Bruce Baird teaches Japanese Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a research focus on butô, Japanese theater, and new media studies. He has published widely on butô including the massive co-edited volume Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance and the landmark book Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh: Dancing in a Pool of Gray Grits. He is the recipient of two Fulbright Fellowships.

• List of Illustrations


• Acknowledgments


• 1 Prologue and Introduction


• 2. Hijikata Tatsumi


• 3. Ashikawa Yôko


• 4. Maro Akaji


• 5. Kobayashi Saga


• 6. Interlude: Cabaret


• 7. Interlude: Butô's Success in France


• 8. Ôno Kazuo


• 9. Carlotta Ikeda


• 10. Yoshioka Yumiko


• 11. Kasai Akira


• 12. Amagatsu Ushio


• 13. Tanaka Min


• 14. Epilogue


• Bibliography


• Index

The History of Butô explores one of the central forms of dance of the 20th century through the lives of its most important performers.