2007 January 
Atsushi Takenouchi JINEN Butoh group 
performance
"Life and Death, Mandala of 
Transmigration
Tuesday 23rd, Wednesday 24th, 
January 2007
Start: 20:30 pm 
At ESPACE CULTUREL BERTIN POIREE in 
Paris
Photo from gButoh Byouh2006 by Laci Zajac
Conception and choreography : Atsushi TAKENOUCHI
Music : Hiroko KOMIYA : voice and objets sonores
                François SARDI : 
electroacoustique
Assistants : Yuko OTA, Jean Daniel FRICKER, Céline ANGÈLE 
INTERPRETERS :
Tuesday 23rd January /Atsushi TAKENOUCHI and GROUND Group:
Yuko OTA, Alberto CACOPARDI, Bruno SALVADOR, Coco TATHAM-BANKS, Elsa PERNOT, 
Hiroshi SAKURAI, Julie PICHETTE, Mirjam MORAD, Sébastien BADACHAOUI, Thelma 
SHARMA 
Wednesday 24th January / Atsushi TAKENOUCHI and WIND Group:
Jean Daniel FRICKER, Céline ANGÈLE, Alice MASPRONE, Angela SAMMARCO, Emmanuelle 
JACQUET, Evarossella BIOLO, François GENTY, Ingrid VASSE, Leonardo CRISTIANI, 
Mahon CARMODY, Maya BONAZZA  
  When I die, who knows in whom 
I will be born again, in what kind of world and who I was before entering my 
mother¹s womb?
  If human life lasts 70 years, then I was already living 
70 years ago, I have lived ten times over the past 700 years, and one hundred 
times over the past 7,000 years. Maybe it will be the same for my lives to come 
in 70 years or 7,000 years.@Thus, I contain within me a hundred beings from both 
past and future, and I go on flowing like a quiet 10,000 year-old 
river.
  How did these beings live and 
die, I wonder. Some of them were carried off by wars, epidemics, or mental 
diseases, without transmitting what they wished to. Others died plagued by their 
crimes, some lost their children or parents, others left the world to embrace 
religion, still others embarked on an exploration of new worlds. All of them 
were seeking Truth and Liberation of the Soul. All of them faced death, whether 
in joy and hope while approaching their goal or deeply disheartened by their 
failures. 
I feel in my body their wordless cries and, becoming them, I 
dance. All these souls - and mine as well - which have succeeded one another and 
have been sealed in darkness for 10,000 years, I embrace them all as 
manifestations of true Life. I liberate them and go on dancing their uniqueness 
until they become radiant Light.   
Nobody knows whether former 
lives and future lives exist, but in dying, we go on nourishing Life, like a 
10,000 year-old river which began as a spring deep in the earth and ends its 
long journey united with the vast ocean.
   All existences 
indefinitely repeat the cycle of Life and Death. By unconditionally embracing 
the yin and the yang, the darkness and the light in all these lives - and mine, 
as well - I liberate my own soul and dance a Requiem for beings who endure 
transmigration.                                    
Atsushi Takenouchi 
<Contact > 
Espace Culturel Bertin 
Poiree,  Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de TENRI
8-12, rue 
Bertin Poiree 75001 Paris Metro : Chatelet or Pont-Neuf