Shūji Terayama


Shūji Terayama was a Japanese avant-garde poet, artist, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground 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, Aomori, the only son of Hachiro and Hatsu Terayama. When Terayama was nine, his mother moved to Kyūshū 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 in Indonesia in September 1945.
Terayama entered Aomori High School in 1951 and, in 1954, he enrolled in Waseda University's Faculty of Education to study Japanese language and literature. However, he soon dropped out because he fell ill with nephrotic syndrome. He received his education through working in bars in Shinjuku. 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 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 and horse racing 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 film Les Enfants du Paradis and literally translates to "ceiling 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 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 Waseda University alumnus Kohei Ando collaborated with Terayama as a Production Assistant. Sci-fi author Izumi Suzuki 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, The Audience Seats, and Lemmings.
Terayama experimented with 'city plays', a fantastical satire of civic life.
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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, with personal items donated by his mother, Hatsu. The museum was designed by visual artist Kiyoshi Awazu, 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.
Asahi Shimbun 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 and Carmen Maki's Toki ni wa haha no nai ko no you ni.
In March 2012, Tate Modern 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 Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets / Sho o Suteyo, Machi e Deyō The Crime of Dr. Gali-gari / Gali-gari Hakase no Hanzai The Man-powered Plane Jashumon Run, Melos / Hashire Melos The Opium War / Ahen Senso Note to a Blind Man / Mojin Shokan Origin of Blood Knock Journal of the Plague Year / Ekibyo Ryuko-ki Ship of Folly The Miraculous Mandarin / Chugoku no Fushigina Yakunin Directions to Servants / Nuhikun

Poetry

May for Me / Ware ni gogatsu wo Barefoot lovesong / Hadashi no koiuta Book in the sky / Sora ni wa hon Blood and wheat / Chi to mugi To you, alone / Hitoribocchi no anata ni To die in the countryside / Den-en ni shisu My Golden Bough / Waga kinshihen
  • ''Pollen voyage / Kafun-koukai''

Fiction

Ah Wilderness / Aa, Kouya

Screenplays

Dry Lake / Youth In Fury, directed by Masahiro ShinodaKillers on Parade, directed by Masahiro ShinodaTears on the Lion’s Mane / A Flame of Youth, directed by Masahiro ShinodaMothers / Haha-tachi, directed by Toshio MatsumotoNanami: The Inferno of First love, directed by Susumu HaniThe Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan, directed by Masahiro ShinodaThird Base, directed by Yōichi HigashiA Tale of Africa, directed by Susumu Hani

Short films

Catology The Cage / Ori Emperor Tomato Ketchup / Tomato Kechappu Kōtei The War of Jan-Ken Pon / Janken Sensō Roller / Rolla Butterfly / Chōfuku-ki Cinema Guide for Young People / Seishōnen no Tame no Eiga Nyūmon The Labyrinth Tale / Meikyū-tan A Tale of Smallpox / Hōsō-tan 疱瘡譚 Der Prozess / Shimpan Les Chants de Maldoror / Marudororu no Uta The Eraser / Keshigomu Shadow Film – A Woman with Two Heads / Nitō-onna – Kage no Eiga The Reading Machine / Shokenki

Feature-length films

Emperor Tomato Ketchup / Tomato Kechappu Kōtei Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets / Sho o Suteyo, Machi e Deyō Death in the Country / Den'en ni Shisu Boxer / Bokusā Fruits of Passion / Shanhai Ijin Shōkan The Lemmings / Remingu Grass Labyrinth / Kusa-meikyū Video Letter

Photography

  • ''Photothèque imaginaire de Shuji Terayama - Les Gens de la famille Chien-Dieu''