It must have been nonstop monsters, warships, hunks and epic boobage for much of Noriyoshi Ohrai's life.
The retrospective exhibition, at the Ueno Royal Museum, of this incredibly prolific illustrator's work is a frenzied and spectacularly schlocky cosmos of sci-fi and action movie posters, magazines, books and record covers.
Born in 1935 in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, Ohrai went to study painting at the Tokyo National University of Arts and Music at the age of 19, only to drop out three years later with the view that he had nothing more to learn there. According to the official website (ohrai.net), Ohrai first exhibited his paintings in Ginza in 1960, but failed to sell a single work. He joined the Tokyu Agency, a newly created advertising group, in 1962.