7.4 Kazuo Ohno and queer Japanese performance

Kazuo Ohno, a pioneering Japanese dancer, revolutionized performance art with his unique approach to Butoh. Born in 1906, Ohno's work challenged traditional notions of gender and sexuality, blending avant-garde techniques with deeply personal expressions of desire and identity.

Ohno's performances often featured androgynous costuming and makeup, blurring gender lines and subverting heteronormative expectations. His collaborations with other queer artists and his international acclaim helped establish Butoh as a powerful vehicle for exploring LGBTQ+ themes in Japanese culture.

Kazuo Ohno's early life and influences

• Born in 1906 in Hakodate, Japan, Kazuo Ohno's early life was shaped by his exposure to Christianity and his fascination with the natural world
• Studied dance from a young age, initially focusing on more traditional Japanese styles before encountering modern dance in the 1930s
• Influenced by the work of pioneers like Isadora Duncan and Rudolf von Laban, which introduced him to new ways of conceptualizing movement and expression

Butoh dance origins and philosophy

• Butoh emerged in post-World War II Japan as a avant-garde dance form that rejected Western conventions and embraced a uniquely Japanese aesthetic
• Grounded in the exploration of the body's primal, raw energies and the expression of intense emotional states
• Emphasizes slow, controlled movements, often performed in white body makeup and minimal costuming

Tatsumi Hijikata vs Kazuo Ohno

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• Tatsumi Hijikata is considered the primary founder of Butoh, developing its core principles in the late 1950s and early 1960s
• Ohno was a close collaborator of Hijikata's but developed his own distinctive style that was more fluid, improvisational, and emotionally expressive
• While Hijikata's Butoh was often dark, grotesque, and confrontational, Ohno's approach was more lyrical, sensual, and spiritually oriented

Rejection of Western dance conventions

• Butoh deliberately eschewed the technical precision, linear narratives, and idealized body types of Western ballet and modern dance
• Embraced awkward, asymmetrical, and contorted movements that challenged conventional notions of grace and beauty
• Sought to create a uniquely Japanese art form that reflected the nation's cultural identity and post-war trauma

Queer themes in Ohno's performances

• Throughout his career, Ohno's work consistently explored themes of gender, sexuality, and desire in ways that subverted heteronormative expectations
• His performances often featured androgynous or gender-ambiguous costuming and makeup, blurring the lines between masculine and feminine
• Ohno's movement vocabulary emphasized sensuality, eroticism, and the fluid interplay of yin and yang energies

Gender fluidity and ambiguity

• In pieces like "Admiring La Argentina" (1977), Ohno performed in drag, embodying the spirit of the famous Spanish dancer while also asserting his own queer identity
• His signature white body makeup and shaved head created an androgynous, almost alien appearance that destabilized gender binaries
• Ohno's work suggested that gender is performative and malleable, rather than a fixed biological essence

Expressions of desire and eroticism

• Ohno's Butoh was deeply rooted in the body's erotic energies, which he channeled into ecstatic, trance-like states of movement
• Performances often had a palpable sense of sensuality and homoerotic tension, particularly in his duets with male dancers
• Ohno saw the body as a site of liberation and transgression, using dance to express forbidden desires and challenge sexual taboos

Challenging heteronormativity

• By foregrounding queer themes and same-sex intimacy, Ohno's work posed a radical challenge to the heteronormative values of Japanese society
• His unapologetic expressions of homosexual desire and gender nonconformity made him a pioneering figure in Japan's queer art scene
• Ohno's Butoh paved the way for a new generation of LGBTQ+ artists and activists seeking to challenge societal norms and assert their identities

Collaborations with queer artists

• Throughout his career, Ohno frequently collaborated with other queer artists who shared his avant-garde sensibilities and interest in pushing artistic boundaries
• These collaborations allowed Ohno to explore the intersections of queerness, Japanese identity, and avant-garde performance in new and innovative ways
• Notable collaborators included Tatsumi Hijikata, Yukio Mishima, and Isamu Noguchi, among others

Tatsumi Hijikata

• As the co-founder of Butoh, Hijikata was Ohno's most important artistic collaborator and had a profound influence on his creative development
• The two men had an intense, sometimes volatile relationship that blurred the lines between the personal and the professional
• Hijikata and Ohno's work together helped to establish Butoh as a major force in the Japanese avant-garde and a vehicle for queer expression

Yukio Mishima

• Yukio Mishima was a celebrated novelist, playwright, and actor known for his homoerotic themes and ultranationalist politics
• In the 1960s, Mishima became a patron and collaborator of Hijikata and Ohno, drawn to Butoh's transgressive potential as a means of artistic and political provocation
• Mishima incorporated elements of Butoh into his own performances and posed for a series of homoerotic photographs with Ohno, which have become iconic images of queer Japanese art

Ohno's legacy in Japanese performance art

• Kazuo Ohno is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of Japanese performance art, and his influence continues to be felt today
• His unique approach to Butoh, which emphasized improvisation, emotional authenticity, and the celebration of queer identity, inspired generations of dancers and choreographers
• Ohno's work helped to bring Butoh to international audiences and established it as a major genre of contemporary dance

Influence on contemporary Butoh dancers

• Many of today's leading Butoh practitioners, such as Akaji Maro and Ima Tenko, cite Ohno as a key influence on their work
• Ohno's emphasis on individual expression and the body's transformative potential continues to shape the direction of contemporary Butoh
• His legacy is also evident in the work of international Butoh artists, such as Sankai Juku and Byakko-sha, who have helped to spread Butoh around the world

