Itto started butoh in 1988. Mika started butoh in 1995. And, Itto and Mika organized "Butoh GooSayTen" in Sapporo, Japan. We have being living in Sapporo, Hokkaido prefecture, 90 minute flight from Tokyo.
After Itto learned butoh especially from Kobuzoku Arutai (Altaic), Semimaru, and Akiko Motofuji (Hijikata's wife at Asbestos Hall), GooSayTen's butoh was selected by video auditions of international butoh festivals and other events, and we started performing abroad, together with butoh workshops, in more than 50 cities in many countries (U.S.A, Canada, Germany, Poland, Spain, U.K., Holland, France, Italy, Jordan, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, etc.)
We love this northern place, Sapporo and Hokkaido (Hokkaido is a nothernmost big island), and don't have a good contact with other butoh dancers in Tokyo, Osaka, etc. these days, especially after traditional butoh dancers have ceased their activities, or have faded away. We remember Akiko Motofuji, Hijikata's wife (died in 2003), very much because she appreciated our butoh and we loved her strong character as one of the originaters of butoh. We were very happy when Akiko came to perform in Hokkaido smillingly with Hijikata' wooden small mortuary tablet (buddhism): "I came with him !".

We have been performing as butoh dancers of GooSayTen since 1995, but we regard ourselves a bit different from most other butoh dancers in two respects:

• Both are certified dance therapists of JADTA (Japan Dance Therapy Association); Itto was vise president (until 2022), and Mika its board member (until 2017). We have been having dance therapy and related programms at mental clinics and hospitals since 1999.
  We have encountered with real and serious madness or fears there, and have been exploring the possibilities of butoh as a way of body-mind therapy, especially with its "dark and black - ankoku" butoh side.


• Itto, a professional psychologist studying and teaching in a department of clinical psychology, has published butoh related papers, and has been trying to translate butoh ideas and practices into English together with his own approaches about Noguchi Taiso, etc. * Itto retired from academic researches in 2020.
  
  Mika, teaching at colleges, nurse schools, etc., has been digging up the dark side of our body-mind through her beautiful but dreadful butoh performance. Because of these backgrounds, both of us are much interested in the real and authentic aspect of butoh, in a sense, rather than stage performance.

We hope to pass on what we have experienced in our butoh activities to anybody who wants to learn it for butoh dance or for his/her peaceful body-mind.

Itto Morita: Butoh GooSayTen