The genesis of this book is, like that of butoh itself, multiple and braided. It was Peter Eckersall who first suggested the idea of writing a historical survey of butoh in Australia, but the seeds of this book were sown earlier. In 1992, as an undergraduate at the University of Melbourne, I was in the unusual position of being invited by Norman Price and Glenn D’Cruz to act as dramaturg on Price’s adaptation of Mishima Yukio’s Madame de Sade—a choice of play undoubtedly inspired by Suzuki Tadashi’s initial suggestion for what he wanted to stage for Playbox. I delivered to my peers four of my own lectures on Japanese history, performance, and Mishima. In order to do this, I was given access to Price’s collection of documents on butoh and Suzuki. I still have photocopies of many of these items, and some are cited in this book. I was subsequently fortunate to be generously accepted as a critic and commentator by many of the artists cited in this book, who not only staged performances discussed below, but also in many instances shared with me their perspectives as well as documents and videos. Tony Yap deserves my special thanks for acting as one of two research assistants on my contribution to the Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities project AusStage LIEF 7: The International Breakthrough, together with Sean Weatherly. I have, at one time or another, received generous support, advice and/or information from Tess de Quincey, Anne Norman, Yumi Umiumare, Darren Jorgenson, Ian Maxwell, Frances Barbe, Jeremy Neideck, Jacqui Carroll, Lynne Bradley, Simon Woods, David Pledger, Peter Eckersall, Rosemary Candelario, Marnie Kee née Orr, Ben Rogan, Matthew Crosby, Nareeporn Vachananda, Robert Reid, Martin Del Amo, Gretel Taylor, Paul Monaghan, Rachael Swain, Nourit Masson-Sékiné, Michael Sakamoto, Jim Denley, Darrin Verhagen, Amanda Stewart, Peta Tait, Rosa van Hensbergen, and others. In addition, I would particularly like to thank those who helped source images for this book and in many cases generously supplied reproductions at little or no charge. I am grateful to you all. While influenced by the many individuals whose ideas and materials I have drawn upon, I take responsibility for the opinions, arguments, and any errors in this book.
Finally, no book is possible without editorial help and guidance, and I would like to thank Jonathan Bollen for his support of this project, as well as my partner Sharon Matthews, who has listened to and read much of this work several times.