Before butoh, there were two forms of dance in Japan: traditional dance (mainly kagura, buyoh, bugaku, and noh) and Western dance (classical ballet and modern dance) brought to Japan in the wawe of Western influence which started in the Meiji era. Butoh has its roots in the turbulence of post-war Japan. The early experimentation of butoh was made in the context of Tokyo’s avant garde scene, where artists explored new identities as a consequence of the contradictions and different impulses of the time. They attempted to create art that drew its strength from their own history--from their own bodies.

As founding figures of butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986) and Kazuo Ohno (1906-2010) aimed to turn the obvious upside down and prove that dance could be something else than forms that fitted in and confirmed social patterns. For them, the body was not a means to transmit ideas, but rather, it was an ‘end’ to confront and question.