Juro Kara, rebel playwright behind Japan’s modern underground theater, dies at 84
Juro Kara, who helped shape Japan’s post-war avant-garde theater by defiantly but entertainingly transforming the essence of the Kabuki aesthetic into modern storytelling, has died. He was 84 years old.
The playwright, director and troupe leader died on Saturday night from a blood clot in the brain after collapsing at home and being rushed to a Tokyo hospital on May 1, his Karagumi theater group said in a statement on Sunday. .
Kara, whose real name was Yoshihide Otsuru, achieved stardom in the so-called Japanese underground movement of the 1960s known as “un-gura,” characterized by a rebellious kitsch style also found in his contemporaries Shuji Terayama and Tadashi Suzuki.
Kara’s colorful shows, often in makeshift tents reminiscent of a traveling circus, rejected the established theatrical modes that then dominated modernizing Japan, which were mostly Western, middle-class and well-behaved.
His pieces, such as “Koshimaki Osen,” were characterized by a raw, energetic physicality, blatantly devoid of any pretense of naturalism.
Kara once compared her approach to “a uterus covered in blood.” Her theater became known as “the red tent”. A wandering group performed their shows wherever tents were set up, mainly at a location near a shrine in Shinjuku, in central Tokyo.
The public found themselves immersed in dreamlike and supernatural scenarios. The eye-catching posters that artist Tadanori Yokoo often created for Kara’s work exemplified this signature pop surrealist style.
Kara’s group remains active to this day, performing shows that continue her legacy. Its theater also served as a breeding ground for some of Japan’s leading actors, including Kaoru Kobayashi and the late Jinpachi Nezu.
Born in Tokyo, Kara graduated in theater from Meiji University in Tokyo, which has an extensive archive of Kara’s works.
In 1983, Kara won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for new writers for her novel “Letters from Sagawa.” He also acted in several films, often in small roles, including “Demon Pond,” directed by Masahiro Shinoda.
Funeral arrangements have not been set, but will be for family and friends, Karagumi said. Kara is survived by his wife Michiko, sons Gitan Otsuru and Sasuke Otsuru and daughter Minion Otsuru, all actors.
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