Shuji Terayama (1936-1983) remains one of Japan's most intriguing modern writers. Playwright, novelist, scriptwriter, critic, essayist, poet and filmmaker, he was also a spokesman for his times. When the glorious ferment of the 1960s is recalled, it is Terayama who is remembered.
As J. L. Anderson has written, Terayama's main characters are children in revolt and their main target is the Japanese family. Sometimes he used real children, as in his 1969 "Emperor Tomato Ketchup," which was based on an earlier and explicitly titled radio play, "Adult Hunting."
Sometimes the targeted family is expanded to include the actors, as in the pathological family in "La Marie-Vison," or the audience itself in "Heretics," where the cast destroys the stage set and, if possible, the theater. Amid the ruins the actors harangue the spectators until the last one has left.
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