Ghosts of Pre-Modernity: Butoh and the Avant-Garde

Ghosts of Pre‑Modernity: Butoh and the Avant‑Garde
An MA thesis exploring post‑war Japanese performance art

In the aftermath of World War II, Japanese artists turned to the shadows of their cultural past to confront a fractured sense of self. This thesis examines how Hijikata Tatsumi’s Ankōku Butoh—the “Dance of Utter Darkness”—and the work of contemporaries such as photographer Daidō Moriyama and filmmaker Shōhei Imamura resurrected suppressed pre‑modern motifs. By tracing the dialogue between Japanese tradition and European modernism, the study reveals how these avant‑garde creators reclaimed marginalized aesthetics to forge a new, authentic Japanese subjectivity—one that resists both nationalist rhetoric and the homogenizing forces of rapid modernization.

Key contributions include:

• A contextual history of late‑19th‑century cultural suppression and its post‑war resurgence.
• Close readings of seminal Butoh performances and related visual media.
• An interdisciplinary framework linking dance, photography, and cinema to broader sociopolitical currents.

Ideal for scholars of performance studies, Japanese cultural history, and anyone fascinated by the haunting interplay of tradition and innovation.