“Bodies of Resistance and Protest in Japan’s Performing Arts”

This chapter discusses implicit and explicit political aspects of corporeality in Japan’s performing arts and society by adopting a generational and comparative perspective. On the one hand, it considers the body in its strict connection to places of protest during the 1960s radical student movements and riots. On the other hand, it investigates the body within the mass protests following the 3/11 Triple Disaster, which were shaped by media activism. To show different responses of political expression in relation to the body of performers, as well as forms of resistance against the self-regulation of bodies in contemporary society, sections of the essay present a focus on Hijikata Tatsumi (radically corporeal protest), Murobushi Kō (corporeal protest in relation to philosophical systems) and Yamakawa Fuyuki (corporeal protest and engaged activism), while also highlighting other artists. In addition, part of this contribution examines ways of approaching corporeality in performance and literature by focusing on the wide array of words that recreate bodies in Japanese language. In particular, this study foregrounds specific aspects of butō-choreopolitics and its influential role in the critical debates on bodies and words that animated the androcentric culture of the 1960s. Ultimately, this chapter addresses questions of political engagement in performance practices and articulates what I call ‘the shift from the nikutai-centred culture to the shintai-centred culture’.