was a Japanese

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

poet, artist, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (''

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 ...

'') theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema. Many critics view him as one of the most productive and provocative creative artists to come out of Japan. He has been cited as an influence on various Japanese filmmakers from the 1970s onward.

Life

Terayama was born December 10, 1935, in

Hirosaki is a Cities of Japan, city located in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 163,639 in 71,044 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Hirosaki developed as a jōkamachi, ca ...

, Aomori, the only son of Hachiro and Hatsu Terayama. When Terayama was nine, his mother moved to

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

to work at an American military base, while he himself went to live with relatives in the city of Misawa, also in Aomori. Terayama lived through the Aomori air raids that killed more than 30,000 people. His father died at the end of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

in Indonesia in September 1945. Terayama entered Aomori High School in 1951 and, in 1954, he enrolled in

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

's Faculty of Education to study Japanese language and literature. However, he soon dropped out because he fell ill with

nephrotic syndrome Nephrotic syndrome is a collection of symptoms due to kidney damage. This includes proteinuria, protein in the urine, hypoalbuminemia, low blood albumin levels, hyperlipidemia, high blood lipids, and significant edema, swelling. Other symptoms ...

. He received his education through working in bars in

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

. By 18, he was the second winner of the Tanka Studies Award. He married Kyōko Kujō () on April 2, 1963: they would later co-found the Tenjō Sajiki theatre troupe. Kujō later began an extramarital affair with fellow co-founder Yutaka Higashi. She and Terayama formally divorced in December 1970, although they continued to work together until Terayama's death on May 4, 1983, from

cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, chronic liver failure or chronic hepatic failure and end-stage liver disease, is a chronic condition of the liver in which the normal functioning tissue, or parenchyma, is replaced ...

of the liver. Kujō died on April 30, 2014.

Career

His oeuvre includes a number of essays claiming that more can be learned about life through

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

and

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

than by attending school and studying hard. Accordingly, he was one of the central figures of the "runaway" movement in Japan in the late 1960s, as depicted in his book, play, and film ''Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets!'' (). In 1967, Terayama formed the Tenjō Sajiki theater troupe, whose name comes from the Japanese translation of the 1945

Marcel Carné Marcel Albert Carné (; 18 August 1906 – 31 October 1996) was a French film director. A key figure in the poetic realism movement, Carné's best known films include ''Port of Shadows'' (1938), ''Le Jour Se Lève'' (1939), ''Les Visiteurs du Soi ...

film '' Les Enfants du Paradis'' and literally translates to "ceiling gallery" (with a meaning similar to the English term " peanut gallery"). The troupe was dedicated to the avant-garde and staged a number of controversial plays tackling social issues from an iconoclastic perspective in unconventional venues, such the streets of Tokyo or private homes. Some major plays include "Bluebeard" (), "Yes" (), and "The Crime of Fatso Oyama" (). Many influential artists were frequent collaborators or members of Tenjō Sajiki. Artists Aquirax Uno and

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 ...

designed many of the advertisement posters for the group. Musically, Terayama worked closely with experimental composer J.A. Seazer and folk musician Kan Mikami. Fellow

alumnus Kohei Ando collaborated with Terayama as a Production Assistant. Sci-fi author

Izumi Suzuki was a Japanese writer and actress, known for her science fiction stories and essays on Japanese pop culture. Married to avant-garde saxophonist Kaoru Abe from 1973 to 1977, she is also known for her association with photographer Nobuyoshi Arak ...

acted in Tenjō Sajiki productions, and the troupe staged some of Suzuki's own plays. Playwright Rio Kishida was also part of the company. She viewed Terayama as a mentor, and together they collaborated on ''Shintokumaru'' (''Poison Boy''), ''The Audience Seats'', and ''Lemmings''. Terayama experimented with 'city plays', a fantastical satire of civic life. ] Also in 1967, Terayama started an experimental cinema and gallery called 'Universal Gravitation,' which is still in existence at Misawa as a resource center. The Terayama Shūji Memorial Hall, which has a large collection of his plays, novels, poetry, photography and a great number of his personal effects and relics from his theatre productions, can also be found in Misawa. With the Tenjo Sajiki Troupe, Terayama directed two plays at the Shiraz Arts Festival, "Origin of Blood", in 1973 and "Ship of Folly", in 1976. In 1976, he was a member of the jury at the 26th Berlin International Film Festival.

Legacy

In 1997, the Shuji Terayama Museum was opened in

Misawa, Aomori is a Cities of Japan, city located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 38,198 in 19493 households, and a population density of 330 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Misawa is the location of a l ...

, with personal items donated by his mother, Hatsu. The museum was designed by visual artist

Kiyoshi Awazu Kiyoshi Awazu (, February 19, 1929 – April 28, 2009) was a Japanese graphic designer, active in the post-WWII era in the fields of poster design, architecture design, set design, filmmaking, and illustration. A self-taught artist, Awazu possess ...

, who had previously collaborated with Terayama. As of 2015, the museum's director is poet Eimei Sasaki, who had previously starred in ''Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets'' (1968).

Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

named an award after Terayama with the inauguration of their Asahi Performing Arts Awards in 2001. "The Terayama Shūji Prize is meant to recognize artistic innovation by individuals or organizations who have demonstrated artistic innovation". However, the awards were suspended in 2008. Terayama wrote lyrics to many songs that became generational hits, including Maki Asakawa's ''Kamome'' (Seagull) and Carmen Maki's ''Toki ni wa haha no nai ko no you ni'' (Sometimes like a motherless child). In March 2012,

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

in London hosted a tribute to Terayama that was attended by Kyōko Kujō and Terayama's assistant director, Henrikku Morisaki.

