"TADANORI YOKOO - Takarazuka / Grand Revue ("The Fairies Who Sell Dreams"), Japanese Contemporary Art Poster, Original Silk Screen 1965, Ultra Rare, Size (c.71 x 103cm)
Sale price
$27,500.00
*Please note the price is fixed for this item. It is not included in any of our periodic sales (e.g. Black Friday)!*
Takarazuka / Grand Revue (1965) "The Fairies Who Sell Dreams" — Original Japanese Silkscreen Poster by Tadanori Yokoo
This is an original Japanese silk screen poster printed in the 1965. This poster is ultra rare and is displayed in the world`s most prestigious galleries such as MoMA in New York City. It is very difficult / almost impossible to find in any condition. This poster is in excellent condition.
• MoMA, New York
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/8980
We acquired the sheet from a Japanese-art collector based in New Zealand and have repatriated it as a flagship work in our world-leading Yokoo holdings. Condition is excellent for its age, retaining strong, saturated hues and full margins.
Why this silkscreen matters
Pop art’s credo—“a descent into the everyday”—is on full display here. Yokoo raided the visual vernacular of post-war Japan (Takarazuka diva portraits, tabloid headlines, lucky-charm motifs) and fused it with Day-Glo psychedelia and ukiyo-e composition. Silkscreen was the perfect vehicle:
• Economical & subcultural (c. 1965): runs of ~100 copies made silkscreen cheaper than offset.
• Deliberately ‘primitive’: the medium’s flat, unshaded colour blocks echo woodblock prints and lend each sheet a tactile, hand-pulled presence.
• Artistically strategic: the very choice of silkscreen signalled Yokoo’s aim to blur high art, agit-prop and pop ephemera—an approach that soon propelled him into MoMA’s landmark 1968 show Word and Image.
Artwork highlights
• Explosive sunburst grounds two intertwined, candy-pink figures—an image of gender-fluid fantasy perfectly suited to the all-female Takarazuka Revue.
• Collaged black-and-white studio stills of the troupe’s top “otokoyaku” (male-role) stars flank a dripping, heart-shaped globe.
• A diagonal contrail of jet planes slices the upper right, alluding to Yokoo’s signature themes of travel and transnational pop culture.
• Lower border portraits of secondary cast members mingle with stylised waves, creating a carnival of colour and form that feels at once theatrical and psychedelic.
Printing & condition notes
• Technique: hand-pulled silkscreen
• Paper: lightweight, uncoated wove
• Condition: vibrant palette, no restoration; see detailed images for exact state.
• Provenance: private Japanese collection (NZ), 2024 ➜ Japan Poster Shop, 2025
• Documentation: Certificate of Authenticity included.
Japan Poster Shop has assembled an unmatched archive of Yokoo originals, culled from decades of dedicated hunting by Japan’s most passionate collectors. Takarazuka / Grand Revue is one of the rarest—and most visually electric—silkscreens from Yokoo’s formative 1960s period. A museum-grade piece for the serious Yokoo connoisseur.
Please refer to the imagery (both front and back) as this is the exact poster that is for sale.
It is over 60 years old!
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
