gallery KOBO from 2019 to 2024.

土方巽作品で舞台美術を担当した公演

・Asbestos Studio　
Lover of Mr.Bakke（Mar. 1975）, Shall Not Wake the Women Up（May 1975）, Small Parasol（Jul. 1975）, A Blind Girl Who Lies（Sep. 1975）, The Utter Darkness Version of Pricess Kaguya（Dec. 1975） Pear Head（Feb. 1976）, It Was the Night Like This（April to May 1976）, Human Mold（Jun. 1976）, Costume In Front: A Model of Darkness for Boys and Girls（October to November 1976）, Lady on the Whale String（Dec. 1976）, The Last Card to the Familiarity（May 1985）, Dahlia of Aburamen（Sep. 1985）

・アスベスト館以外での公演
〈小日傘・バッケ〉（京都大学西部講堂1975年10月）、〈最初の花〉（三百人劇場1978年10月）、〈楼閣に翼〉（三百人劇場1978年11月）、〈フック・オフ88 papa―景色へ|瓲の髪型〉（plan B 1983年4月）、〈日本の乳房〉（日本芸術祭欧州ツアー1983年6月・7月）、〈東北歌舞伎計画Ⅰ〜Ⅳ〉（池袋西武スタジオ200、1985年3月・6月・9月・12月）

Timetable

“Talking Together about Hijikata Tatsumi” (6F East Research Building)
17:00 - Venue opens
18:00 - Start
"Introduction to Butoh Scores"  Dr. Rosa van Hensbergen（KUAC Visiting Committee Members, Yale University, Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages & Literatures）
"Discussion about Hijikata’s stage design"  Moderator: Takashi Morishita
Special Exhibition: Stage costumes by Akira Shimizu
19:00 - Presentation by guest speaker
20:00 - Event closes

Related events

Screenings of Tatsumi Hijikata’s Choreography from the Late 1970s (9F East Annex)

We will be holding screenings of select Hijikata productions from the late 1970s on the same day as “Talking Together about Hijikata Tatsumi.” Please join us for this rare occasion to view the 1977 and 1978 performances below from the Video Information Center Collection*.

Date and time: 13:00 on Tuesday, January 21, 2025
13:00–15:00 Screening of Butoh Performance by Kobayashi Saga Bitter Light (Nigai Hikari, 1977) Performers: Saga Kobayashi, Yukio Waguri, et al.
15:30–17:00 Screening of Butoh Performance by Nimura Momoko: Celebrating the Establishment of Asbestos Hall's Matsushiro Branch First Flower (Saisho no Hana, 1978) Performers: Momoko Nimura, Moe Yamamoto

Venue: Ninth Floor Conference Room, East Annex, Keio University Mita Campus (“19” on the campus map)

*The documentary screening will not be streamed online.
*This is a separate building from the East Research Building where the “Talking Together about Hijikata Tatsumi” event will be held, so please ensure to go to the right location.

The 2025 KeMCo New Year Exhibition, Where the Snakes Are, will also be open to the public that day on the third floor of the Keio Museum Commons’ East Annex. Visitors can enjoy rarely seen historical documents, photographs, and videos (newly digitized this year), of “Hijikata Tatsumi Hangi Daitohkan”,an auction at Seibu Department. We hope that you will take the time to stop by.
Click here for more information about the exhibition.

*VIC (Video Information Center, 1972-present) is a movement that recorded various events to produce experimental television broadcasts, such as the 1978 ‘Paravision Ten’ CATV broadcast.

Enquiries and bookings

Ms. Ishimoto, Keio University Art Center Tatsumi Hijikata Archive
Tel: 03-5427-1621 Email:

Organiser(s)

Host: Keio University Art Center (KUAC)
Organizer: Keio University Art Center Tatsumi Hijikata Archive, Portfolio Butoh
Cooperation: Tatsumi Hijikata Asbestos Hall, Butoh Laboratory, Japan
Support Program to Promote Archives of Media Arts 2024: Digitizing and Cataloging of Performance and Exhibition Video Records from the post-1970s Ⅱ

Online （Zoom Webinar）
Please follow the link below to participate. 

Link：https://keio-univ.zoom.us/j/82228169423
ID : 822 2816 9423 

 

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