IHJ Cultural
Lobby
I-House Art and Design Division, under the leadership of Director Yuko Hasegawa, is organizing discussions among experts from different fields to explore the roles culture and art can play in promoting empathy and communication and connecting today’s divided cultural, political, economic, scientific, and other domains.
#1 “Dance as the Origins of Communication”
Juichi YAMAGIWA and Mirai MORIYAMA
In a newly uploaded IHJ Cultural Lobby video, primatologist and Director-General of the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature Juichi Yamagiwa—a leading authority on gorillas—and internationally acclaimed dancer and actor Mirai Moriyama discuss the origins, roles, and impact of art and dance as means of communication before words evolved.
“Dancing together connects people’s hearts,” Yamagiwa said. “And empathy was integral to our evolution as a species. The advent of verbal communication, though, has intensified conflict between humans. War can be said to be an outburst of empathy.”
Moriyama has been studying the ancient roots of Japanese forms of bodily expression through butoh and has also been active in Israel and Europe, collaborating with dancers of different ethnicities and languages on works exploring physical communication.
The “interdisciplinary” discussion between two uniquely innovative and powerful individuals delves into such topics as learning and inspiration.
What Is Interdisciplinary Talk?
Our orderly ways of life have been disrupted in many places around the world, notably in Ukraine and Gaza, and there is little prospect of an early recovery. The issues modern society must consider, such as generative AI, climate change, and DEI promotion, have also grown more complex. The I-House Art and Design Division, under the leadership of Director Yuko Hasegawa, is organizing discussions among experts from different fields to explore the roles culture and art can play in promoting empathy and communication and connecting today’s divided cultural, political, economic, scientific, and other domains.
Juichi YAMAGIWA, Primatologist / Director-General of the Research Institute for Humanity
Dr. Juichi Yamagiwa, Director-General of RIHN, is a world-renowned researcher and expert in the study of primatology and human evolution. Awarded Doctor of Science from Kyoto University in 1987. After holding positions at the Karisoke Research Center, Japan Monkey Center, and Primate Research Institute Kyoto University, he has been Professor of Graduate School of Science at Kyoto University since 2002-14, Dean of Graduate School and Faculty of Science, 2011-13, 26th President of Kyoto University, 2014-20. He also served as President of International Primatological Society, 2008-12, as Editor in Chief of Primates, a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal of primatology published by Springer, 2010-2014. Domestically, he served as President of Japan Association of National Universities, 2017-19, the president of Science Council of Japan, 2017-20 and the member of Environmental Policy Committee of Ministry of Environment, 2002-22. He is now serving as Chairman of International Center of Kyoto Prefecture, Chairman of Kyoto Art Center, and Senior Advisor of Osaka Kansai EXPO 2025. His passion for fieldwork research frequently made him travel to some countries of Africa, where he discovered an abundance of new findings related to gorillas, through his unique viewpoint of human evolution.
Mirai MORIYAMA, Dancer/Actor
Born in 1984, lives between Kobe and Tokyo.
Moriyama is a multidisciplinary artist who works in Japan and overseas. From a very young age, Moriyama trained in a variety of dance genres before making his stage debut in 1999. He was nominated Cultural Ambassador by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2013, worked with Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak Dance Company for a year in Tel-Aviv, Israel and collaborated with diverse performing arts groups in European countries. Since then his activities have been focusing on “physical expression that is generated through a relationship with people, things, and places”.
As an actor he has won several Japanese film awards and as a dancer he won the 10th Japan Dance Forum prize. ”Delivery Health” and “in-side-out” are two short films he directed and were selected in the competition of Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (2019 and 2021).
On 11 March 2021, 10 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Moriyama directed and dedicated to Kiyomizu-temple, a dance performance called “Re: Incarnation”. The same year he performed a solo dance at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games. In April 2022 he initiated a group to launch Artist in Residence KOBE（AiRK）in Kobe, Japan.
He is also a Post-Butoh dancer.
©Takeshi Miyamoto
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