Shūji Terayama

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Shūji Terayama (December 10, 1935 – May 4, 1983) was an avant-garde Japanese poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. According to many critics and supporters, he was one of the most productive and provocative creative artists to come out of Japan. He was born December 10, 1935, the only son of Hachiro and Hatsu Terayama in Hirosaki city in the northern Japanese prefecture of Aomori. His father died at the end of Pacific War in Indonesia in September 1945. At the age of 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. At this same time, Terayama lived through the Aomori air raids that killed more than 30,000 people. Terayama entered Aomori Prefectural Aomori High School in 1951, and in 1954 went to prestigious 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. 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, Run into 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", so can be translated as "children of heaven", however its correct translation is "Ceiling Gallery" and has a meaning similar to the English expression "Peanut Gallery". The troupe was dedicated to the avant-garde and staged a number of controversial plays tackling social issues from an iconoclastic perspective. Some major plays include "Bluebeard", "Yes", and "The Crime of Fatso Oyama", among others. Also involved with the theater were artists Aquirax Uno and Tadanori Yokoo, who designed many of the advertisement posters for the group. Musically, he worked closely with experimental composer J.A. Seazer and folk musician Kan Mikami. He was also involved in poetry and at 18 was the second winner of the Tanka Studies Award. 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 in fact 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. In 1976, he was a member of the jury at the 26th Berlin International Film Festival. Terayama published almost 200 literary works, and over 20 short and full-length films. He was married to Tenjō Sajiki co-founder Kyōko Kujō, but they later divorced, although they continued to work together until Terayama's death on May 4, 1983 from cirrhosis of the liver. Description above from the Wikipedia article Shūji Terayama, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Known For

Birth Location Aomori, Japan
Born 1935-12-10
Died 1983-05-04

Movies

Where is Tomorrow, Shuji Terayama as Himself (archive footage)
2017
Video Letter as Self
1983
Catalog of Memory as himself
1977
JRA CM as Himself
1973
1966

Movies

海王星 Creator
2021
Lemming Writer
2013
1994
Farewell to the Ark Screenplay
1984
1984
Video Letter Editor
1983
Video Letter Cinematography
1983
1983
The Lemmings Writer
1983
Video Letter Writer
1983
Video Letter Director
1983
The Lemmings Director
1983
1981
1981
1981
1980
Private Collections Screenplay
1979
1979
Grass Labyrinth Screenplay
1979
Grass Labyrinth Director
1979
Third Base Writer
1978
1978
Shintokumaru Writer
1978
Shintokumaru Director
1978
1978
The Reading Machine Screenplay
1977
1977
Boxer Screenplay
1977
Boxer Director
1977
1977
1977
The Eraser Screenplay
1977
The Eraser Director
1977
Father Director
1977
The Trial Screenplay
1975
The Trial Director
1975
1975
Labyrinth Tale Director
1975
Smallpox Tale Screenplay
1975
Smallpox Tale Director
1975
Butterfly Writer
1974
Butterfly Director
1974
Laura Director
1974
JRA CM Director
1973
1971
1971
Mothers Poem
1967
The Cage Screenplay
1964
The Cage Director
1964
A Flame at the Pier Screenplay
1962
Epitaph to My Love Screenplay
1961
1961
Get 'em All Screenplay
1960
Youth in Fury Screenplay
1960
Catology Director
1960