#tbt: Butoh Master Kazuo Ohno's Surprising Take On Love

In the May 1998 issue of Dance Magazine, we spoke to Kazuo Ohno on the occasion of a memorial performance for his mentor, butoh creator Tatsumi Hijikata. On performing with his son for the memorial, Ohno said, “Yoshito and me, we are two, but we are one. Love, but something different, too. Love is pain. ‘I love’ is like ‘I have pain.’ ” This perspective is characteristic of butoh, a highly dramatic Japanese dance-theater form that visually tends toward darkness and decay. In 1988, Ohno was already in his 80s; he would continue to perform even after his 100th birthday. He died in 2010 at the age of 103.