Butoh Dictionary

This is a Shadowbody performance concept where a performer bases themselves in ash body and come alive with audience participatory noise of various kinds. The audience are aware that they are to have an active participation in the performance by providing whatever sound they can from the direct environment at hand.

This is the typical, daily world social or behavioral stratum of which is a starting place for deterritorialization or reduction & regeneration.

The butoh body in the state of water world.

May be associated with Noguchi taiso.

One of the 8 butoh spices in Shadowbody. These are the basic movement motifs found in butoh movement.

A key concept weakened body (in Japanese: suijakutai) in Tatsumi Hijikata’s Ankoku Butoh technique that refers to a deliberate physical state where the dancer’s body is intentionally loosened, deformed, or weakened to express vulnerability, decay, and transformation. Rather than showcasing muscular strength or classical dance precision, the weakened body embraces imperfection, fragility, and a sense of exhaustion or collapse.

Term coined by Masaki Iwana (1945 - 2020) evolving the traditional term of Hijikata's Ankoku Butoh by transforming the dancer’s inner darkness under the 'white sun'—a metaphor for clear light, and so reaching purity and clarity.

In performance, when only white is seen in the eye. To achieve this eye, the eyelids are relaxed and the pupils look up to hide the pupils under the eyelid.

The totality of a segment of experience, connected with sensory interpretation. Items in nature such as a stick or a rock will feel very different from each other. They can feel like different worlds.

A world can be thought of as the inherent properties of experience that can be accessed through introspection alone.

The world shares a parallel with qualia and spirit.

Example usage: tree world, water world

Means simply traveling from one embodied qualia to another. World changes are vital in butoh as it gives a semblance of progression or narrative.