Akira Kasai's Androgyny Dance Shuzo Takiguchi, Genpei Akasegawa Photobooks

4to (32 x 25,2 cm), loose as issued, publisher's printed wrappers by Genpei Akasegawa. First edition. Text by Shuzo Takiguchi. 17 black-and-white photographs by Masaki Fujisaki, Masanori Sakamoto and Kumiko Kuroda, they show a series of performances by the buto dancer Akira Kasai. From the edition limited to 200 numbered copies, signed by Akira Kasai. A cornerstone of the "Ankoku buto" movement alongside Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, Akira Kasai opposed the conventions of post-war Japan by associating eroticism, homosexuality and androgyny to his choreography. His first performances ("Barairo Dansu", 1965 and "Takkei Seibo", 1966) were based on fury and harshness, excess and violence. They confront the rhythm and the fluidity of movement and revoke a euphoric image of the body, revealing its monstrous and obscure side. In the early 1970s, he founded a dance school in Tokyo, the "Tenshi Kan", an institution dedicated to buto and esotericism. His interest in the thought of Rudolf Steiner then led him to move to Germany to concentrate on the study of eurythmy and anthroposophy. A condition report and additional images are available on request.