我妻恵美子

Emiko Agatsuma

Butoh Dancer, Choreographer, Director
Founder and Director of AGAXART

Emiko Agatsuma is a Japan-based Butoh dancer, choreographer, and director working internationally across performance creation, education, and cultural exchange.

Agatsuma spent over two decades with Dairakudakan, one of Japan’s leading Butoh companies, where she trained under its founder, Akaji Maro. In 2020, she founded AGAXART, an independent arts platform for the creation and production of Butoh-centered stage works and international collaborative projects.

In 2015, her work ”Niku no Uta” was invited to the Maison de la Culture du Japon à Paris, and she received the Best Young Artist Award from the Japan Dance Critics Association, with critics describing her work as “bringing a new current into contemporary Butoh.” In 2020, she was selected as an artist-in-residence at Taipei Artist Village, where she premiered her solo work Future Temple, later presented at the Battery Dance Festival in New York.

Since 2022, Agatsuma has developed the HOKUSAI MANGA BUTOH Project, exploring contemporary bodily expression inspired by the visual language of Katsushika Hokusai. Her recent international projects include ”So Zo Ro” at JAPAN Focus, Wan Theatre in Taipei (2024), ”Cosmic Garden” collaborative creation with Singapore Butoh Collective at the Comma Creative Arts Festival in Singapore (2026), and Ten Sui at the Want to Dance Festival in Taiwan (2026). She was also invited to the Salish Sea Butoh Festival in Port Townsend, Washington (2026), where she presented Future Temple and led a Butoh workshop.

At the core of Agatsuma’s artistic practice is resilience. Following her experience of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, she began to explore resilience not simply as a return to a previous state, but as the capacity to accept transformation and allow something new to emerge. Through Butoh, she investigates how the body carries memory, adapts to change, and discovers new possibilities of being.

With more than 20 years of teaching experience, Agatsuma has conducted workshops and lectures at Waseda University, Taipei National University of the Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts, and LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore.

Butoh*
- a form of dance that emerged in Japan in the 1960s, challenging the conventions of Western-influenced modern dance. With its distinctive approaches to the body, perception, and transformation, Butoh continues to influence dancers and artists around the world.

Artist resume

Education

B.A. in Arts in Literature, Waseda University- Tokyo, Japan 1999

Award

2015 Received the Japan Dance Critics Association’s Best Young Artist Award.

Invitation

2026 Salish Butoh Festival, Seattle, USA

2026 艋舺國際舞蹈節 Want to Dance Festival 2026 in Taipei, Taiwan

2026 Comma Creative Arts Festival, Singapore

2024 萬座焦點 JAPAN Focus in Taipei, Taiwan

2020 39th Annual Battery Dance Festival, New York, USA

2020 Tjimur Arts Festival, Taiwan

2019-2020 艋舺國際舞蹈節 Want to dance festival, 2020 in Taipei, Taiwan

2015 Maison de la Culture du Japon à Paris, France

Director, Choreography and Performance Works

2026

"Future Temple" Shanghai Version (Shanghai, China)
"Future Temple"in Salish Butoh Festival (Seattle, USA)
"Rodin Project-Lady Machbeth" by Shinehouse Theatre at Prague Fringe Festival (Prague, Czech Republic)
"AGAXART Golden Show" at the Roadsice Art Museum
"天水 Ten Sui — “Hell” (excerpt)" in “艋舺國際舞蹈節 / Want to dance festival 2026”(Taipei)
"Cosmic Garden" Collaborative creation with Singapore Butoh Collective, Comma Creative Arts Festival (Singapore)

2025

"Bones Cicada" Produced by PAKU PAKU AN (Tokyo)
"天水 Ten Sui" Organized by AGAXART, Sumi-Yume Executive Committee, Co-organized by Sumida ward
"The Whisper of the Waves" Organized by Shinehouse Theatre at Fringe Catania Off (Catania, Italy)
"Rodin Project-Lady Machbeth" by Shinehouse Theatre at Fringe Milano Off (Milano, Italy)
"白の間 White Room" at Vanryu-ji Temple (Tokyo)
"虫めづる姫君 The lady who loved insects" at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Organized by Tokyo Metropolitan Government/Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo)
"Future Temple" in 楽市楽座伍 Organized by Aubade Hall (Toyama)
"The Whisper of the Waves" at SoHo Playhouse Organized by Shinehouse (New York)

2024

"So Zo Ro" JAPAN Focus in Wan Theater (Taipei, Taiwan)
"So Zo Ro" Organized by AGAXART, Sumi-Yume Executive Committee, Co-organized by Sumida ward
"The Whisper of the Waves" at Honda theatre B1(Tokyo), Organized by Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, Shinehouse Theatre, Honda Planning
"The Whisper of the Waves" by Shinehouse Theatre at Zorlu Performing Arts Center (Istanbul, Turkey)
"The TREE" Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Organized by Tokyo Metropolitan Government/Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Directed by Maki Peyounne
"LADDER" Organized by AGAXART and Miya Turnbull at Bus Stop Theatre (Halifax, Canada)
"The Whisper of the Waves" Organized by Shinehouse Theatre, Prague Fringe Festival (Czech Republic)
"Otera-Odori-Ocha Session 5" at SHUHALLY, Yokohama

2023

"Dancing SENTO" Organized by AGAXART, Sumi-Yume Executive Committee, Co-organized by Sumida ward
"The Whisper of the Waves" Organized by Shinehouse Theatre, Europe tour (Lithania, Germany)
"TEN PEN CHI YO" Produced by PAKU PAKU AN, at Myorenji temple (Kyoto)
"誰そ彼 Who is he? Twilight zone" in “艋舺國際舞蹈節 / Want to dance festival, 2023” in Taipei

2022

"HOKUSAI MANGA BUTOH" Organized by AGAXART, Sumi-Yume Executive Committee, Co-organized by Sumida ward
"The Whisper of the Waves" Organized by Shinehouse Theatre at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Japanese Butoh and Taiwanese Theatre international collaboration "日日是好日” at Wan Theatre, Taipei
"虫めづる姫君 The lady who loved insects" in Tokyo

2021

"三つ巴" Organized by Shinonome Butoh at Boat Theatre, Yokohama
"Otera-Odori-Ocha Session 4" at SHUHALLY, Yokohama in YPAM
Virtual Tour and Online performance "Otera-Odori-Ocha Session 3"
Presentation "日日是好日 | A Perfect Day" in Taipei
Presentation "The Whisper of the Waves Ⅱ" Organized by Shinehouse Theatre in Taipei
Online performance "Temple Dance, This Dance" in TPAM and Edinburgh Festival Fringe