World’s first dedicated Butoh theater to open in Kyoto

Art Complex, responsible for the phenomenally successful show "GEAR" in Kyoto, plans to open a new theater to showcase the Japanese avant-garde dance, Butoh.

The Kyoto Butoh-kan, likely the first theater in Japan to be dedicated exclusively to Butoh, will open in Japan on July 7.

Butoh is an avant-garde dance style born in Japan in the 1960s. Expressing a Japanese physicality and spirituality, the visceral style of Butoh was a fresh challenge to the dance aesthetics of the time, undermining them from the ground up. Since then, Butoh has had a lasting impact on the world of dance. 

Even now, Butoh enjoys especially high recognition abroad, but within Japan, information relating to Butoh is hard to come by, and the fact is that there are few venues where one can experience Butoh.

Last year, Art Complex started production on the Butoh-kan Project, aiming to increase the prospects for viewing Butoh within Japan. As a part of this undertaking, Art Complex is opening the Butoh-kan to feature ongoing Butoh performances so that Kyoto becomes “the place” to see Japanese Butoh dance. As the Butoh-kan gains a reputation, Art Complex anticipates that news of such a permanent place to see Butoh will also have an impact on incoming tourism to Kyoto.

About the Space


A valuable cultural resource, it is a “kura,” or earthenware storehouse that was built in the latter-half of the Edo Period (1603-1868). It managed to escape the riots of the Hamaguri Rebellion of 1864, in which rebels and shogunate forces collided and set fire to the city.

Within the handmade plaster walls of this Kyoto treasure, the resonant sounds of Japanese shamisen blend with visceral dance, so that you encounter the rich world of Butoh.

The Performance

Hisoku

Choreography and Butoh by Ima Tenko Music by the Okaeri Shimai Lighting by Iwamura Genta

The Butoh-kan is an earthen storehouse that survived the upheavals of 150 years ago, escaping pristine from the fires of the riots as if it were sacred ground protected by the divinity of water. Following the aspirations of this generation, I would like to present Butoh which offers the pure bright energy of water—the great source of all life and healer of beings.

Hisoku is a Japanese color, the mysterious beautiful sheen of Celadon porcelain after it emerges from the kiln miraculously transformed by the flames into a pale turquoise blue. For me, Hisoku is bound up with aqueous images: wellsprings, waterfalls, tears… In Japan, colors are not just designators of hue, but are profoundly bound up in delicate sentiments, premonitions, intonations, and affections.

I would like to go with the audience to touch that which lies at the depths of all that we hear and see. Butoh is avant-garde yet imbued with an ancient unique Japanese physicality. Together with the many encounters in this long-awaited theatre, hoping to benefit all afresh, I dance with all my heart and soul.

—Ima Tenko

Ima Tenko Profile

In the 1980s, Ima Tenko was a core member of Byakkosha, one of the most acclaimed Butoh groups, and performed with distinct recognition both abroad and locally. With their breakup in 1994, she became an independent dancer, and went on to form the Butoh Company Kiraza, which toured Europe in 2005. Every year since 2007, they have been performing to sold-out houses at the historical Gojo Kaikan Theatre in Kyoto. In 2012 and 2013, they also performed at the festival sponsored by the National Agency of Cultural Affairs, a bureau of the Japanese government.

Through the exploration of the avant-garde form of Butoh, which is supported by the Shinto practice of Tamafuri, “reinvigorating the soul,” a practice seen at the heart of Japanese performing arts, Ima Tenko explores the frontiers of her own art and self.

As an inheritor of Butoh, Ima Tenko uses Kyoto as a base to breathe new life and vigor into the form.

Okaeri Shimai Profile

“Okaeri Shimai” literally means something like “Homeward Sisters”. This pair performs traditional Nagauta songs on the shamisen. They are active throughout the Kansai region, imparting the sentiments and sensibilities of the old Edo Period to the audiences of today.

Kyoto Butoh-kan Performance Details

Grand Opening Thursday July 7 Performances every Thursday thereafter.

Times Shows at 6pm and 8pm. Each performance approximately 50 minutes in length.

Ticketing and Reservations Entry costs ¥3,000. Student discount ¥500 off. Reservations please: only eight places per performance. This performance contains nudity.

Directions Just north of the intersection of Koromonotana and Sanjo streets, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto 604-8202

 Kyoto Subway: Five-minute walk from Karasuma line or Tozai line; Karasuma Oike station, Exit #6.
 Hankyu Train: Ten-minute walk from Kyoto line, Karasuma station, Exit #22.

Inquiries: info@butohkan.jp

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