Rankoh Fujima

Photo: Kishin Shinoyama

Rankoh Fujima

Rankoh Fujima (b. 1962) was born into a family of master artists of Nihon Buyo (Japanese traditional dance) that dates back to the Edo Period (1603 – 1868). He studied under his mother, the Nihon Buyo artist Rankei Fujima, who attained the title of Living National Treasure. In his role as successor to this family, Rankoh is promoting the succession and spread of Nihon Buyo, while also active as a choreographer, stage director and writer of new works based on stories old and new from all corners and uses them as the subjects for new dance compositions. He is known for his collaborations with other dance genres such as ballet and tap dance. Rankoh is also known for his highly acclaimed original work Nobunaga (premiered 2015, with numerous re-stagings, including six performances in Russia in January 2019), in which he performed with the Russian ballet dancer Farukh Ruzimatov and Japan’s Morihiro Iwata. In 2009 he formed the Goyokai group of five Nihon Buyo artists from different schools.