Works

His oeuvre is well known for its experimentalism and includes but is not limited to:

Plays

* ''La Marie-Vision / Kegawa no Marie'' (1967) * ''

Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets is a 1971 Japanese feature-length experimental drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually ...

/ Sho o Suteyo, Machi e Deyō'' (1968) * ''The Crime of Dr. Gali-gari / Gali-gari Hakase no Hanzai'' (1969) * ''The Man-powered Plane'' (1970) * ''Jashumon'' (1971) * ''Run, Melos / Hashire Melos'' (1972) * ''The Opium War / Ahen Senso'' (1972) * ''Note to a Blind Man / Mojin Shokan'' (1973) * ''Origin of Blood'' (1973) * ''Knock'' (1975) * ''Journal of the Plague Year / Ekibyo Ryuko-ki'' (1975) * ''Ship of Folly'' (1976) * ''The Miraculous Mandarin / Chugoku no Fushigina Yakunin'' (1977) * ''Directions to Servants / Nuhikun'' (1978) * ''Lemmings to the End of the World / Lemmings - Sekai no Hate Made Tsurettete'' (1979)

Poetry

* ''May for Me / Ware ni gogatsu wo'' (1957, free verse) * ''Barefoot lovesong / Hadashi no koiuta'' (1957, prose poems) * ''Book in the sky / Sora ni wa hon'' (1957, tanka) * ''Blood and wheat / Chi to mugi'' (1958, tanka) * ''To you, alone / Hitoribocchi no anata ni'' (1965, prose poems) * ''To die in the countryside / Den-en ni shisu'' (1965, tanka) * ''My Golden Bough / Waga kinshihen'' (1973,

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

) * ''Pollen voyage / Kafun-koukai'' (1975, haiku)

Fiction

* ''Ah Wilderness / Aa, Kouya'' (1966, novel) * Translated short fiction collected in: '' The Crimson Thread of Abandon'' (2014) and ''When I was a Wolf'' (2018)

Screenplays

* ''Dry Lake / Youth In Fury'' (1960), directed by

Masahiro Shinoda was a Japanese film director, whose career spanned over four decades and covered a wide range of genres and styles. He was one of the central figures of the Japanese New Wave during the 1960s and 1970s. He directed films for Shochiku Studio fro ...

* '' Killers on Parade'' (1961), directed by Masahiro Shinoda * ''Tears on the Lion’s Mane / A Flame of Youth'' (1962), directed by Masahiro Shinoda * ''Mothers / Haha-tachi'' (1967), directed by

Toshio Matsumoto (25 March 1932 – 12 April 2017) was a Japanese film director and video artist. Early life Matsumoto was born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan and graduated from Tokyo University in 1955. Career Matsumoto’s first short was '' Ginrin' ...

* '' Nanami: The Inferno of First love'' (1968), directed by Susumu Hani * '' The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan'' (1970), directed by Masahiro Shinoda * ''

Third Base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

'' (1978), directed by

Yōichi Higashi is a Japanese film director. He began his career working on documentary, documentaries at Iwanami Productions but, after going independent, turned to fiction film. He won the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award for ''Yasashii Nipponjin' ...

Short films

* ''Catology'' (1960) (lost) * ''The Cage / Ori'' (1964) * '' Emperor Tomato Ketchup / Tomato Kechappu Kōtei'' (1971, short version) * ''The War of Jan-Ken Pon / Janken Sensō'' (1971) * ''Roller / Rolla'' (1974) * ''Butterfly / Chōfuku-ki'' (1974) * ''Cinema Guide for Young People / Seishōnen no Tame no Eiga Nyūmon'' (1974) * ''The Labyrinth Tale / Meikyū-tan'' (1975) * ''A Tale of Smallpox / Hōsō-tan'' 疱瘡譚 (1975) * ''Der Prozess / Shimpan'' (1975) * ''Les Chants de Maldoror / Marudororu no Uta'' (1977) * ''The Eraser / Keshigomu'' (1977) * ''Shadow Film – A Woman with Two Heads / Nitō-onna – Kage no Eiga'' (1977) * ''The Reading Machine / Shokenki'' (1977) * ''An Attempt to Describe the Measure of A Man / Issunbōshi o Kijutsusuru Kokoromi'' (1977)

Feature-length films

* '' Emperor Tomato Ketchup / Tomato Kechappu Kōtei'' (1971, long version) * ''

/ Sho o Suteyo, Machi e Deyō'' (1971) * '' Death in the Country / Den'en ni Shisu'' (a.k.a.: "Pastoral Hide and Seek") (1974) * ''Boxer / Bokusā'' (1977) * '' Fruits of Passion / Shanhai Ijin Shōkan'' (1981) * ''The Lemmings / Remingu'' (1983) * '' Grass Labyrinth / Kusa-meikyū'' (1983) * ''Video Letter'' (1983, with Shuntarō Tanikawa) * '' Farewell to the Ark / Saraba hakobune'' (1984)

Photography

* ''Photothèque imaginaire de Shuji Terayama - Les Gens de la famille Chien-Dieu'' (1975)

Notes

External links

*
Tate Modern retrospective, London, 2012.

7 vols of films at U B U W E B

* Terayama-related localities in Tokyo (in Japanese)

Essay on ''Emperor Tomato Ketchup'' in ''Afterall Journal'', 2009

"Farewell to the Ark" brochure from the 1985 Cannes Film Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terayama, Shuji 1983 deaths 1935 births Deaths from cirrhosis Japanese racehorse owners and breeders Japanese male poets Japanese lyricists Japanese film directors Magic realism writers Japanese experimental filmmakers 20th-century Japanese poets 20th-century Japanese dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Japanese musicians 20th-century Japanese essayists Musicians from Hirosaki Writers from Aomori Prefecture 20th-century Japanese male writers Aomori High School alumni Waseda University alumni