Jūrō Kara

Jūrō Kara
Born 11 February 1940
Tokyo, Japan
Occupation Theater director, actor, writer
Years active 2007-present

Jūrō Kara (唐十郎 Kara Jūrō, born Ōtsuru Yoshihide (大靏 義英); 11 February 1940) is a Japanese playwright, theater director, actor and writer. He was "at the forefront of the underground theater movement" in Japan.[1]

Career

Graduating from Meiji University, Kara formed his own theater troupe, Jōkyō Gekijo (Situation Theater), in 1963.[1][2] They began performing in a red tent in Hanazono Shrine in Shinjuku in 1967.[1] According to the theater historian, David G. Goodman, "Kara conceived his theater in the premodern mold of kabuki—not the sanitized, aestheticized variety performed today, but the erotic, anarchic, plebeian sort performed during the Edo period (1600–1868) by itinerant troupes of actors who were rejected by bourgeois society as outcasts and 'riverbed beggars.' Emulating their itinerant forebears, Kara and his troupe performed throughout Japan in their mobile red tent."[3] Kara won the Kishida Prize for Drama for Shojo kamen (The Virgin's Mask) in 1969, and the Akutagawa Prize for his novel Sagawa-kun kara no tegami in 1982.[1][2][4] He later became a professor at Yokohama National University.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Kara Juro". Performing Arts Network Japan. Japan Foundation. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Kara Juro". Kotobanku (in Japanese). Asahi Shinbun. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Goodman, David (1999). Angura: Posters of the Japanese Avant-Garde. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 59. ISBN 9781568981789.
  4. ↑ Helm, Leslie (28 June 1992). "Seeing Japan 'Through the Eyes of a Cannibal'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 February 2015.

External links