# Angura Theatre Poster

> The posters of Japan's underground (angura) theatre from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, made for troupes such as Kara Jūrō's Jōkyō Gekijō and Terayama Shūji's Tenjō Sajiki. Tadanori Yokoo, Akira Uno, Kiyoshi Awazu and others crammed silkscreen sheets with Meiji and Shōwa photographs, rising-sun rays, Mount Fuji, ukiyo-e waves and comic-strip figures in flat, often fluorescent colour, mocking prewar kitsch and the restraint of Japanese corporate modernism at once.

- Period: 1965–1985
- Where: East Asia
- Origin: Tokyo, Japan: posters for Kara Jūrō's Jōkyō Gekijō, Terayama Shūji's Tenjō Sajiki, the Black Tent, the Free Theatre and Ankoku Butoh performances
- Branch: Counterculture
- Also known as: Underground theatre poster, Angura (アングラ) poster, Japan Avant-Garde posters
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/angura-poster/

## Use it with care

Rising-sun rays quote the ensign of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, which many people in Korea, China and across Asia read as a symbol of wartime aggression; Yokoo's ironic use belonged to a 1960s Japanese argument with its own past and does not travel safely as a decorative sunburst. The ero-guro imagery includes sexualised and violent bodies, and the posters remain in copyright, so quote or license them with context rather than tracing them.

## How it works

- Fill the sheet edge to edge with appropriated Japanese vernacular imagery: old photographs, ukiyo-e waves, Mount Fuji, rising-sun rays and printed ephemera.
- Organise the collage around a central axis or a radiating sunburst rather than a modernist grid.
- Print in flat, saturated and often fluorescent silkscreen inks: pink, red, yellow, green and sky blue.
- Combine photographs with flat, outlined comic-style figures, including erotic and morbid ero-guro motifs.
- Cram vertical Japanese titles, credits and hand lettering into the picture instead of a separate text zone.
- Quote prewar national imagery with ironic nostalgia, turning it against both the state and modernist good taste.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (defining)
- [Radial & concentric](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/radial-and-concentric/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (characteristic)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)
- [Visual tension](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/visual-tension/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic)
- [Illusion of depth](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/illusion-of-depth/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [Rotated & vertical setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rotated-and-vertical-setting/) (characteristic)
- [Eclectic mixing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/eclectic-mixing/) (characteristic)
- [Tight setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/tight-setting/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Fluorescent & neon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/fluorescent-and-neon/) (characteristic)
- [Complementary clash](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/complementary-clash/) (characteristic)
- [Gradients](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/gradients/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (characteristic)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (characteristic)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Halftone & Ben-Day dots](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/halftone-and-ben-day-dots/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (characteristic)
- [Cosmic & celestial](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/cosmic-and-celestial/) (characteristic)
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Found & vernacular imagery](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/found-and-vernacular-imagery/) (defining)
- [Photomontage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photomontage/) (defining)
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (characteristic)

### Medium & production
- [Screen printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/screen-printing/) (defining)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (defining)
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (characteristic)
- [Nostalgic & retro](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/nostalgic-and-retro/) (characteristic)
- [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (occasional)

Avoids: Generous white space, Modular grid, Ornament-free, Flush left, ragged right, Rational & objective, Calm & contemplative

Palette: #ff4f9a, #e8352a, #ffd400, #1fa65a, #3fa9f5, #1a1a1a

Typefaces: Hand-drawn and brush-written Japanese titles set vertically, Retro Meiji–Shōwa display lettering lifted from found print, Mincho and gothic phototype for credits

Known for: Tadanori Yokoo, Koshimaki-Osen, poster for Kara Jūrō's Jōkyō Gekijō (1966; MoMA collection); Tadanori Yokoo, 'Having Reached a Climax at the Age of 29, I Was Dead' (1965); Tenjō Sajiki (founded 1967 by Shūji Terayama with Yokoo and Higashi Yutaka) and its posters; Akira Uno and Kiyoshi Awazu, posters for angura troupes; Genpei Akasegawa and Kuniyoshi Kaneko, angura theatre posters; Poster Hari's Company archive (Hiroyuki Sasame) and its 'Japan Avant-Garde' angura poster exhibitions

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Pop Art Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/pop-art.md) (1955–1975)
- Influenced by: [Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ukiyo-e.md) (1670–1900)
- Influenced by: [Psychedelic Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/psychedelic.md) (1965–1973)
- Influenced by: [Japanese Postwar Modernism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/japanese-postwar-modern.md) (1950–1990)
- Influenced by: [Surrealist Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/surrealism.md) (1924–1960)
- Influenced by: [Push Pin Style](https://stylogeny.com/styles/push-pin.md) (1954–1980)
- Alike in its design choices: [Tropicália Graphic Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/tropicalia-graphics.md) (1964–1975), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Chicano Screenprint Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/chicano-poster.md) (1965–present), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Indian Pop-Kitsch Design (Desi Kitsch)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/indian-kitsch.md) (1997–present), 60% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [La Movida Madrileña Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/movida-madrilena.md) (1977–1988), 58% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Afrobeat Sleeve Art](https://stylogeny.com/styles/afrobeat-sleeve-art.md) (1974–present), 57% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [South African Vernacular Design (Ijusi)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ijusi-vernacular.md) (1995–present), 57% alike

## Real works

- [Koshimaki-Osen (腰巻お仙), poster for Kara Jūrō's Jōkyō Gekijō](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/7957): Tadanori Yokoo, 1966, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (698.1966)
- [Made in Japan, Tadanori Yokoo, Having Reached a Climax at the Age of 29, I Was Dead](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/7953): Tadanori Yokoo, 1965, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (696.1966)
- [À la Maison de M. Civeçawa (Rose-Coloured Dance), poster for Tatsumi Hijikata's Ankoku Butoh-ha](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1192906/): Tadanori Yokoo, 1965 (MoMA dates its copy 1966), Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.43-2011)
- [The Hunchback of Aomori Prefecture (青森県のせむし男), poster for Tenjō Sajiki](https://search.artmuseums.go.jp/records.php?sakuhin=189849): Tadanori Yokoo, 1967, The National Museum of Art, Osaka (81248)
- [Crimes Committed by Dr. Garigari (ガリガリ博士の犯罪), poster for Tenjō Sajiki](https://search.artmuseums.go.jp/records.php?sakuhin=54461): Masamichi Oikawa, 1969, The National Museum of Art, Osaka (80329)

## Sources

- https://performingarts.jpf.go.jp/en/article/person/hiroyuki-sasame (Japan Foundation)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadanori_Yokoo
- https://www.moma.org/collection/works/7957 (Tadanori Yokoo, Koshimaki-Osen, 1966)
- https://niewmedia.com/en/news/055962/ (Japan Avant-Garde underground theatre poster exhibition, Osaka 2025)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Angura Theatre Poster”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/angura-poster/