School Calender and Prospectus

The Butoh 2006――A dedication to Tatsumi Hijikata

1 What is Butoh?

I was broken my pail soul and just standing without thinking, when I watched the butoh perfromance by Tatsumi Hijikata at the first time.

It was 1970, at the Seibu Theater in Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
I was twenty two years old.

When butoh dancers appeared after for long time hiding under the floor by old tatami with almost dying movement like collapsed people by mercury poisoning by pollution, someone started crying in my deep heart.    

After 25 years from the experience of watching his performance, I decide to become a butoh dancer.

At that time Tatsumi Hijikata had been already dead. But my first impact from butoh performance by Tatsumi Hijikata continued for 25 years in my body and mind.

I could just start sinking into the darkness of body and search butoh.

I investigated what is butoh, and why have I to start butoh dancing.

I moved from Japan to Himalaya India five years before and made small practice place for butoh, because it was too busy and too much information in the modern society, then It was very hard to listen to the silence of my body.

I found when the consciousness turns quiet enough and the level goes down as the same as subconscious, I can feel the whole qualia flow in my body very delicately and precisely.

And through searching qualia flow in the darkness of body, finally I found the vein of butoh which also Tatsumi Hijikata must find it 40 years before.  

I created the method how to search and find the seeds of buoth by sinking the darkness of body and how to develop it to one’s own butoh for everyone in these ten years. This is the subbody butoh method which I am going to start teaching at the subbody butoh school Himalaya now.

What is butoh?

I can say three essentials of Hijikata butoh in short words.

1.  To abandon all conditions as a human, and transform to the ‘suijakutai ; collapsed body,  which resonates with the dead, spirits, insane, collapsed, handicapped

2.  To enter another dimensions from human world and become a survivor of another world

3.  The look to the living world from another world as a dead 

The first essense is to transform into the ‘suijakutai’ which means collapsed body from normal human body.

When we open the ability of resonance with the dead, insane, mental and physical handicapped people enough, we can transform into a creature of other dimensions which butoh spirits are living, dancing and dying.

Hijikata pursuited the ‘suijakutai’ as an essence of butoh body for life.    

He said always butoh is trial to expand the concept of human.

He try to overcome the narrow concept of human of modern western society which is established with clearance the dead, insane, handicapped from society.    

To find a new beauty in where existent cultures has not recognize as the beauty is the essential work by Hijikata buoth.

Throw out all conditions of human

The second essence is to become a creature or being of another dimension.

To open another dimension and become a resident of the world.

We have to learn how to survive in these unknown dimensions with overcoming many troubles through every days practice.

Hijikata said often to his students.

 “Never forget to abandon all conditions as a human.”

This is the most important thing for changing from normal being to Butoh being. If you keep the concept of human strongly, you never transform into other being.

By throwing off the narrow concept of modern human, we can enter the another world which is multi-dimensional qualia flows are streaming and changing. The pre-modern people lived there with equality with human and animals, the living and the dead communicate as a friends.

Hijikata invented the way of expansion the human concept through opening the abilities to enter the another dimensions and coming back to this modern consensus reality world freely.

The third essence is the special look to this living world from another world as a dead.

I call this “the look of near life”. It is opposite of “near death” experiences.

When we become a resident of the dead world and look to the living wolrd as a dead,　we can see that this living world is full of resonance of qualia; light, sound, wind, and so many qualia.

How brilliant are they!  What special the living world is!

We get another sight from daily consensus world through this experiences.

It opens another art of human living. ( I will write about this  precisely later.)

These three transformations are the essential of Hijikata butoh.

The other characteristics are not important. So-called white-painted face, ganimata (O-shape legs), slow motion, and so on, are just surface appearances of butoh. 
Buoth was a big invention in human history.

Because it expanded the concept of human by opening the resonance ability with another dimensions, and opening a new art of human living, buoth was a big invention in the human history.

It must be very clear not by the so-called surface appearances.

Before Foucault predict “When a new arts of thinking and living are invented, the concept of human will vanish like as letters written on the beach are vanished by ocean waves.”

Yes, butoh is the very ocean waves which vanish the old narrow concept of human.  

The Butoh 2006

2 After fifty years
Subbody Butoh was born

After Hijikata started his butoh dance, fifty years has passed.

In these fifty years, we got so many maps into the multi dimensional transforming world which Hijikata invented to enter.

Why could Hijikata create so extremely strange butoh?

Because he invented how to enter the special path to the darkness of body.

In this darkness there are multi dimensional world which is fluidly shape-shift always.

The inner dead resonate with outer dead.
The inner collapsed cry together with outer collapsed.
HIjikata said often “I keep a dead sister in my body. I always move with her doubly in the every morning.”
He had long hear and weared his dead sister’s traditional cloths always.

