Buyō (舞踊), or Nichibu (日舞) short for Nihon buyō/Nippon buyō (日本舞踊) meaning Japanese dance,[1] refers to a traditional Japanese performing art that may be a mixture of dance and pantomime. It begins with early dance traditions such as mai and odori, with major development in the early Edo period (early 17th century) in the form of kabuki dances, which incorporated elements from the older dance genres.[2] Although the term Nihon buyō means "Japanese dance", it is not meant to refer to Japanese dance in general, rather it refers to a few dance genres such as kabuki buyō performed in theatre, and Kamigata mai that encompasses the style of dancing performed by geisha.[3] Nihon buyō differs from other Japanese traditional dances in that it is a more refined style of dancing intended as entertainment on a public stage or in private functions.[1][3]
The term buyō is a modern coinage during the Meiji period as a general term for "dance", and the writer Tsubouchi Shōyō is believed to be the first to use the term Nihon buyō.[4] Prior to this, dance was generally referred according to its particular dance genre, such as mai and odori. The term is a combination of mai (舞, which can also be pronounced bu) and odori (踊, can also be pronounced yō).[5]
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
