Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2011
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Photos by Kohji Shiiki
Spiritual father of the surrealist movement, the Comte de Lautreamont, once wrote of “the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella.” A similar sense of beauty could be found in the piercing of six human cheeks, one by one, by a single metal skewer. The tension in the air was subsequently released when the skewered trio started humming “Dango San Kyodai” (“Three Brother Dumplings”), a humorous juxtaposition that prompted a burst of laughter-release from the audience. The group, Gokiburi Combinato (“Cockroaches Combined”), formed just one of the absurd, comic and grotesque acts on show during Sadistic Circus’s four-and-a-half-hour deluxe program.
The theme of the 2011 event was “Domestic Catharsis.” “We want to express the vitality of Japan,” explained director Tatsumi Naito, “in response to the chaotic domestic situation.” A circus aficionado, Naito has been organizing this annual event since 2002 in order to revive the misemonogoya (freak show) culture. Today, only two such enterprises remain out of some 300 that existed in the Edo-period heyday. No wonder then that everything seemingly unconventional and avant-garde was actually embedded with traditional aspects particular to Japanese culture.
Legendary stripper Asakusa Komadayu, of whom photos were forbidden, wore dozens of ornate kanzashi clips that glimmered from her nihongami hairstyle. She took her time in sliding off the layers of her extravagant courtesan-style kimono, as she danced gracefully to a strange combination of traditional songs and “Suzie Q” that somehow just worked. Seeing her masturbatory motions against a red lantern and her expression when she dropped her last garment—just before the lights went out—you would have never guessed her to be a septuagenarian.
If Asakusa Komadayu taught us not to underestimate the power of old people, Hanadensha Ran taught us not to underestimate the power of the vagina, using hers to blow a whistle to the song “Ghengis Khan,” fire cigarettes out of a straw, and open a can of beer by pulling on a string. Such “vart” has been passed down for generations in the red-light districts, but it is an all-too-rare sight today, with leading hanadensha performer Fire Yoko—famed for blowing fire from her manko—hanging up her matchbox last year.
The night’s grotesquerie altered our mindset to such a degree that we even believed that fetish-bar mama-san cum actress Saotome Hiromi actually slit her stomach in her infamous hara-kiri show. However, she was merely acting the role of a brokenhearted white fox, preparing to die by writing her last words on a translucent shoji door.
The series of erotic, grotesque, and nonsensical acts was closed by ascetic hermits from the three sacred mountains of Dewa in Yamagata. They chanted esoteric Buddhist sutras while leading dancer Mori Shigeya performed his avant-garde butoh in a trance-like state. The night had been an embodiment of the Comte de Lautreamont’s dissecting table, and we left refreshed by its surreal beauty.