Also he said,” I thirst to be a handicapped collapsed body.”
He continued to search the collapsed body from the near death, insane, deseased, handicapped, and corrected them as a butoh form.

This collapsed body is so-called “Suijakutai” which he pursuied for the all life.
He found the deep resonance between inner collapsed body and outer collapsed body.

Then he opened another dimensions which the butoh spirits are dancing together beyond the time and space.

Before Japanese society shifted to the high informational society,
There are so many paths to these another dimensions in a country life of Asia
Most people had a animistic fluid mind.
But through the later half of 20 century society sifted to mono-dimensional modern world. Then we have lost the paths to the multi-dimensional world. We lost the ability of resonance with another dimension, with others, with animals, and so on.

But in these fifty years, some people search the paths to alternative way of life. Through their work, we got some map of the way to the multi-dimensional transforming world.
Then now we can enter the paths to the butoh land by using these maps.
I introduce following people’s works which I got useful maps from.

1. Michel Foucault predicted “the death of human”, which is the concept of human will be disappeared, when alternative type of intelligence will be found.”, in his work ;“Words and things” 1966.  He meant that the humanism which is human centered thinking of modern western society will vanish and shift to another thinking way.

2. Gilles Deleuze /Felix Guattari proposed a new thinking way of rhizome, 1968. “Rhizome” can separate and connect each other freely in a multi-dimensional world. It is the opposite to the concept of “Tree” which has pyramid shaped hierarchy. “Mille Plateaux” is the one of best guide to the multi-dimensional fluidly shape?shift   world which Hijikata found the path of Butoh magic.

3. String theory was found 1968, and developed the extremely different aspect to the universe in these 40 years.
Most of us take for granted that our universe has three dimensions. But this is not so according to string theory, which claims that our universe has many more dimensions than meet the eye?dimnsions that are tightly curled into the folded fablic of the cosmos.
According to string theory, the universe is made up of tiny strings whose resonant patterns of vibration are the microscopic origin of particle masses and force changes.Against the standard physics which is bound by the old three dimensional intelligence, string theory opened completely new sight to the multi-dimensional universe. It suggest to us the possibility of new type thinking way.

4. Arnold Mindell facilitates us to enter the multi-dimensional world by his “process oriented psychology”. He developed the psychology of C.G. Jung from three dimensional understanding about our whole self, individuation to adding the time process. He proposes us to be released from the bind of Consensus Reality and challenge to live in the fluid multi-dimensional world which is un-consensus reality and become a modern sharman.

5. A.L. Rossi guides us to the psycho-somatic interactive world by his “Psychobiology of mind-body healing” and his method of Ideodynamic healing in hypnosis. He found the missing links which composes our complex, trauma and dissociations by the interaction between mind and body. It is called “State-dependent memory, learning and behavior”. By using his method we can enter the subconscious world more safely.   

6. Japanese anthropologist Shinichi Nakazawa illuminated that our  human has the double different thinking ways which are ancient liquid intelligence and modern intelligence. Modern people has lost the liquid intelligence. But he propose that we need to recover the double thinking ways. He is going to establish an Art anthropology research center in this spring in Japan

They are the most important work for paradigm shift of human thinking and living way in these fifty years

Subbody butoh Opens an art of tree=rhizome

I can show the perspective of total vision in the following pictures.

Left picture shows is the modern intelligence which is bound by consensus reality of three dimensional world.

Right picture shows multi-dimensional liquid intelligence world. Like a strings which are vibrating in the eleven dimensions of Calabi-Yau space. (Illustration by Colona)

Now we can choice to stay in the classical mono-dimensional consensus realities or to enter the both world between the tree system and rhizome.  Which is more interesting for you?

Subbody Butoh which was born after fifty years from Hijikata, established the method to enter the both world of tree and rhizome, modern intelligence and multi-dimensional fluid world with using these maps which were found in these fifty years.

Subbody Butoh method opened the way to become a creator of  one’s own Butoh with resonating between the inner darkness of body and all unhappiness of the outer world.

All Schools and mass communications hide the most important truth

In any schools in the world, they do not teach the possibility of new fluid intelligence and the art of creative life which is the most important findings in these fifty years.  

Why?

The reason is the dangerous possibilities that these newest findings may change the frame work of modern society.Because the classical frame work intelligence support the social system of modern capitalism through education and training. Foucault already illuminated the system to change people to spontaneous supporters the order of society.
Schools, hospitals, factories, offices, prisons, and mass communications are the plants for producing the spontaneous supporters.That’s the reason why they never teach the possibilities of new thinking way and new living way.
The school is the printing factory to print the old thinking style to people.