Impact on queer representation in Japan

• Ohno's unapologetic embrace of queer themes and imagery helped to carve out a space for LGBTQ+ artists in Japan's cultural landscape
• His work challenged societal taboos around homosexuality and gender nonconformity, paving the way for greater visibility and acceptance of queer identities
• Today, Ohno is celebrated as a pioneering figure in Japan's LGBTQ+ rights movement and a role model for queer artists and activists

International recognition and acclaim

• Although Butoh originated as a uniquely Japanese art form, Ohno's work quickly gained attention and admiration from audiences and critics around the world
• His performances in Europe and North America helped to establish Butoh as a major genre of contemporary dance and cemented his reputation as a master of the form
• Ohno's international success also helped to challenge Western stereotypes of Japanese culture and assert the value of avant-garde art on a global stage

Performances in Europe and America

• Ohno first performed outside of Japan in 1980, at the Nancy International Theatre Festival in France, where his work was hailed as a revelation
• He went on to tour extensively throughout Europe and North America, performing at prestigious venues such as the Paris Opera and the Brooklyn Academy of Music
• Ohno's international performances exposed Western audiences to the power and beauty of Butoh and helped to build cross-cultural bridges between Japan and the West

Admiration from Western artists

• Many prominent Western artists, including dancer Pina Bausch and filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, have cited Ohno as a major influence on their work
• American playwright Robert Wilson collaborated with Ohno on the theatrical production "The Palace of Arabian Nights" in 1993, which blended Butoh with Wilson's signature avant-garde aesthetics
• Ohno's international acclaim helped to legitimize Butoh as a serious art form and inspired a new generation of Western dancers to explore its techniques and philosophies

Intersection of age and queerness

• One of the most striking aspects of Ohno's later performances was the way in which he used his aging body to challenge conventional notions of beauty, sexuality, and gender
• As he continued to dance well into his eighties and nineties, Ohno's work took on a new depth and poignancy, celebrating the beauty and resilience of the aging queer body
• His performances subverted ageist stereotypes and asserted the ongoing vitality and creativity of older artists

Subverting expectations of elderly bodies

• In pieces like "My Mother" (1981) and "Water Lilies" (1987), Ohno used his frail, wrinkled body to create startling images of vulnerability and strength
• He often incorporated elements of drag and gender play into these later works, asserting his queer identity in the face of societal expectations of elderly "respectability"
• Ohno's work challenged the notion that sexuality and desire are the exclusive domain of the young, insisting on the enduring power of eros throughout the lifespan

Celebrating sexuality in later life

• Ohno's later performances were often infused with a sense of joyful sensuality and eroticism, celebrating the pleasures of the body even as it aged and declined
• In "Requiem for the 20th Century" (1990), Ohno appeared nude on stage, his body painted in gold and wreathed in feathers, in a powerful assertion of queer desire and defiance
• His work insisted that sexuality and creativity are lifelong pursuits, and that the aging body remains a site of transgression, beauty, and self-expression

Ohno's personal life and relationships

• Despite his avant-garde persona and queer artistic themes, Ohno's personal life was in many ways quite conventional, even conservative
• He was married to his wife, Chie, for over 50 years and had two sons, Yoshito and Yukito, who both became involved in the Butoh movement
• At the same time, there were persistent rumors and speculations about Ohno's queer desires and relationships throughout his life

Marriage and family

• Ohno married Chie in 1933, and by all accounts their relationship was loving and supportive, even as Ohno pursued his boundary-pushing artistic career
• Chie was a trained dancer herself and played a key role in managing the practical aspects of Ohno's performances and tours
• Ohno's sons Yoshito and Yukito both studied Butoh with their father and went on to become accomplished dancers and choreographers in their own right, carrying on the family legacy

Rumored queer affairs

• Despite his long marriage, there were frequent rumors and insinuations about Ohno's queer sexual encounters and relationships
• He was known to have had a number of close male companions and collaborators over the years, including Tatsumi Hijikata and Yukio Mishima
• While Ohno never publicly confirmed these rumors, many scholars and biographers have speculated about the nature of these relationships and their influence on his artistic vision

Critical analysis of Ohno's work

• Kazuo Ohno's Butoh performances have been the subject of extensive critical analysis and scholarly debate, particularly in the fields of dance studies, Japanese cultural studies, and queer theory
• Critics and scholars have offered a wide range of interpretations of Ohno's work, exploring its aesthetic innovations, cultural significance, and political implications
• While Ohno is widely celebrated as a pioneering figure in Japanese performance art, his work has also been the subject of certain controversies and critiques

Scholarly interpretations

• Many scholars have analyzed Ohno's work through the lens of queer theory, exploring how his performances subverted heteronormative gender roles and celebrated non-normative desires
• Others have situated Ohno's Butoh within the broader context of post-war Japanese avant-garde art, examining how it responded to the cultural upheavals and traumas of the era
• Scholars have also highlighted the spiritual and philosophical dimensions of Ohno's work, drawing connections to Buddhist and Shinto traditions as well as Western existentialist thought

Debates and controversies

• Some critics have argued that Ohno's work, while groundbreaking in its embrace of queer themes, also relied on problematic stereotypes and exoticized images of gender and sexuality
• Others have debated the extent to which Ohno's Butoh can be considered a truly "Japanese" art form, given its incorporation of Western dance influences and its international popularity
• There have also been discussions about the gendered power dynamics within the Butoh movement, with some scholars arguing that the form privileged male dancers and choreographers over their female counterparts