Pardon our dust; we're working on a new installation that affects the Atrium and Floors 3, 4, and 5.
Free with RSVP
For over five decades, Butoh has been active in the Bay Area in the shadows, performed mostly in underground venues and intimate settings, with liberating uneasiness, expressions of existential anguish, and radicalism in the absurd. This presentation by Kumiko Uyeda highlights how Butoh first began in Japan in the 1950s; took root in the Bay Area in the 1970s, brought by Koichi and Hiroko Tamano; and subsequently found voice through the Japanese American lens of Judith Kajiwara. The Tamanos were students of Hijikata Tatsumi, who was the founder of the Butoh art form in collaboration with Ohno Kazuo. The Tamanos and Kajiwara have been the cornerstone of Butoh in the Bay Area, dedicating their lives to the expression of the unbridled imagination of the subconscious. The presentation will be followed by a performance of Uninterrupted Rest: A Butoh Awakening.
Uninterrupted Rest: A Butoh Awakening
Choreography: Judith Kajiwara
Performers: Judith Kajiwara (Butoh), Erika Oba (flute), Kumiko Uyeda (piano)
Soundscape and video montage: Kallan Nishimoto
Uninterrupted Rest: A Butoh Awakening was inspired by the life cycle of a silkworm. The fragility and strength of a silk thread metaphorically illustrates the global turmoil we are currently experiencing. Have we forgotten our resilience as humans, wrapped in a perpetual cycle of uninterrupted rest, swaddled tightly in a cocoon of darkness? Rather than perish in oblivion, we can create the very freedom we once knew as a fleeting childlike imagination. Breaking the threads of repression, we must unfurl our tired wings, awaken, and begin creating a higher consciousness New Earth, where humanity will thrive in prosperity, harmony, peace, love, and unity.
Butoh originated from a dare to be different: to dance, feel, and dream differently, without fear of judgment, without fear of failure, and for the greatest good and everlasting peace for all. Please find your own story in Uninterrupted Rest and know that we all share the same story.
Judith Kajiwara is an Oakland-based Butoh solo performing artist, choreographer, and teacher of Butoh and contemporary dance. Spanning a 50-year career, her passion for dance began at age four and continues today. She was lured into the mysteries of Butoh when she attended a performance by Koichi and Hiroko Tamano in the late 1970s. Decades later, she decided to self-train exclusively in Butoh and, in 1996, performed her first Butoh solo, The Ballad of Machiko, at NOHspace. Over the next 30 years, her countless Butoh solo works have become known for creating characters that weave emotional and spiritual intimacy with her audiences. In 2013, Kajiwara formed OnenessButoh, a grassroots ensemble that ran for seven seasons until 2020. In addition to Butoh, Kajiwara loves teaching a high-energy “Let’s Groove” dance class for seniors at J-Sei, a Japanese American community center in Emeryville. With numerous certifications in energy healing, she also runs Reiki Wellness at J-Sei with a team of Reiki practitioners who provide treatments for the community.
Kumiko Uyeda is a pianist, composer, and ethnomusicologist based in Oakland and Suo-Oshima, Japan. Uyeda performs in various genres, including Western art music and folk-jazz choro. She is the pianist for the Earhart Trio and collaborates with Butoh artists, poets, global music instrumentalists, and taiko drummers. Her album of original piano works, Blue Whispers, was published in the fall of 2026. She received her MM degree in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music and her PhD in cultural musicology from UC Santa Cruz, researching the intersections of music and social movements of the Indigenous Ainu people of Japan. Her other interests include Hatha yoga and fencing. Learn more at kumikomusic.com.
Erika Oba is a composer, pianist/flutist, and educator based in the Bay Area. As a composer, she has written works for jazz ensembles, chamber groups, orchestra, dance, and theater. She is active as a performer on both piano and flute and has performed in a wide variety of ensembles with musicians including Meredith Monk, Peter Apfelbaum, Jean Fineberg, Jon Jang, and Francis Wong. As an artist, she is interested in exploring cultural practice in diaspora, performance as ritual, and music as a vehicle for exploring our relationships to our communities, histories, and biosphere.
Kallan Nishimoto is a composer, performer, sound designer, and filmmaker. He received his bachelor’s in music from the University of the Pacific and was a founding member of the professional touring ensemble Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble for 16 years. Nishimoto operates the recording studios and editing suite Flytrap Studio in Oakland and Blue Cat Studio in Suo-Oshima, Japan. He has worked as a professional photographer for 18 years and, since 1992, has produced the artist studio showcase Salon and On and On at Flytrap Annex in Oakland. Nishimoto’s latest video project is a collaboration revitalizing a 750-year-old traditional Japanese song with Tokyo music producer Shunsuke Sena. Learn more at bluecatstudio.net.
Accessible seating is available at this event. Accessibility accommodations such as American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation are available upon request ten business days in advance.
Please email publicengagement@sfmoma.org, and we will do our best to fulfill your request.
Presenting Sponsor of Thursday Night Live is Zoox.
Meaningful support is provided by Diana Nelson and John Atwater.
Additional support is provided by the Yerba Buena Partnership.