“KIYOSHI AWAZU – 第1回東京展 参加出品受付 / TOKYO ART FESTIVAL 1975,” Japanese Contemporary Art Poster, Original Offset 1975, Ultra Rare, B2 Size (c. 51.8 × 72.6 cm) O556

A dazzling original 1975 Japanese poster by Kiyoshi Awazu (粟津潔), created as the call‑for‑entries image for the inaugural Tokyo Exhibition (Tokyo Art Festival 1975) at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Offset‑printed in electric pinks, greens, yellows and blues, this B2 sheet is one of Awazu’s most exuberant festival designs and an outstanding example of mid‑1970s Japanese graphic art – here in truly excellent condition.

Printed in Japan in 1975, this is an original offset lithograph on paper (not a later reprint), B2 format with a sheet size matching the museum‑recorded specification of approx. 72.6 × 51.8 cm. The poster carries the large vertical title block 「第1回 東京展」 at left with 「参加出品受付」 (“entries invited”) and, at upper right, the English legend “TOKYO ART FESTIVAL 1975” beside the festival’s spiral emblem – a bilingual announcement pitched both to local artists and an increasingly international scene. 

About Kiyoshi Awazu and the Tokyo Exhibition

Awazu Kiyoshi (1929–2009) is a central figure in post‑war Japanese graphic design – a self‑taught polymath whose work spans posters, books, film and theatre graphics, environmental design and architecture. His posters of the late 1960s and 1970s, in particular, fuse protest, popular culture and avant‑garde typography into a visual language that is both radical and immediately accessible. Major museums in Japan and abroad, including M+ in Hong Kong and multiple regional art museums, hold his posters and preparatory works, underscoring his institutional stature. 

The Tokyo Exhibition (Bijutsu no Saiten · Tokyo‑ten), first held in 1975, was conceived as a non‑hierarchical art festival: an open submission platform where creators could exhibit on equal footing, “from street painters to conceptual artists,” outside the traditional juried salon system. Hosted at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and involving figures such as Tarō Okamoto and Sadamasa Motonaga, it quickly grew into one of Japan’s largest art festivals, dedicated to free expression and civic cultural life. 

This poster is the official participation call for that first edition – effectively the visual manifesto of the project.

Design and Iconography

Awazu’s composition reads like a psychedelic map of the city and its people. A grey ground, fading from black at the top to lighter tones below, forms a weathered “wall” or concrete skyline against which fragments of Tokyo – buildings, crowds, statues – appear in acid blues and yellows.

In the foreground, a solid green figure seen from behind is overprinted in shocking pink, hands on hips, facing the city: an everyperson silhouette standing in for the festival’s participants. To the left, a rainbow arcs over a hulking modern building; below it, a gramophone in purple and chartreuse trumpets the call to creativity, anchoring the huge “TOKYO” logotype that runs along the bottom edge in bold white capitals.

On the right, a procession and statue rendered in red and purple suggest history and civic monumentality, while a kimono‑clad woman in bright yellow and indigo evokes tradition and theatre. A blazing, halo‑like yellow and red disc near the “KYO” of TOKYO reads at once as sun, drum, stage spotlight and rising moon.

The red border is studded with rainbow‑coloured geometric solids – spheres, prisms and cubes – like a string of modernist talismans encircling the poster. Throughout the central field, black Japanese text proclaims the festival’s ambitions: to “dig up and create new horizons of creativity” and to gather everyone “from town painters to conceptual art” in one great assembly. The effect is jubilant and slightly anarchic, perfectly suited to a citizen‑driven art festival born in the wake of late‑1960s activism.

Rarity and Institutional Status

Awazu’s posters for the first Tokyo Exhibition exist in two principal formats: a large B1 poster for the festival itself and this B2 “participation / entries invited” version. Both are now recognised as key works in his oeuvre and in the visual history of Japanese artist‑run initiatives.

The precise B2 sheet size and medium of this design – offset lithograph on paper, 72.6 × 51.8 cm – are documented in the collection of Kariya City Art Museum, where it is catalogued as 「第1回東京展 参加出品受付」ポスター (Poster for the 1st Tokyo Exhibition, Call for Entries). A collage maquette for the same image is held by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, providing further confirmation of authorship and dating. 

Despite this institutional recognition, original B2 sheets seldom reach the market. Produced for a specific 1975 campaign and aimed at artists rather than the general public, they were typically pinned, taped or pasted up in studios, community centres and art schools, and then discarded. Survival in anything approaching collector’s condition is uncommon; survival in the excellent state of preservation seen here is genuinely rare.

Condition

Excellent condition for a 1975 Japanese festival poster; original, unrestored, and not linen‑backed.

The sheet is crisp with strong, saturated colour across the entire image – the reds and magentas are still brilliantly intense, the gradients in the grey field remain smooth, and the fine line work in the collage elements is sharp. Paper quality is very good, with only gently even age‑toning visible on the reverse.

There are no central fold lines, no pinholes in the image, no significant tears or paper loss, and no writing or stamps on either side. Only the most minor handling evidence is present at the extreme edges – tiny, unobtrusive soft creases and a touch of waviness from long‑term storage – entirely consistent with careful handling over nearly fifty years. The poster frames up superbly and would sit comfortably in a museum or top‑tier private collection.

Additional Information

Authenticity: Guaranteed original 1975 offset lithograph, B2 format, designed by Kiyoshi Awazu for the first Tokyo Exhibition / Tokyo Art Festival; not a reproduction or later printing.
Documentation: Museum‑recorded example of the same design and size at Kariya City Art Museum; related maquette in the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; further corroborating references from institutional catalogues of Awazu’s work. 

A vibrant, museum‑grade poster from the heart of 1970s Tokyo avant‑garde culture – uniting Kiyoshi Awazu’s unmistakable graphic language with one of Japan’s landmark artist‑run festivals. A rare and highly desirable acquisition for collectors of Japanese design, conceptual and performance art ephemera, or global 1970s poster art.