–William Butler Yeats
“Among School Children”

Some artists become art itself. Their very physical presence and how they conduct themselves becomes an act, a statement. Warhol was much more than what he painted. Bob Dylan did more than simply sing his era; he defined it. Mifune made of acting, acting. And in dance, where the dance and the dancer merge in the best of them, Ohno Kazuo (1906—2010) established himself as a Butoh performer par excellence.

In our last issue, on the Lyrical Partings page, we featured several pictures of a wispy, aging Ohno accompanied by Taylor Mignon’s poem in honor of him. Ohno is gesturing, almost as if speaking, to some ethereal light, just beyond our frame of vision. We never dreamed that that lyrical parting would be a final one. Ohno Kazuo passed away in Yokohama on June 1st, several weeks after its publication, at the age of 103.

Ohno gave greater depth and complexity not only to Butoh, but also to beauty. He started his dance career rather late in his life and by the time he rose to prominence, he was already old (relatively speaking), flabby, wrinkled, frazzle-haired, some might even say ugly and grotesque. Very late in his life, after a back injury bound him to a wheelchair, he would still crawl across the stage or gesture, like some gnarled creature crushed by gravity but still persevering against the impossible. Ohno was an onnagata, too, and his performances of old women swaying and tottering on the stage did not exactly reflect traditional ideas of feminine grace. The roots of Butoh are furthermore dark, and while notions of ‘dark beauty’ are not so unusual, the genre seems like a particularly challenging place to depict beauty. Nevertheless, Ohno was nothing less than beautiful in his art.

Through his dance, Ohno Kazuo also amplified the anxieties and memories of an age. Ohno’s style of dance was originally coined Ankoku Butoh (Dance of Complete Darkness) by its founder, and one of Ohno’s teachers, Hijikata Tatsumi. Developed after World War II, this dance movement typically involves delicately controlled movement, grotesque imagery and the absurd. Dancers may often give physical form to objects. Musical accompaniment is common. In “Mother,” for example, Ohno performs around a shamisen player. The genre’s intimations of darkness seem reasonable enough given when it started. Ohno had plenty of troubling memories to draw from, including the devastation and poverty of post-war Japan, and the many years he served in the Japanese army during the war. The story of his life, from athlete to POW to world-renowned artist, seems as unlikely and chaotic as the dance itself, but a few individuals appear to have provided a guiding presence along the way.

Ohno was born in Hokkaido and attended what is now known as the Nippon Sports Science University, where he excelled in athletics. When the rector of his dormitory took him to the Imperial Theater to watch the Spanish Dancer Antonia Merce perform “La Argentina,” Ohno perhaps began formulating a vision of himself for the future. After graduation in 1929, he worked for a time as a physical education instructor at Kanto Gakuin High School in Yokohama. In 1934, he saw a performance by Harold Kreutzberg, a student of German Expressionist choreographer Mary Wigman, and shortly thereafter began his formal training with two modern Japanese dance innovators, Ishii Baku and Eguchi Takaya. The latter had traveled to Germany to study briefly under Wigman, whose influence, some claim, is evident in Ohno’s work. His development, however, took an abrupt—and long—pause.

Ohno Kazuo was drafted by the imperial army in 1938 and went to the war front, first in China and then to New Guinea. Although Butoh frequently treats taboo topics, very little is written about Ohno Kazuo’s experiences during the war. He was hardly sheltered from the violence and aftermath, though. When he was finally able to return to Japan, some 9 years later (one year spent as a POW), he saw jellyfish in the sea where soldier returnees who died on board from hunger and disease were given an ocean burial. In an early recital in the 1950s, he performed a jellyfish dance with those vivid images in mind.

Following his return, he immediately restarted his dance studies and returned to teaching at Soshin Girls School in Yokohama. In 1949, he and Ando Mitsuko, another student of Eguchi’s, held a joint performance in Tokyo—Ohno’s first, at the age of 43. Hijikata Tatsumi was in the crowd but didn’t start working professionally with Ohno until about a decade later. Through an introduction from Ando, with whom Hijikata had started working, Ohno did apparently meet him some time in the early 1950s.

