Antelope Valley Press

Juro Kara, playwright behind Japan’s undergroun­d theater, dies

TOKYO (AP) — Juro Kara, who helped shape Japan’s postwar avant-garde theater, defiantly yet playfully transformi­ng the essence of Kabuki aesthetics into modern storytelli­ng, has died. He was 84.

The playwright, director and troupe leader died late Saturday from a blood clot in the brain after he collapsed at home and was rushed to a Tokyo hospital on May 1, his theater group Karagumi said in a statement on Sunday.

Kara, whose real name was Yoshihide Otsuru, rose to stardom in the so-called Japanese undergroun­d movement of the 1960s known as “un-gura,” characteri­zed by a kitsch rebellious style also found in his contempora­ries Shuji Terayama and Tadashi Suzuki.

Kara’s colorful shows, often in makeshift tents evocative of a traveling circus, rejected the establishe­d theatrical modes then dominating modernizin­g Japan that were mostly Western, middle class and well-behaved.

His plays, such as “Koshimaki Osen,” were characteri­zed by a raw energetic physicalit­y, blatantly devoid of any pretense at naturalism.

Kara once compared his approach to “a womb covered in blood.” His theater came to be known as “the red tent.” A wandering group would put on his shows wherever the tents went up, most famously in a spot near a shrine in Shinjuku in downtown Tokyo.

Audiences found themselves immersed in otherworld­ly, dreamlike settings. The flashy posters that artist Tadanori Yokoo often created for Kara’s works exemplifie­d that signature pop surrealist style.

Kara’s group is still active today, performing shows that carry on his legacy. His theater also served as a breeding ground for some of Japan’s top actors, including Kaoru Kobayashi and the late Jinpachi Nezu.

Born in Tokyo, Kara majored in theater at Meiji University in Tokyo, which boasts an extensive archive of Kara’s works.

In 1983, Kara won the prestigiou­s Akutagawa Award for new writers for his novel “Letters from Sagawa.” He also acted in various films, often in bit character roles, including “Demon Pond,” directed by Masahiro Shinoda.