
An Evening of Butoh Performance
13 November 2026 | The Place, London
An evening of four Japanese butoh performances. MUTSUMINEIRO return to the UK after a sell-out performance in 2025 with The Last Two, a magical duet in which their two distinct worlds collide. Seiji Tanaka’s UK debut Pulse of Absence trembles in the space between the visible and the invisible. Makiko Takamatsu's Naked Rabbit offers a darkly playful solo inspired by one of Japan's oldest myths. The evening culminates with A Requiem for Her, as the legendary Mitsuyo Uesugi returns to The Place for the first time in 46 years.

A Requiem for Her
The women that reside inside my body. From mother to grandmother, moving through time. The joys, sorrows, delights and anguish of the sex that bears life. A history of love fills my body. As they sleep beneath the ground, I tread the earth and dance with them...
Butoh legend Mitsuyo Uesugi continues to defy expectations of the female body with her latest solo, as she returns to The Place for the first time in 46 years.
Photo: Makoto Onozuka

Naked Rabbit
Once upon a time, there was a rabbit who loved to deceive. Because the rabbit did nothing but lie, it was punished and had its fur coat entirely stripped away. The world turned upside down, and the moon floating in the dark blue sky became a gaping hole, opening out into the cosmos. It was the only exit. The Naked Rabbit fell headlong into the hole in the sky.
A darkly playful solo butoh work by Makiko Takamatsu inspired by the myth of the white hare of Inaba.
Photo: Makoto Onozuka

Pulse of Absence
A Pulse of Absence ripples through every corner of space, between the visible and the invisible, where the tender and precious things lie. And so we move once again, to encounter that place that can only be reached through dance.
Seiji Tanaka brings his distinctly delicate butoh style, widely toured across Japan and Europe, to the UK for the first time.
Photo: Gen Kasuga

The Last Two
With breath held, the lid of the treasure box is gently opened. The hands of the clock stop, and music never heard before floods the Kingdom of The Last Two.
A pure white lake, and a twilit matsuri float.
Even as the flag burns to ash, the ashes keep dancing,
And every soul forms one cockerel, crying out into the void!
Following a celebrated UK debut in 2025, butoh duo MUTSUMINEIRO return with a new work.
Photo: Zoetica Ebb
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