"Sunohara Katsuyoku - "Haiyū Shugyō" (The Actor's Training)", Japanese Contemporary Art Poster, Original Offset Screen 1980, Ultra Rare, Size (c.75 x 108cm)

This is an original Japanese offset poster printed in the 1980. 

"Haiyū Shugyō" (The Actor's Training) 

状況劇場 / Jōkyō Gekijō (Situation Theatre), 1980
Art by Sunohara Katsuyoku (春原克行)

This is a rare and visually stunning B1-size original Japanese poster for the avant-garde stage production Haiyū Shugyō (俳優修業, The Actor's Training), written and directed by the iconoclastic playwright Jūrō Kara for his underground theatre troupe, Jōkyō Gekijō (Situation Theatre).

Illustrated by the renowned graphic artist Sunohara Katsuyoku, this poster is a hallmark of Japan’s Angura (underground) movement of the 1970s–1980s. Sunohara’s surreal, dreamlike composition features a striking woman in a flowing crimson dress and red heels, set against a tempestuous coastal scene under a crescent moon. A searchlight scans the waves, while a torpedo or bomb looms ominously in the background — evoking themes of performance, danger, transformation, and mystery. The artwork blends sensuality and surrealism with postwar anxiety, all central to Kara’s radical theatrical aesthetic.

Performance dates and locations are printed down the left margin, including Tokyo, Shibuya, and Ikebukuro, with dramatic red typography announcing the title. At the bottom is an advertisement for a simultaneous Munch print exhibition (ムンク版画展) at the Seibu Museum of Art, reinforcing the poster’s alignment with darker emotional and existential themes.

This original poster stands as both a theatrical artifact and a powerful work of psychedelic visual art, highly sought after by collectors of Japanese counterculture, avant-garde theatre, and graphic design history.

Please refer to the imagery (both front and back) as this is the exact poster that is for sale. 

It is over 45 years old!

It is not a reproduction or a reprint.

Certificate of Authenticity included.