Organizers of this project conduct new and multi-faceted interviews, information-gathering and research on Tatsumi Hijikata’s representative work “A Story of Smallpox” staged in 1972, in order to elucidate its significance as a Butoh work. Using in particular surviving video footage and music, in addition to verifying Hijikata’s philosophy and analyzing the work’s characteristics, the project explores the ideological background and the basis of the work through research in Hijikata’s hometown of Akita, illustrating Hijikata’s mode of physical expression, and the innovative nature of “A Story of Smallpox” in the annals of Butoh history.