Get out of the school.
Get off the old style intelligence.
Throw out the state.
Dive into the Butoh by your whole self.
Become rhizome.
Become a secret.

The biggest secret which is hidden by schools and mass communications is the fact that we can become a new creative being which streams in the multi-dimensional world.

 The Butoh 2006

 3 Non-space, non-time of Butoh

Sinking into the darkness of body

Now we go down into the dimension of butoh.

Hijikata found the way into the special butoh dimension, and 50 years before only Hijikata could enter the dimension.

But now we all can enter the world where the butoh spirits are waiting for you with the map of subbody butoh method.

The world which the world of butoh is not the consensus reality.

The consensus reality is a kind of common illusion. But now most of people who are trained in the school believe it, then nobody doubt it. We were not taught either another reality may exist nor we do not learn how to doubt this consensus reality.

It is like all of us are under hypnosis.

When we wake up from the hypnosis of consensus reality, another reality will open in front of us.

Butoh exist in this another world which has non- space, non- time.

In that world, the live and the dead, human and animal can exchange each other. All qualia are flouting freely with shifting shapes and qualities in the multi-dimensional world.

Where is the world like that?

Yes, you enter the world every night in the dream.

The dream is a sub-signal from the multi-dimensional world of qualia.

Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung named it as unconsciousness. But after them so many people defined and interpreted in so many different ways, then now the word is almost dead. A.Mindell use the word of the second process. S.Nakazawa use the word of fluid intelligence. I call it the darkness of body like as  Hijikata.

In the darkness of body, so many hobgoblins and monsters are  locked in the tiny cage of dimensions and crying.

Every body who was grown up as a human has these hobgoblins rooms in the darkness of body.

They were treated as a monster and locked. However, is it true?

They were just a new bud of possibility for human, weren’t they?

They are treated as a monsters by the reason because they do not work well in the productive system.

A lot of buds of new possibilities are locked and crush in the darkness of body.

I named it subbody.

Now the time to release our subbody.　Don't you feel the sign of squirming of subbody to go out?

How can we go into the subbody’s waorld?

The world is folded in the very tiny and subtle dimension.

Into the subtle world

At first we need to stop the daily consciousness.

The consciousness need so much brain energy, then we can not notice the subtle world by masking of the higher energy of consciousness.

When you level down the consciousness by breathing, meditation, and so on, you can contact with the subtle world of qualia flow.

The subbody is hiding in the tiny signals of the qualia flow like a momentary quivering, swaying, flirting.

If you amplify the tiny signal of subbody by your whole body and mind, the tiny signal will grow up to your subbody Butoh.

“Why couldn’t you come out?” Try to ask to the subbody.

However subbody can not speak, because most of subbody were born and immediately locked before he/she learned language.

If you want to communicate with subbody, the only one possibility is to follow the movement of subbody by your whole bodymind.

By following the subbody, you can understand what he/she wants to become, where to move.

The place is swaying between life and death, between being and nothing.

Every tragic events and extraordinary things are folded in the tiny sway of qualia.

Butoh unfolds that kind of special dimensions.

Ash walk

Stand as a ash pole body which your physical body and mind have burn out. You are just a swaying ash pole.

Hijikata said often that butoh is a dead body which stands for dear life.

Ash walking is one of the most basic butoh practice. Repeat it several times every day.

Ash pole is very delicate, if you move in a daily size movement, immediately ash pole will collapse down. You have to carry the ash pole as quiet as possible, as slow as possible.

In the tiny space among ash particles many other tiny dimensions are folded,.

That is the sub signal from subbody. Catch the subtle sub signal of subbody. 

Nests of butoh

We do not know what kind of monster or hobgoblin are going to come out. Just you can concentrate to listen to the subtle signals.

You will notice that there are full of sub signals in the awaying of your ash body.        

They try to move for coming out desperately, but it does not work. All of the bud or seed of other dimensions are try to open and come out, but all of their trials have failed to open and lost.

Unkown creatures of other dimension, spirits, demons, night mehrs, and so on, are want to come out from tiny buds between particles of ash.

To carry the ash body which is full of buds or eggs of other dimensions is the walk of ‘nests of butoh’

Hijikata showed this walk as his last butoh performance in 1973.

It had almost no movement, no evolution, just some part of his body seemed to shift into another dimension and come back with subtle swaying.

He invented a special technique to control the body in very delicate and fragile way. It was his last and deepest butoh performance.

Never develop to daily size movement. Let the subtle signals allow to lose like stillborn babies.

Practice this ash walk and the nests of butoh walk several times in each day. This is the very entrance into butoh world.