The collaborative effort with Hijikata was a turning point for him artistically and professionally. Some of their early works included a rendition of Earnest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, again reaffirming the sea as a motif in his work, and a two-part version of Kinjiki (Forbidden Colors), by novelist Mishima Yukio. And while the two were successful partners in developing Butoh (by that time, officially named), Ohno had begun to craft his own unique style. By the mid 1960s, Ohno’s own son, Yoshito, had begun performing with the troupe as well.

In 1969, Ohno appeared in a movie by Nagano Chiaki called “A Portrait of Mr. O.” This was to be the first of numerous art-film pieces Ohno appeared in until his last in 2005. Despite his growing fame as an artist, Ohno never forgot his roots. In 1977, he premiered “Admiring La Argentina,” in homage to his original inspiration, and won the Dance Critics’ Circle Award that year. The work became a popular touring piece. By the 1980s, Ohno had become a prolific public performer, with tours and festivals around the world.

With Hijikata Tatsumi’s death in 1986, Ohno and his son continued to spread the art worldwide through a growing number of lectures and workshops, in addition to their rigorous performance schedule. Despite his growing age, Ohno gave performances throughout the 1990s and began collecting award after award for his life-long devotion to Butoh. By 2001, Ohno could no longer walk, though he performed until as late as 2007 in Japan. Some might view these late performances as overly grotesque, maybe even pathetic, but the dance and the dancer had fused long ago, and as long as Ohno Kazuo was on stage, it was art.

Throughout the many decades of Ohno’s career, the ranks of Butoh dancers grew exponentially, many of them his own pupils. In 1949, he launched the Ohno Kazuo Dance Studio, and in 1961 opened a large studio hall in Hodogaya, Yokohama called the Kamihoshikawa Studio. Ohno’s son Yoshito helped train new generations of dancers for much of the time, and has been the acting director of the studio for years. He has indicated that he will extend his father’s legacy through the auspices of that school and his own role as a teacher.

www.kazuoohnodancestudio.com

芸術家の中には本人自身を芸術として昇華させた人たちがいる。肉体が放つ存在感とその立ち振る舞いが芸術そのものでありメッセージである。たとえば、アンディ・ウォーホルは単なる画家にとどまらずマルチ・アーティストとして活躍した。ボブ・ディランは単に時代を歌っただけではなく、彼自身が６０年代の象徴だったし、「世界のミフネ」と呼ばれた三船敏郎は名俳優として国際的に名を馳せた。そしてダンス芸術の世界では大野一雄（1906−2010）が卓越した舞踏家として自身を昇華させ、踊り手と踊りを芸術的に融合させた。

本誌前号の叙情的なさよならのコラムでテイラー・ミニョンの詩と年老いて痩せ細った大野の写真を掲載した。その写真では大野は構図からはみ出すように身体全体を使って光源に向かって話をするようなポーズを取っている。しかし叙情的なさよならが本当のお別れになるとは・・・

本誌前号発刊から数週間経った６月１日、大野一雄は１０３歳で逝った。彼は舞踏の世界だけではなく、大きな意味での「美」の世界に深みと広がりをもたらした。彼が舞踏を始めたのはむしろ遅く、その世界で名前が知られ始めた頃は決してもう若くは無く、身体はしわだらけ、髪はボサボサの状態で、見る人によってはグロテスクとさえ思うような風体になっていたが、晩年腰を痛めて車椅子の生活になってからも信じ難いほどの執念で舞台に上がり続けた。彼は女形の舞踏家でもあったが、彼が演じた老女のイメージはいわゆる女性の美しさとはかけ離れたものだった。彼が演じた舞踏は美に付帯する暗さを表現していたが彼独自の美がそこにはあった。

舞踏を通じて彼は老人が抱える不安、思い出といったものを強調して表現した。彼の舞踏スタイルは舞踊家・土方巽らによって「暗黒舞踏」と名付けられたものがルーツになっており、デリケートな動き、グロテスクで倒錯したイメージが特徴である。音楽を伴うことも多く、代表作のひとつ 「わたしのお母さん」では三味線の伴奏が付いた。暗黒舞踏が「暗さ」を強調したことには理由がある。大野自身の従軍体験、そして戦後の日本の荒廃と貧困の記憶。それらが暗黒舞踏のアイデアの元になっている。戦前、体育教師としてキャリアをスタートさせ、戦時中は捕虜となり、復員後舞踏家としてのキャリアを重ね世界的に有名になった大野の人生は、彼が演じた舞踏のイメージと同じく波乱に満ちたものだったが、数人の人物が大野の人生に影響を与えたといわれる。

