Art, Riot, Terror: The 60s Tokyo Avant-Garde: Mishima, Hijikata, Oshima

by Stephen Barber

This book explores the unique and volatile art scene of 1960s Tokyo, and its connections to the culture of violent rioting and street-protest which developed across that decade, in intimate contact with avant-garde art, photography, performance and film. Through studies of seminal figures of that culture “ the choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata and the novelist Yukio Mishima “ together with a close analysis of film-culture experimentation embodied in the works of Nagisa Oshima, Toshio Matsumoto and Donald Richie, the book maps Tokyo's insurgent 1960s terrain. In the subterraneas of Tokyo's avant-garde, a culture of out-of-control aberrance and sexual obsession underpinned the city's surface locations, especially that decade's emblematic site of Shinjuku. The book also interrogates the preoccupations with violence and erasure “ manifested notably in the form of opposition to Japan's subservient role in servicing the USA's war in Vietnam “ one strand of which led to Japan's implosive terrorist cells of the early 1970s, as documented in Koji Wakamatsu's recent film "United Red Army". This book, charting the pivotal elements of 60s Tokyo avant-garde, illuminates that unprecedented era in Japan, as well as forming the key to understanding the resurgent experimental cultures of contemporary Tokyo.

Genres: Art, Japan, History, Japanese Literature

43 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 11, 2013

Reviews

[Bruce Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three short essays rather than a book. 'Tokyo' is truncated to Shinjuku in the west of Tokyo and Yanaka Cemetery across town in the older eastern part. This is actually a tiny part of Tokyo, and Yanaka only appears because Donald Richie lived nearby and used it in one of his movies. Despite its shortness, there is repetition.
I am thankful to the author for confirmation of a feeling. I was watching the movie Blade Runner in 1982 in Shinjuku. It was odd seeing the 'future' being portrayed by filming Shinjuku. This book confirms that Shinjuku was in fact an inspiration for the setting. Also there is a glancing mention of how the sex trade area of Kabukicho merges with the gay area of 2-chome. There were some fascinating bars where these two worlds met.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are you curious about the art scene of Tokyo in the 1960's?
Here's just the book for you.
In short: Freaky.

[patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent primer about this interesting time in Tokyo. I’m looking forward to sourcing the films noted within.