Tenjō Sajiki
Tenjō Sajiki, also Tenjou Sajiki, was a Japanese independent theater troupe co-founded by Shūji Terayama and whose members include Kohei Ando, Kujō Kyōko, Yutaka Higashi, Tadanori Yokoo, and Fumiko Takagi.
It was led by Shūji Terayama and active between 1967 and 1983. A major phenomenon on the Japanese Angura theater scene, the group has produced a number of stage works marked by experimentalism, folklore influences, social provocation, grotesque eroticism 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 and Kan Mikami, and graphic designers Aquirax Uno and Tadanori Yokoo.
The name is from 天井桟敷の人々, the Japanese title of the film Children of Paradise.
Stage productions
1967
- The Hunchback of Aomori
- The Crime of Fatso Oyama
- Mink Marie
- Hanafuda denki
1968
- Shinjuku Tales of 1001 Nights
- Bluebeard
- 伯爵令嬢小鷹狩掬子の七つの大罪
- Farewell, cinema!
- 瞼の母
- 昭和白虎隊外伝
- Throw away your books, rally in the streets!
- The Little Prince
1969
- Our age comes riding on a circus elephant
- Inugami
- The Crime of Dr. Caligari
1970
- Yes
- Baron Burabura
- Tokyo Year Zero
- Man-powered plane Solomon
1971
- Heretics
- 地獄より愛を込めて
1972
- Run, Melos!
- The Opium War
- 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
- Origin of Blood
1975
- Knock
- Chronicles of a Plague
- The Nail
1976
- Ship of Folly
- The Laws of Gravitation
1977
1978
- Directions to Servants
- Shintokumaru
- 観客席
1979
- The Lemmings
- Child-hunting
- Duke Bluebeard's Castle
1981
Selected performances abroad
- 1969: Inugami and La Marie-vison in Frankfurt.
- 1970: La Marie Vison at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York, with American actors and highly original staging. 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 and also in Belgrade.
- 1972: Hanafuda denki at Théâtre Pigalle 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.