Angura: Posters of the Japanese Avant-GardeAngura: Posters of the Japanese Avant-Garde documents the extraordinary posters created for a group of experimental Japanese theatre groups during the 1960s and 70s. Ranging from the vivid and sexually explicit images of sixties psychedelia to the subtle refinement of traditional Japanese printmaking, the posters represent a tumultuous period both in Japanese graphic arts and in Japanese society as a whole. Silkscreened with up to twenty different colors and printed in limited editions, the posters were ostensibly meant as advertisements for the theatre productions of a thriving counterculture. But the designers focused such lavish care on the posters that they were rarely finished before the productions opened, eliminating their commercial function and making them objects of art. Author David G. Goodman illuminates these arresting images, describes the context in which they were created, and provides a brief history of modern Japanese graphic design. In the foreword, Ellen Lupton discusses the relevance of these images for the contemporary designer. Angura will appeal to anyone interested in Japanese anime graphics. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Posters | 5 |
Waseda Little Theater Waseda shōgekijō | 15 |
The Black Tent Theater Kuro tento | 20 |
The Freedom Theater Jiyū gekijō | 34 |
Tenjō Sajiki | 46 |
The Situation Theater Jōkyō gekijō | 58 |
Dairakudakan and Hijikata Tatsumi | 71 |
Chronology | 78 |
Biographies | 86 |
Glossary | 87 |
Bibliography | 88 |
List of Works | 90 |
Acknowledgments | 91 |
Common terms and phrases
actors Akasegawa Genpei Akira ART UNIVERSITY MUSEUM avant-garde Betsuyaku Minoru bijinga Black Tent Theater butoh calligraphy Courtesy of Hirano Courtesy of Kujō Courtesy of Kushida Courtesy of Yokoo culture Dance of Utter David G designer Hirano Kōga designer Kushida Mitsuhiro designer Yokoo Tadanori director Kara Jūrō director Satoh Makoto Edo period Ellen Lupton Freedom Theater Goodman Graphic designer Hijikata Tatsumi Hirano Kōga playwright images Japan Japanese theater John Silver June Theater Jūrō director Kara kabuki Kara Jūrō director Kara's Killing of Blanqui Köga Kujō Kyōko Kushida Mitsuhiro Kushida Mitsuhiro playwright MUSASHINO ART UNIVERSITY MUSEUM AND LIBRARY Nezumi Kozō offset lithograph Oikawa Masamichi Oyobe Katsuhito performed PHOTOGRAPH playwright playwright Kara Jūrō playwright Satoh Makoto playwright Terayama Shūji political premodern production Satoh Makoto director Shinohara Katsuyuki silkscreen Situation Theater sixties Spring in Shanghai Suzuki Tadashi Tenjō Sajiki Terayama Shūji director theater troupes Tokyo troupe's underground Waseda Little Theater Waseda University Yoshida 自由劇場