Morita, Itto/Kasai, Toshiharu. "A Butoh Dancer & Behavioral Scientist." 16 January 2000. http://www.ne.jp/asahi/butoh/itto/kasait/kasait.html.

A dancer reviews his own experiences and beliefs in this website, which is informal and intended to attract attention to and represent his field, the art of Butoh dancing. He highlights the dance, his own experiences, and some guidelines to understanding methods of Butoh dance. He reviews the basic purpose of Butoh dance as soul healing of the self and others through a "de-socialization of socially conditioned bodily reactions". Stressing the mind-body relationship and the healing psychological side of Butoh, he offers other helpful sources, examples of modern day Butoh workshops, and some interesting photos. The dancer's notes describe the meaning of certain motions such as rolled back eyes, which show scorn for the Western concern with visuality and a turning eyes inward to self. There is also a description of the choreagpahing methods of Butoh, in which movements are unconscious and natural. He helps the reader to compare dancing to "drifting in a dark space and my body wanted to twist by itself." Butoh to him is body, mind, and the outer world. He briefly states how Butoh is a method of releasing fallen hopes and despairs began after the war in Japan by Kijikata. The topic is a part of the larger movement in Japanese visual culture of releasing pain through art after the war. Topics of discussion are Semimaru, a popular dancer, an Omoi story, and the concept of not trying to express something, of letting it come. The author's credentials involve personal dance experience, an education in behavioral studies, and a bibliography of other useful sites.

The site is highly useful for relating to the dance on a personal level and is an example of how the dancing methods release pain helps to give a sense of why this style of dance came shortly after the war. It does not explain the roots or history of the dance, but tells what the dance is today to a dancer and a scientist who views it as a method of stress relief. The first-person narrative experience provides a unique look into the world of Butoh dance.

-Jacqui Phillips