“Kagerō-za” (陽炎座), Original Japanese Cinema Placet Roadshow / Theatrical Promotional Poster (1981) Ultra Rare B2 (approx. 51.5 × 72.8 cm) — Seijun Suzuki / Cinema Placet / Japan Herald Q138

A spectacular original 1981 Japanese B2 poster for Seijun Suzuki’s Kagerō-za — 陽炎座 — one of the great visual statements of Japan’s early-1980s art-cinema revival. Produced by Cinema Placet and distributed theatrically by Japan Herald, the film was first released in Japan on 21 August 1981. It is the second entry in Suzuki’s celebrated Taishō Roman Trilogy, following Zigeunerweisen and preceding Yumeji.

This poster is not a conventional studio one-sheet. It is a Cinema Placet roadshow / campaign poster, tied to the extraordinary travelling presentation model associated with producer Genjirō Arato and Suzuki’s independent comeback. The National Film Archive of Japan notes that Kagerō-za, like Zigeunerweisen, was shown through an air-dome mobile exhibition system before wider theatrical circulation, a remarkable chapter in Japanese exhibition history.

For collectors, this is a major Suzuki piece: surreal, theatrical, densely coloured and unmistakably period, combining phoenix imagery, Taishō decadence, roadshow typography and the silver Cinema Placet dome in a single unforgettable composition.

Date & Japanese Theatrical Release

Kagerō-za was released in Japan in 1981, with an initial release date of 21 August 1981 and public release information credited to Japan Herald. The film is listed as 139 minutes, colour, and Japanese production.

The poster itself is headed:

CINEMA PLACET 1981 PRESENT

and includes printed campaign-roadshow dates for major Japanese cities, including Tokyo, Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka, together with a later nationwide opening notice. This places the sheet firmly within the original 1981 Cinema Placet release campaign.

The Film & Its Place in Seijun Suzuki’s Legacy

Directed by Seijun Suzuki, produced by Genjirō Arato, written by Yōzō Tanaka, and based on the novel by Kyōka Izumi, Kagerō-za follows a playwright drawn into an unstable world of desire, apparitions and fatal encounters. It ss the second film of Suzuki’s “Romance Trilogy” / Taishō Roman Trilogy, a group of works linked by Taishō-era atmosphere, ghostly eroticism and radical visual stylization.

The film stars Yūsaku Matsuda, Michiyo Okusu, Katsuo Nakamura, Eriko Kusuda, Mariko Kaga and Yoshio Harada. Contemporary and later programming notes emphasize its dreamlike treatment of 1926 Tokyo, where reality, theatre, death and erotic obsession blur into a hallucinatory “Film Kabuki” universe.

Design Notes

A poster built as a fever dream: the upper half is dominated by a vast, brilliantly coloured phoenix / hō-ō, its green, red, turquoise and gold plumage sweeping diagonally across a purple night field scattered with snow or blossom-like white flecks.

Central title treatment: the main title 陽炎座 is printed in large red kanji against a blazing orange-yellow ground. Beneath it, the English setting line reads:

TAISHO / 1926 / TOKYO

This anchors the film within the transitional, decadent atmosphere of late Taishō-period Japan.

“Film Kabuki” presentation: above the title, the poster announces:

清順流 フィルム歌舞伎！

— a striking campaign phrase that presents the film as “Seijun-style Film Kabuki”, an apt description for Suzuki’s theatrical, colour-saturated, anti-realist cinema.

Cinema Placet dome: at the bottom centre, a metallic silver dome rises from the lower margin, struck by a jagged bolt of lightning. This is the poster’s key exhibition clue: the dome evokes the Cinema Placet mobile theatre, transforming the poster from a film advertisement into a record of one of Japan’s most unusual art-film roadshow campaigns.

Portrait column and campaign information: the right margin carries a vertical series of circular character portraits, while the lower left and lower right contain vivid yellow and blue schedule information for the roadshow tour. The poster’s bottom edge is branded with the bold CINEMA PLACET logo.

Condition Report

Overall condition: Excellent to Near Mint, unrestored.

The poster presents superbly, with brilliant colour, crisp typography, strong blacks, clean reds and exceptionally vivid orange, pink, blue and purple tones. The phoenix artwork remains sharp and visually spectacular, and the lower Cinema Placet section displays beautifully.

Please review the provided photos, including the front, back and close-up images — they show the exact poster offered.

It is an original 1981 Japanese Cinema Placet / theatrical promotional B2 poster, not a reproduction or reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.