Kentaro Kujirai: U-Bu-Su-Na
NORTHERN JAPAN – NATIVE STORIES – GODS OF THE BOUNDARIES
Award-winning choreographer Kentaro Kujirai creates a new Butoh piece using his distinctive hyper-expressive choreography. U-BU-SU-NA, is an old Japanese word meaning “the mystical divine power that protects the land where people were born and raised, and those who live there”.
Kujirai here creates something remarkable, arising from the boundary between urbanism and the spirit world. Using grotesque creatures and images that were erased from official histories, he also digs out hidden facets of ancient gods in the marginalised Tohoku region of northeast Japan. Kujirai casts light on the shadowy culture of discrimination against certain people in the Sendai area of Tohoku where he was born and raised, asking just what lost history can teach us.
Butoh or the ‘Dance of Darkness’ is an idiosyncratic and physically demanding dance practice which breaks from more traditional forms to explore taboo topics. A specialised art form which takes dancers years to master, Butoh mixes the traditional with the contemporary to create a potent and compelling experience.
U-BU-SU-NA was created in collaboration with dramaturg Shuri Kido, an award-winning poet whose Names and Rivers collection was selected as one of The Washington Post’s best five poetry books in 2022, as well as leading dance researcher and critic Yurika Kuremiya. Kujirai again turns to the internationally acclaimed FUJIIIIIIIIIIIITA and Kota Nakasato for the music — as he did for A Hum San Sui, his last appearance at The Coronet. He performs with dancers Makoto Sadakata and Izumi Noguchi, who both studied under the Butoh master Akira Kasai and were members of his Tenshikan troupe along with Kujirai.
“U-BU-SU-NA” is Vol. 1 in Kujirai’s new BUTOH dance series: “Towards the Light of Taxidermy”. The work is created in cooperation with Takashi Morishita from the Hijikata Tatsumi Archive at the Keio University Art Center.
Choreography
Kentaro Kujirai
Dramaturg
Shuri Kido
Critical Collaborator
Yurika Kuremiya
Dancers
Kentaro Kujirai, Makoto Sadakata, Izumi Noguchi, Hirohisa Kanamori
Music
FUJIIIIIIIIIIIITA, Kota Nakasato
Lighting Design
Kazuya Yoshida
Photographer
Keiko Onoda
Costume Design
KMRii, C.R.O.W design lab.
Cooperation
Hijikata Tatsumi Archive in Keio University Art Center, Hijikata Tatsumi Asbestos-kan