is a Japanese dancer and actor.
Biography Tanaka was trained in ballet and modern dance, but in 1974, turned his back on these forms. He began his solo career with a series of nearly-naked primarily outdoor improvisational dances that took place throughout Japan, often dancing up to five times a day. For a time in the 1980s, he was associated with Hijikata Tatsumi and butoh, a loose genre of Japanese dance, but has since broken from that framework as well, and no longer uses that term to describe his dances.
From 1986 to 2010, Tanaka hosted dance workshops based in Body Weather, a movement ideology which "conceives of the body as a force of nature: omni-centered, anti-hierarchic, and acutely sensitive to external stimuli." In 1985, Tanaka and his colleagues founded Body Weather Farm, located four hours west of Tokyo, where he taught summer sessions lasting four to five weeks in Japanese and English. Much of the training workshop students received was centered on the labor of workaday tasks, primarily in agriculture. Tanaka taught that performing such tasks in their environments and with their accompanying physical stimulations functioned as a dance student's teacher itself, overturning the tradition of the environment taking on a subordinate role to the dance student's technique. He received the Chevalier of l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government in 1989 or 1990.
He continues to experiment with new ways to use the body, including drawing inspiration from farming. Starting in 2002, he began to appear in movies and on television. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 26th Japan Academy Film Prize for The Twilight Samurai.
Filmography
Films Year Title RoleNotes2002The Twilight Samurai2004The Hidden Blade2005House of Himiko2006TekkonkinkreetSuzuki a.k.a. Rat (voice)2009Heaven's DoorHenmiMap of the Sounds of TokyoSpanish film2011RebirthTaki2012Gaiji Keisatsu2013ReturnThe Eternal ZeroKageura47 RoninLord AsanoAmerican filmThe Tale of IyaGrandpa2014Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto InfernoOkinaRurouni Kenshin: The Legend EndsOkina2017Blade of the ImmortalMugai-ryūDestiny: The Tale of KamakuraBinbōgami2018The Scythian LambKatsumi ŌnoVisionMinamotoThe OutsiderAkihiroAmerican film The House Where The Mermaid SleepsModest HeroesBlind man (voice)Ninomiya Kinjirō2019The Great War of ArchimedesTadamichi HirayamaSvaha: The Sixth FingerNechung TenpaSouth Korean filmChildren of the SeaJim (voice)2020 The Memory Eraser Shin'ichi Sugawara2021Hokusai Old HokusaiLead role A Morning of Farewell2022The Unnameable DanceHimselfDocumentaryThe Pass: Last Days of the Samurai Kawai DaiemonYokaipediaJizuri (voice)Amnesiac LoveSpecial appearance2023Father of the Milky Way RailroadKisuke MiyazawaMom, Is That You?!Perfect DaysHomeless manJapanese-German film2024Who Were We?The Real YouWakamatsu2025KokuhoOnogawa Mangiku2026Black OxZen priestSheep in the BoxAkio YamagataGodzilla Minus ZeroKanji Murakami
Television Year Title RoleNotes2010 Ryōmaden Yoshida Tōyō Taiga drama 2014–16 Gou Gou, The Cat 2 seasons 2015 Mare Asadora To Give a Dream 2016 Kyoto Love Story Sei-san2017 A Life: A Love Isshin Okita2019 Nodoka no Niwa Ikuo Sakaki 2021 The Supporting Actors 3 Himself 2022 The 13 Lords of the Shogun Fujiwara no Hidehira Taiga dramaTeen RegimeShigeo Hosaka Miniseries2024 House of the OwlRyutaro Ogami Lead role 2025 The 19th Medical Chart Noboru Akaike
Awards and honours 26th Japan Academy Film Prize: Best Supporting Actor (2003) Person of Cultural Merit (2025) 38th Nikkan Sports Film Awards: Best Supporting Actor (2025) 47th Yokohama Film Festival: Best Supporting Actor (2026)
References
External links