Tatsumi Hijikata
Tatsumi Hijikata | |
|---|---|
| 土方 巽 | |
Tatsumi Hijikata (left) and Sada Abe (right) in 1969. | |
| Born | March 9, 1928 |
| Died | January 21, 1986 (aged 57) |
| Known for | Inventor of Butoh |
| Movement | Butoh |
Tatsumi Hijikata (土方 巽, Hijikata Tatsumi; March 9, 1928 – January 21, 1986) was a Japanese choreographer, and the founder of a genre of dance performance art called Butoh. By the late 1960s, he had begun to develop this dance form, which is highly choreographed with stylized gestures drawn from his childhood memories of his northern Japan home. It is this style which is most often associated with Butoh by Westerners.