Jūrō Kara

Jūrō Kara studied at Meiji University and Komagome Junior & Senior High School. The recorded working language is Japanese. The field of work recorded is theatre, film and drama. Employment is recorded with Yokohama National University, Meiji University and Kindai University. Distinctions recorded are Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature and Akutagawa Prize.

• Name — Jūrō Kara • Born — 11 February 1940 • Birthplace — Tokyo, Japan • Died — 4 May 2024 • Place of death — Tokyo, Japan • Genre — Angura • Alma Mater — Meiji University • Occupation — Theatre director, playwright, actor, author, songwriter • Years Active — 1963–2024

Graduating from Meiji University, Kara formed his own theatre troupe, Jōkyō Gekijo (Situation Theatre), in 1963. They began performing in a red tent in Hanazono Shrine in Shinjuku in 1967. According to the theatre historian, David G. Goodman, "Kara conceived his theatre 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." 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. He later became a professor at Yokohama National University.

The "Little Theatre" movement, also known as Angura, sought to free itself of the mainstream social norms and fixated on fantasy and dream versus the realistic portrayal of daily life of other theatrical forms. It was widely popular with the public because the new forms were more entertaining than enlightening and did not require a high level of education to be enjoyed. The Little Theatre Movement in 1960s Japan didn't arise from nothing. It corresponded with many foreign influences such as the rise of the Off-Off-Broadway movement in New York, the productions of The Living Theatre, and Polish director Jerzy Grotowski's ideas of the importance of the body, who also had many of his writings translated into Japanese at the time. These and other experiments had a very real influence in Japan, but it would be wrong to conclude that it was foreign works that led to the birth of the Small Theatre Movement in Japan. The movement was very much a Japanese development which cultivated on Japanese soil even though it also received stimulation from the so-called international avant-garde. In Japan, this produced a few important things. First of all, it had created a bona fide and authentic Japanese contemporary theatre rooted in the Japanese character in lieu of being an imitation of the west. Second, these groups began creating their own works instead of depending on translated work often with the director of the company, usually a resident playwright, writing and staging a play on a subject of their choice. Third, the structure of dramatic literature in Japan transformed immensely. What was once mainly linear, realistic plays, became complex, multi-layered structures where time sequences were distorted and where the barriers that disconnected the ordinary from the extraordinary and reality from illusion were cast away. Fourth, there was a new attentiveness to the body of the actor, a movement away from the texts and oration. Kara's theory of the privileged body and Tadashi Suzuki's physical method arose from this range of work. This was a pursuit to absorb into contemporary theatre some of the characteristics of traditional Japanese theatre where the actor was primary over the text. Fifth, the theatre spaces were evolving. Formal theatres weren't the only places to venue performances anymore. Works were performed in small theatres, open spaces, tents, and even streets. And finally, there were numerous pursuits to bridge the gap between the traditional and contemporary. reinventing the practices and aesthetics of centuries of traditional theatre was a component in the creation a rooted theatre.

During the 1960s and 1970s, established theatre companies had risen and fallen with a handful of them closing down entirely or renewing themselves with new names and directors. Many tried to rejuvenate theatre into something immediate and alive, which led to a myriad of approaches to that goal. Some tried new dramatic form, and others attempted to transform "modern theatre" by exploiting the pre-modern aspects in our lives. It was during those years that a new movement of spirit started to arise in the shingeki community as alternative-minded producing parties started appearing with distinct differences to those that had appeared before. Jūrō Kara formed one of the first major alternative groups called Jōkyō Gekijo (Situation Theatre), which was later known as Kara-gumi (the Kara Group). Kara and his Situation Theatre for example, explored the idea of freeing themselves from the limits of the theatre buildings. The red tent had become as much their trademark as it was their mobile theatre. But Kara and his troupe didn't want to prove that they too could hop onto the bandwagon of bringing culture to the masses. Instead, he wanted to disprove the notion that people ought to be cultured. The ideas that Kara experimented with were based in the spirit of traditional Japanese theatre. In the past, actors couldn't even live amongst the poorest men and were treated with ridicule, yet at the same time they captivated those in the normal world. It was somewhat masochistic to attend the actors' performances, because the audience intentionally immersed themselves in a climactic world created by the lowly. The idea was that they felt the actors reflected their darker, more suppressed desires, frustrations, and hardships placed on them by the outside world. He implemented kabuki techniques and referred to the actors as "riverbed beggars", referencing the founding of kabuki.

Kara died on 4 May 2024, at the age of 84.

Hanchô: Jinnansho Azumihan (TV Series, episode 4.1), 2011 Ekrio (TV Movie), 2009 The Woman Prosecutor of Kyōto (TV Series, episode 4.7), 2007 Dreaming of Light (as Jūrō Kara), 2005 Yoru o Kakete, 2002 Kita no Kuni Kara 2002 Yuigon (TV Movie), 2002 Dr. Akagi (as Umemoto), 1998 Umihoozuki (as Haida), 1995 800 Two Lap Runners (as Yasu-san), 1994 Rasuto Furankenshutain, 1991 Jazz Daimyo (as Kyunosuke), 1986 Yasha-ga-ike (as Denkichi), 1979 The Boxer, 1977 Kyōfu Gekijō Umbalance (TV Series), 1973 Demons (as Sango),1971 Zenigeba, 1970 Violated Angels (as The Handsome Boy), 1967 Summer (as Yoshihide Ôtsuru), 1956

Genkai-Nada, 1976

The Shiatorikaru: Juro Kara and His Stagework (Documentary, as himself), 2007 Gekiteki Document Report '78-'79 (Documentary, as himself), 1979 Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (as himself/singer), 1969