TOKYO (AP) 鈥 Juro Kara, who helped shape Japan鈥檚 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 鈥渦n-gura,鈥 characterized by a kitsch rebellious style also found in his contemporaries Shuji Terayama and Tadashi Suzuki.
Kara鈥檚 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,鈥 were characterized by a raw energetic physicality, blatantly devoid of any pretense at naturalism.
Kara once compared his approach to 鈥渁 womb covered in blood.鈥 His theater came to be known as 鈥渢he 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鈥檚 works exemplified that signature pop surrealist style.
Kara鈥檚 group is still active today, performing shows that carry on his legacy. His theater also served as a breeding ground for some of Japan鈥檚 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鈥檚 works.
In 1983, Kara won the prestigious Akutagawa Award for new writers for his novel 鈥淟etters from Sagawa.鈥 He also acted in various films, often in bit character roles, including 鈥淒emon Pond,鈥 directed by Masahiro Shinoda.
Funeral arrangements weren't 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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