For many years, Hakushu village, tucked away in Yamanashi Prefecture, was the venue for a colorful international festival featuring avant-garde performances by musicians, dancers and other artists.

That, sadly, no longer takes place, but vestiges of the event remain. Drawn to the beauty of the region, the traditional values of the villagers and the area's surprising proximity to Tokyo, Min Tanaka, a butoh dancer and one of the original organizers of the event, set up a dance collective there called the Body Weather Farm in the late 1980s.

Other artists joined the collective. The farm's dance workshops and courses have survived till today.