On the Creation of a Living Butoh Directory

July 15, 2025

I’ve been very busy for the past 2 weeks engaged in a new initiative born out of the need for a more complete and reliable Butoh list/archive — one that would truly represent all Butoh artists, and one that could be updated regularly.

And thus, butohdirectory.com came to life.

For the past 11 years, I’ve been immersed in the world of Butoh, connecting with Butoh artists across the globe through this deeply invigorating art form. Though Butoh is practiced internationally, it remains an underground scene — and it’s disheartening to see the community fragmented at times.

That’s why fostering connection and collaboration is vital — and the homepage makes this mission clear:

To connect the global Butoh community — honoring its roots while nurturing emerging generations.

We foster collaboration over competition, making it easier for artists, educators, and enthusiasts to discover one another and carry Butoh forward with shared spirit, mutual respect, and a sense of family.

So my goal was to contribute to connection and relationship by creating a comprehensive directory that could easily be added to by anybody. Each artist would have a profile with biographical details, training lineage, a photo, and website or social media link.

At the time of this writing, the directory includes approximately 340 Butoh artists from around the world.

Yet the directory alone didn’t feel complete. With so much rich information in the database, I felt it deserved a more creative expression — something that could visually trace the relationships between Butoh artists.

That’s when Kumu maps entered the picture.

Kumu

This interactive mapping platform was perfect for representing the relationships I wanted to present within the Butoh world — mainly training lineage.

Each node represents a Butoh artist, each with their own clickable profile

Tree relationships can be explored by country, by searching for an artist, or by viewing lineages under prominent Butoh educators. Each artist retains the same profile from the original directory.

Individual view (a sub-tree) of Butoh artists who were guided by Yumiko Yoshioka

The legend above highlights the top eight countries with the most listed artists. As more people are added to the directory, these rankings may naturally shift.

Quick How To on Viewing The Butoh Artists on Kumu

Though the Kumu opens up with my personal instructions on how to navigate the the artists, you can also refer to the instructions as well since they have screenshots.

  1. Go to the Tree section on the website or directly at https://butohdirectory.com/butoh-tree
  2. Search or Browse artist through drop down filters (Country or Studied Under)

3. Once an artist is clicked on or pulled up through search, use the focus feature to see the artist’s immediate network or indirect network.

Google Butoh Map

I wished to add one last mapping however to top it all off.

To visualize the global reach of Butoh artists, I also connected the database to Google Maps — and this was the result.

Initiative

As the directory continues to grow, it may inspire new ideas and serve as a tool for bringing the global Butoh community closer together.

If you’d like to help the directory grow, consider adding a new Butoh artist or resubmitting an existing entry —resubmitting will replace the old one.