Motofuji Akiko

Akiko Motofuji (born 1928) was born in Tokyo.^[1] From her childhood she studied ballet and modern dance.^[1] In 1947, she became a Nobutoshi Tsuda dancing principal, and she established Asbestos Studio in 1950.^[1] In 1955, International Dancing Contest held in Vienna she won 4th prize for individual performance section.^[1] She met with Tatsumi Hijikata in 1956, and started to perform on stage together, searching for the new expression way, by using ballet and Neue Tanz technique, on the basis of Butoh, original expression which gazes at body and soul severely. And they got married later. She was back to the stages in 1992, performing the piece "Together with Tatsumi Hijikata", after that she made great works one after another, her original world, showing a colorful field such as, charmingness, overflowing humor, severity shaved form, had always the theme "repeated life and death" on the bottom. At big hall, small space, outdoor, and so on, her direction spread out in three dimensions, caught and kept the audience interested in. She also tackled collaboration with the artist of other genres, direction with engraver, improvisation with musicians, joint production with Ms. Abakanovitch, etc., and continued searching for the possibility of new expression. She died from the hemopericardium on October 19, 2003.^[1]

Quotes

One of her famous quotes is:

• "When viewing life, the blossoming of youth is beautiful, certainly. But in contrast, when something is withering, there's a beauty in that as well... is there not beauty within ugliness?"

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "土方巽の妻の元藤あき子さん死去" (in Japanese). TheaterGuide. October 22, 2003. http://www.theaterguide.co.jp/Watchfor/2003/1022_2w.html. Retrieved July 27, 2010. 

Persondata
Name	Akiko, Motofuji
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1928
Place of birth
Date of death	2003
Place of death