title - butoh/itto
- 2024 -

Dear sir,

Thank you for visiting my Butoh paper website.
I hope my Butoh related papers help you deepen your approach
about the body-mind and spirituality for peaceful life.

Sincerely,
Itto Morita: Director of Butoh GooSayTen
(Certified Dance Therapist:
Japan Dance Therapy Association)

* Emeritus professor of the university below.

*until March, 2020:
Professor Toshiharu Kasai
Department of Clinical Psychology,
Faculty of Psychology,
Sapporo Gakuin University, Japan
  • "A Butoh Dance Method for Psychosomatic Exploration"
    (March, 1999) by T.Kasai
    English / French /Polish /

  • "A Note on Butoh Body"
    (March, 2000) by T.Kasai
    English / French / Polish/

  • "Perception in Butoh Dance"
    (March,2003) by T.Kasai and K.Parsons
    English / French / Polish /

  • "Arm-Standing Exercise for Psychosomatic Training"
    (March,2005) by T.Kasai
    English /

  • "New Understandings of Butoh Creation and Creative Autopoietic Butoh
    From Subconscious Hidden Observer to Perturbation of Body-Mind System"
    (January, 2010) by T.Kasai
    English /
    *Please check "The ideas of Choreography and Improvisation in butoh", and etc.


  • "Feeling, a subconscious and built-in physical evaluation system, works in Butoh dance method"
    ECArTE conference, Lucca 2011 Handout

  • "Three phased dance therapy program at mental clinics with reflective focusing"
    ECArTE conference, Paris 2013 Abstract

  • "Significance of Slow and Small Movements in Japanes Dance Therapy"
    ECArTE conference, Italy 2015 Handout / Abstract

    The videos available from "Oxford Handbook of Dance and Wellbeing"
    (The chaper: Noguchi Taiso)
    Oxford University Press 2017.

  • "Small and Slow Movements and Cultural Modal Shift of Seeing in Dance Movement Therapy"
    An ECArTE Book, UK 2017 English paper(p.119-126)

    ( ECArTE: European Consortium for Arts Therapies Education )



- Butoh papers_counter -

Explanations of the papers:

T. Kasai has been studying somatic psychology since 1983 as a full time researcher/lecturer, including Noguchi Taiso (Michizo Noguchi's physical exercise or Noguchi Gymnastics). He started his Butoh dance life in 1988 as Itto Morita. Since then, he has written papers concerning Butoh Dance Method from the psychosomatic point of view to explore the relationship of mind-body. He is probably only one Butoh dancer/ dance-therapist/ psychologist in the world.

*He started teaching dancetherpay and body works, as professor of Department of Clinical Psychology, Sapporo Gakuin University in Japan, since April 1st in 2004.
*Board member of Japanese Dance Therapy Association, the director of Sapporo Dancetherapy Institute, and member of the Japanese Society of Hypnosis.

If you are interested in his Butoh Dance Method and psychosomatic exploration by this method, please get in touch with him by email: . Several Butoh dance lessons and dance therapy sessions based on this approach are held regularly at Mika Takeuchi Butoh Institute in Sapporo.

Mika Takeuchi has daycare programs of "relaxation", "dance therapy" at mental clinics since 1999 in Sapporo, and was certified as a Registered Dance Therapist of Japan Dance Therapy Association in 2005.
Toshiharu Kasai was certified as a Registered Dance Therapist of JADTA in 2008.

  1. "A Butoh Dance Method for Psychosomatic Exploration" (English/ French/ Polish)
    A psychological paper of Memoir of H.I.T., published in March, 1999

    The content is a basic training for enhancing psychosomatic awareness based on Butoh Dance Method. Explanations of Takeuchi Lesson and Noguchi Taiso (physical exercise) are included.

  2. "A Note on Butoh Body" (English/ French/ Polish)
    A psychological paper of Memoir of H.I.T., published in March, 2000

    Butoh body means a state of mind while performing Butoh although the word 'body' is used. The multiplicity of our consciousness and a philosophical idea 'non-objectification' are discussed in the paper in order to grasp the essence of Butoh. Discussion on Internationalized Butoh is included.

  3. "Perception in Butoh Dance" (English/ French/ Polish)
    A co-authored paper with Kate Parsons, an American philosopher, for Memoir of H.I.T. Published in March, 2003.

    Dance is usually thought to be a way of expression, but this is not alwaysthe case in Butoh dance. 'Perception' and 'expression' is contrasted, and it is shown that the dancer who 'perceives' the mind-body rather than 'expresses' the mind-body is engaged in dance that is more authentically Butoh. The use of eyes is explained along with an analysis of Butoh's unique stance against excessive use of visual perception.

  4. "Arm-Standing Exercise for Psychosomatic Training" (English/ )
    A manual of how to carry out the arm-standing exercise for perceiving your arm weight well and enhancing your sensitivity of subtle muscle control, for Bulletin of Sapporo Gakuin University. Published in March,2005.
    while lying on your back

    This exercise has been pioneered by T.Kasai and Mika Takeuchi, a Japanese Butoh dancer, through Butoh dance workshops and day-care programs held at mental clinics. The extremely slow and elegant movements need sublte muscle control and mind-set in Butoh dance. The Arm-Standing Exercise, "ude-no-tachiage" exercise, one of 20-30 exercises utilized in their Butoh workshops, has been described fully in English with some practical suggestions.

    This exercise has been cited in a newly published Butoh book "Hijikata and Ohno"(Routlege,2006) wirtten by Sondra Fraleigh and Tamah Nakamura.

    Arm Standing Exercise was introduced in ECArTE conference on Sep.17, 2009 in London.
    (European Consortium for Arts Therapies Education)
    [presentation and handout materials]


  5. "New understandings of Butoh Creation and Creative Aotopoietic Butoh
    - From Subconscious Hidden Observer to Perturbation of Body-Mind System"    (English /)
    Bulletin of Faculty of Humanities, No.86, 21-36, 2009 Sapporo Gakuin University
    (January, 2010)
    Keywords:Butoh, autopoiesis, Hijikata, Ohno, performing art, creativity, psychosomatic, mirror neuron, somesthesia, dance therapy, posthypnotic suggestion, hidden observer, state bound memory, affordance, catastrophe, butterfly effect, chaos, perturbation, antagonistic movement, choreography, improvisation, primary process, individualization, Cartesian dichotomy

*1 Toshiharu Kasai greatly thanks Mario Veillete, Quebec, Canada,
for his voluntary translations of two papers for French readers.(Apr.19, 2000)

*2 Toshiharu Kasai greatly thanks the Polish firm Centrum Kultury Japonskiej w Szczecinie (Japanese School & Culture Centre) (tel/fax (0-91) 43-43-815 )
for their voluntary translations of the first paper 'Butoh Dance Method...' for Polish readers. (added. June 2, 2001)

*3 *1 Toshiharu Kasai greatly thanks Mario Veillete, Quebec, Canada, once again
for his voluntary translation of the third paper for French readers.(Jun.12, 2003)

*4 Toshiharu Kasai greatly thanks Kasia Julia Pastuszak, Gdansk,Poland,
for her voluntary translation of Butoh papers (2,3) for Polish readers.(Oct.1,2003)

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