大野は北海道函館市の生まれで、日本体育会体操学校（現日本体育大学）に進学、寄宿舎の寮長に連れられて、当時帝国劇場で行われたスペイン舞踊家ラ・アルヘンチーナ（本名アントニア・メルセ）の来日公演に行き感動したことがその後舞踏家の道に進むきっかけになった。１９２９年の卒業後しばらくは横浜のミッションスクール関東学院に体育教師として勤務、１９３４年にはドイツ人ダンサーのマリー・ウィグマンの弟子だったハラルド・クロイツベルグによるパフォーマンスを体験後、モダンダンスの草分け的存在であった石井漠と江口隆哉に師事し本格的にダンスを始めた。特に江口はドイツに渡ってウィグマンから本場のモダンダンスを学んだ経験があり、大野のスタイルに大きな影響を与えたと言われている。しかしその後長い間、大野のダンサーとしての成長は休止することとなる。

１９３８年、大野は太平洋戦争で召集され、中国そしてニューギニアに出征した。しかし大野の戦争体験については資料がほとんどない。何とか生きながらえて９年後（１年間は捕虜になっていた）日本に戻ってきた大野だったが、日本に戻る船上で飢餓と病気によって死んだ戦友たちが水葬されていった海に浮かんでいたクラゲのイメージが強烈に頭に残り、１９５０年代に行なった初期の舞台で「クラゲの踊り」というパフォーマンスを行なっている。

復員後まもなくダンスのレッスンを再開するとともに、戦前にも教えていた横浜の捜真女学校に戻り体育教師を務めた。１９４９年には江口のもう一人の弟子だった安藤三子が東京でおこなった舞踊公演に賛助出演したが、これが大野の最初の舞台となった。４３歳の時である。土方巽が大野と舞台活動を始めたのはさらに１０年後のことだったが、安藤を通じて大野が土方と出会ったのはかなり早く、１９５０年代初め頃にはすでに顔見知りであったようだ。

土方との出会いは大野にとって大きな意味を持っていた。初期の共演ではヘミングウェイの代表作「老人と海」や三島由紀夫の「禁色」を取り上げた。２人は共同作業によって舞踏のスタイルを発展させながら（この頃までには舞踏という呼称が定着していた）、大野は彼独自のスタイルを作っていく。１９６０年代半ばまでには息子の大野慶人も舞踏の世界に入り一行と行動を共にするようになっていた。

１９６９年、大野は長野千秋監督の映画「Ｏ氏の肖像」に出演したのを皮切りに、２００５年まで多くの映像作品に出演した。アーティストとして有名になっていく一方、大野はルーツを忘れることは無かった。１９７７年、前述のラ・アルヘンチーナに対するオマージュとして「ラ・アルヘンチーナ頌」を初演して注目を集め、同年、舞踏批評家協会賞受賞。この作品はその後各地で上演される人気作品となった。そして１９８０年代までに大野は世界各国を精力的に巡業してまわり、名声を博した。

１９８６年に土方巽が死去した後も大野一雄と大野慶人は一層精力的な活動を見せ、多忙な舞台公演スケジュールをこなしながら講演会なども頻繁に開催し、舞踏の世界の発展に努めた。１９９０年代に入っても舞台活動は衰えることなく、生涯にわたって舞踏の世界に尽力したその功績が評価され数々の賞を受賞、２００１年には車椅子の生活となっていたがそれでも晩年の２００７年まで舞台活動を続けた。晩年の舞台は観る者によってはグロテスクに感じたり悲壮感さえ漂わせていたかもしれない。しかし、早くから踊り手と踊りを見事に融合させていた大野一雄は舞台上では最後まで芸術そのものであり続けた。

１９４９年に「大野一雄舞踏研究所」を創立、１９６１年に横浜市保土ヶ谷上星川に大きな稽古場をオープンさせた大野は生涯を通じ、数多くの門下生を輩出した。父親が行なう稽古の手伝いをしてきた息子の大野慶人は長年にわたり稽古場の取締役を務めてきたが、彼は稽古場の運営と自身による定期的な稽古を続けていくことで無くなった父親の後を継ぎ、今後も舞踏の世界を広げていきたいと語っている。