AKIKO MOTOFUJI BUTOH DOCUMENTARY FILM

Akiko Motofuji was the wife of Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of Butoh, and she herself was a dancer. She was the director of the now non-existent Tatsumi Hijikata Memorial Asbestos Museum. She was born in 1928 to a wealthy trader. Although she had studied ballet and modern dance, she met Tatsumi Hijikata and became a butoh dancer. She died suddenly of myocardial infarction in 2003. She lived for 75 years. Akiko Motofuji discovered poor but brilliant Tatsumi Hijikata, managed him, and danced herself. Her dance was full of ideas. It was overwhelmingly passionate and attracted many people. After Tatsumi Hijikata’s death, she held butoh workshops and trained many butoh dancers. They would later become important butoh dancers. The producer of this Akiko Motofuji Butoh documentary film is Shuichi Inohana, a multidisciplinary artist (film, contemporary art, and Butoh). He was an instructor of film and contemporary art at the Tatsumi Hijikata Memorial Asbestos Museum, where he planned and implemented the archive of video recordings of the Butoh dance of Tatsumi Hijikata. While Shuichi Inohana was in office, he recorded and filmed many official stage videos and rehearsals of Akiko Motofuji. Nineteen years have passed since the death of Akiko Motofuji, and the situation surrounding butoh has changed drastically. Kazuo Ohno and Yoshito Ohno passed away, and important direct disciples of Tatsumi Hijikata, who were enlightening dancers all over the world died one after another. Akiko Motofuji was was a pioneer of female butoh dancers. I believe that this butoh documentary film is an important guideline for aspiring female butoh dancers in the world. There are many people in the world who know the name of butoh but have never actually seen this dance. There are also dancers who are involved in ballet or modern dance and are interested in butoh, but cannot find the opportunity to enter the world of butoh. Of course, the door to Butoh is wide open to those who have no dance experience. I hope that people around the world will watch this documentary film. Shuichi Inohana believes that the time has come to present to the world the butoh documentary film that has been lying dormant for 19 years.