Their primary aim was to destabilize existing orders and this is what they accomplished with arts forms such as butoh. "Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial" (Turner 1969, 94).

Hijikata, the man responsible for creating Butoh, also upheld Artaudian views on life and humanity. Keeping in view the traditional Japanese thinking of a connection between nature and man, Hijikata incorporated it in butoh movements. However he focused more on nature's darker side believing that, "the dirty is beautiful and the beautiful is dirty, and [life] cycles between them forever" (Kurihara 1997, 38). Hijikata, just like Artaud, forced the viewers to pay closer attention to the side of life that they had usually ignored. He believed that it is due to a break between man and the darker side of life that we suffered...
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