Yusuke Hashimoto

Yusuke Hashimoto was born in Fukuoka, Japan 1976 and studied aesthetics and art theory at the Kyoto University. After graduating, he formed a production agency for performing arts, in which he worked with independent artists, producing, presenting and touring their work.

He founded Kyoto Experiment (Kyoto International Performing Arts Festival) in 2010 and led the festival as the artistic director until 2019. With a concept of decentralisation, Kyoto Experiment has introduced outstanding contemporary works from around the world. The festival began with a programme focused on theatre and dance, however over the past ten years it has developed into a comprehensive multidisciplinary arts festival by collaborating with other fields such as visual art, architecture and music. Throughout his tenure, Hashimoto promoted international collaborations with multiple partners including the Panorama Festival (Rio de Janeiro) and NXTSTP, a network consisting of eight of highly established performance arts festivals in Europe led by Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels).

Since 2014 he worked at ROHM Theatre Kyoto, the municipal theatre of Kyoto city as the programme director, including the preparation period. Unlike his work at the Kyoto Experiment, at ROHM Theatre Kyoto he has also introduced traditional Japanese performing arts and a Western classical music repertoire. He has also worked with contemporary artists to create a new repertoire for the theatre, which has been performed in Japan and abroad. In order to redefine the public role of the theatre, he has launched projects such as collaboration with the local community, archiving, and publishing.

He was also a founding member and the president of Open Network for Performing Arts Management (Tokyo) from 2013 to 2019.

As of October 2022