Butoh-fu
A sleep walker is sitting on the floor.
He does not know what to do.
He is a foolish sleep walker, and is basked in light.
His face becomes a mask, and he is holding a piece of grass in his right hand.
He stares at two points in the air.
Grass growing from his stomache parts into two on his chest,
and the man becomes a balancing toy called Yajirobei.
Grass again grows from his stomache,
and the blades of grass cut the surface of his stomache.
The grass again parts into two on his chest,
and then becomes Yajirobei again.
He is a strange Yajirobei.
Arrows of light start peircing him, and the Yajirobei is transformed into Hachimantaro Yoshiie, an armoured 12th century warrior who is struck by tens of arrows and whose hand holds one arrow flung at him. (This image based on a popular Japanese silkscreen painting of later ages.)
Yoshiie’s face becomes a mask.
Yoshiie then becomes a man holding a huge dish above his head.
Cracks appear on the plate. For the man, the air becomes itchy.
He breathes quickly, his teeth are showing,
and he has become a dog.
The dog hides his teeth, is basked again in light.
And then is transformed into Orpheus.
He wears electric hair.
A small plate of iron falls from above and becomes fixed on Orpheus’ chest.
His right hand is X-rayed, which only shows white bones.
The whole thing is pressed down by heavy air.
The heavy air enters him from his anus.
Orpheus becomes smoke which slowly moves.
Suddenly a mouth appears from the smoke
and its teeth are made of pomegranates.
The mouth disappears,
then a small girl like in a painting by Hans Bellmer appears,
whose body is covered by extremely thin hair on the surface of peaches.
She stands up, on a field of wild flowers.
Something is staring at her from above,
and she slowly sits on the ground.
She does not know what to do.
She becomes her costumes then becomes something made only of her nerves.
The costumes and nerves become entangled and out of this a different man appears.
Out of his ears, many pieces of thread are flowing out,
which form to make a large white flower.
Out of the flower, a noble lady wearing a peacock-like dress,
based on drawings by Beardsley, appears.
She stands up.
She is rapidly transformed into four other ladies
in drawings also by Beardsley. Someone again is staring at the fourth lady
from above and she is tranformed into a peacock.
Her feather grows in three stages.
The peacock becomes something made of her nerves
like in a drawing by Wols.
The nerves start disappearing into the air
and grow like branches of a tree.
The thing made of nerves is now back in the form of a sleep walker.
For a moment, his forefinger sticks to his nose.
Lines of various drawings from Beardley’s drawings
appear in the forms of Oriental dances,
which are danced by the sleep walker.
He becomes a willow tree, which tries to difuse itself into the air.
Out of this, the wet, foolish sleep walker appears,
the second personality of the sleep walker.
For the third time, something stares at him from above,
and the foolish sleep walker becomes a noble lady like in a drawing by Beardsley.
Snakes appear from the air which become entwined with her body.
She is then transformed into a owl made of dead leaves.
Her body is trapped in a mandala like in the drawing by Wols,
which is hung in the air.
Out of this, a man made only of his costume appears.
He smells the perfume of death and then becomes smoke.
He disappears.
A beard of light then appears in the air.
Out of this, a mouth whose teeth are made of pomegranates
slowly appears.