A Story of Smallpox: Detached from the Life you were born with...

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the public staging of one of Tatsumi Hijikata’s most pivotal butoh performances “A Story of Smallpox” In 1972, Tatsumi Hijikata presented five works as part of his long run of performances “Twenty-seven Nights for Four Seasons” under the banner “Tohoku Kabuki.” This exhibition will feature a video recording of the first work in this run, “A Story of Smallpox,” alongside other valuable related materials. It will also showcase some outcomes of the Tatsumi Hijikata Archives’ activities. The exhibition will consider the butoh and underlying philosophy of Tatsumi Hijikata, who revolutionized the art form with “A Story of Smallpox,” a new milestone in the history of dance worldwide. We will also take the occasion of this anniversary to once again interrogate “the nature of butoh.”

Organized by Keio University Art Center
Supported by: Butoh Laboratory, Japan and Hijikata Tatsumi Asbestos-kan