, was a Japanese independent

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

troupe co-founded by

Shūji Terayama was a Japanese avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (''Angura'') theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema ...

and whose members include Kohei Ando, Kujō Kyōko, Yutaka Higashi,

Tadanori Yokoo is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter. Yokoo’s signature style of psychedelia and pastiche engages a wide span of modern visual and cultural phenomena from Japan and around the world. Career Tadanori Yokoo, bo ...

, and Fumiko Takagi. It was led by Shūji Terayama and active between 1967 and 1983 (until Terayama's death). A major phenomenon on the Japanese ''

Angura , also known as the "Little Theater" (小劇場, ''shōgekijō'') movement, was a Japanese avant-garde theater movement in the 1960s and 1970s that reacted against the Bertolt Brecht, Brechtian modernism and formalist realism of postwar ''Shingeki ...

'' ("

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (S ...

") theater scene, the group has produced a number of stage works marked by experimentalism,

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

influences, social provocation,

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

eroticism Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...

and the flamboyant fantasy characteristic of Terayama's oeuvre. Tenjō Sajiki benefitted greatly from collaborations with a number of prominent artists, including musicians

J. A. Seazer , known professionally as Julius Arnest "J.A." Caesar (born 6 October 1948), is a Japanese film and theater music composer. Seazer enjoyed popularity among students in Japan during the 1960s, and worked closely with director Shuji Terayama and ...

and

Kan Mikami is a Japanese folk singer-songwriter and actor. His music, heavily influenced by American blues, was popular in Japan in the 1970s. He re-wrote the lyric of the song "Yume wa Yoru Hiraku" for his cover version in 1972, which was banned for its ...

, and graphic designers

Aquirax Uno (born March 13, 1934), a Japanese graphic artist, illustrator and painter. His work is characterized by fantasized portraiture, sensuous line flow, flamboyant (and occasionally grotesque) eroticism, and frequent use of collage and bright col ...

and

Former location of Tenjo Sajiki Shibuya theater

The name is from 天井桟敷の人々, the Japanese title of the film '' Children of Paradise''.

Stage productions

(arranged by the year of premiere performance)

1967

* The Hunchback of Aomori (青森県のせむし男) * The Crime of Fatso Oyama (大山デブコの犯罪) * Mink Marie (毛皮のマリー, ''La Marie-vison'') * Hanafuda denki (花札伝綺)

1968

* Shinjuku Tales of 1001 Nights (新宿版千一夜物語) * Bluebeard (青ひげ) * 伯爵令嬢小鷹狩掬子の七つの大罪 * Farewell, cinema! (さらば映画よ) * 瞼の母 * 昭和白虎隊外伝 * Throw away your books, rally in the streets! (書を捨てよ街へ出よう) * The Little Prince (星の王子さま)

1969

* Our age comes riding on a circus elephant (時代はサーカスの象に乗って) * Inugami (犬神) * The Crime of Dr. Caligari (ガリガリ博士の犯罪)

1970

* Yes (イエス) * Baron Burabura (ブラブラ男爵) * Tokyo Year Zero (東京零年) * Man-powered plane Solomon (人力飛行機ソロモン)

1971

* Heretics (邪宗門) * 地獄より愛を込めて

1972

* Run, Melos! (走れメロス) * The Opium War (阿片戦争) * 人力飛行機ソロモンの組立て方

1973

* 地球空洞説 * ある家族の血の起源 * Blind Man's Letters (盲人書簡) * Origin of Blood

1975

* Knock (ノック) * Chronicles of a Plague (疫病流行記) * The Nail (釘)

1976

* Ship of Folly (阿呆船) * The Laws of Gravitation (引力の法則)

1977

* The Miraculous Mandarin (中国の不思議な役人)

1978

* Directions to Servants (奴婢訓) * Shintokumaru (身毒丸) * (The Audience's Seats) 観客席

1979

* The Lemmings (レミング) * Child-hunting (こども狩り) * Duke Bluebeard's Castle (青ひげ公の城)

1981

* One Hundred Years of Solitude (百年の孤独)

Selected performances abroad

* 1969: ''Inugami'' and ''La Marie-vison'' in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. * 1970: ''La Marie Vison'' at ''La MaMa Experimental Theater Club'' in New York, with American actors and highly original staging (Eleonore Lester, ''There will be no audience'', in ''New York Times'', July 5, 1970, p. 12). The audience had to visit the actors in separate rooms, and could not see the entire performance. * 1971: ''Heretics'' and ''Man-powered plane Solomon'' at ''Festival mondial de théâtre'' in Nancy; ''La Marie-vison'' at Théâtre des Halles in Paris and ''Heretics'' at Mickery Theatre in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

and also in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

. * 1972: ''Hanafuda denki'' at

Théâtre Pigalle The Théâtre Pigalle was a theatre in Paris, located in the rue Pigalle in the ninth ''arrondissement''. History Opened on June 20, 1929, financed by Philippe de Rothschild on the estate of his father Henri de Rothschild, the Rothschilds' amb ...

in Paris; ''Run, Melos!'' at Spielstrasse in Munich and ''The Opium War'' at Mickery Theatre in Amsterdam. * 1973: Performances of ''Origin of Blood'' at the Shiraz-Persepolis Festival in Iran, the Netherlands and Poland. * 1976: Performances of ''Ship of Folly'' at the Shiraz-Persepolis Festival in Iran. * 1978: ''Directions to Servants'' at Mickery Theatre in Amsterdam.

External links

Ian Buruma on Tenjo Sajiki in Amsterdam

An interview with Terayama's assistant director Henrikku Morisaki.

* ttp://www.officej1.com/70avna_gard/image/Other/tenjousajikikan1.jpg Historical photo of the facade of Tenjo Sajiki Shibuya theater.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tenjo Sajiki Theatre in Japan 1967 establishments in Japan 1983 disestablishments in Japan