Takahiko Iimura’s Butoh Films: Cine-Dance in Anma (The Masseurs) and Rose Color Dance

In this interview, Aaron Kerner speaks with Takahiko Iimura about the relationship between butoh and film. The discussion focuses specifically on Iimura’s films Anma (The Masseurs, 1963) and Rose Color Dance (1965), which feature the legendary Tatsumi Hijikata, founder of butoh. Kerner frames the discussion by noting that there are in effect two different types of “butoh film”; on the one hand, there are films that document, constituting a record of an event, and on the other hand, there are films that integrate butoh elements into the practice of filmmaking itself. Iimura’s films fit into this latter category, and he fittingly refers to this practice as “cine-dance.” Over the course of their discussion, Iimura and Kerner talk about the filmmaker’s practice and his relationship with Hijikata and many other prominent artists working in the mid-1960s (Yoko Ono, Eikoh Hosoe, Jonas Mekas, Allan Kaprow, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, and Genpei Akasegawa).