25/07/2025
Back in 2015, Julie Brook (a renowned landscape artist from Scotland) came to visit Kanagaso Stone Quarry for the first time, here in the hills of Komatsu. Captivated by the beauty of the landscape and coupled with her fascination for quarries through the perspective that they are like a gateway between nature and buildings, she started her project "Ascending". In this work, she created a staircase from the pearly, slightly gold-tinted stone with just hand tools and some support from locals. (Check out her website, you will see how impressive this work is: https://www.juliebrook.com/Ejapan_ascending.html).
There was also "Parallel Space" in Takigahara (also here in Komatsu), which you may also want to read about: https://www.juliebrook.com/Sjapan_parallel.html
As of this year, we are grateful that she has come yet again for a part 2 of the project, Ascending. I was fortunate enough to be given a bit of a behind-the-scenes perspective into the mending of the stairs (after a long time dormant and exposed to the elements) and the filming of traditional butoh (a type of Japanese dance) on the stairs themselves.
Julie formed a group of artists including herself, Moe Yamamoto (a butoh dance choreographer), their dance partner Kei Shirasaka, butoh researcher and artist Rosa van Hensbergen and choreographer Nach. On the filming team there is Winnie Brook Young, Shuta Shinmyo and Yoichi Naiki. Last week this amazing team put together a viewing and put on an amazing butoh performance.
Julie united an international team of artists and created this new work that draws on the archive of butoh founder, Tatsumi Hijikata, choreographed by one of Hijikata's disciples, Moe Yamamoto, working with his dance partner Kei Shirasaka, both of Kanazawa Butoh Kan, and butoh researcher and artist Rosa van Hensbergen and French choreographer and dancer, Nach.
We cannot wait to see the professional footage and we will for sure share it when it becomes available.
Have a read here: https://www.terrain.org/2025/arterrain/julie-brook-ascending-part-2/
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