Pijin Neji
Pijin Neji
dancer, choreographer
An encounter with Akaji Maro of the famed Butoh dance company Dairakudakan in his first year of university started Pijin Neji on his career as a performer. As a member of the new generation of performers born in the 1980s who calls Butoh “ kosu-pre ” (or, “cos-play: playing by dressing up in costumes) and the body a form of “media,” Pijin Neji has pursued collaborations with a variety of artists from Japan and abroad and established a reputation on the dance/performance scene with his unique presence and physicality. Through influences of figures such as Butoh artist Kim Ito, Toshiki Okada of chelfitsch, dancer and choreographer Natsuko Tezuka who continues an approach that observes the internal aspects of physical movement, artist Tetsuya Umeda and others, Pijin Neji has arrived at his own unique expressive realm.