Akira Kasai, one of the most renowned Butoh artists in the world, is back to Shunjuza stage where he astonishingly performed “Pollen Revolution” eight years ago.
During the 1960s Kasai developed a strong friendship with other Butoh founders such as Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, carried out countless numbers of performances, created his dance institute “Tenshikan” (Angels’ Hall) and mentored several dancers such as Setsuko Yamada and Kota Yamazaki.
The newest work by this Butoh master, a leading figure for the past fifty years, is based on “the Kojiki”, the Japanese record of ancient chronicles. It is a bold work of choreography that strives for primitiveness: “Words become flesh and blood, and these are made into a work of art”.

“Blood is a special kind of juice.
The beauty of Izanami, princess fallen down to the underworld, is her being a vampire of words.
To spin the universal Moebius strip which claims that “the body is a work of art”: through the paternal and maternal voice of the Japanese language, flesh is woven, words become flesh. Nothing can be done but to keep producing, day after day, the membrane that separates lies and the truth.
All because the princess drinks the blood of a thousand people in one day. ”
(Akira Kasai)