“Kiyoshi Awazu – Honegami Tōge Hotoke Kazura” (骨餓身峠死人葛), Original Japanese Silkscreen Theatre Poster, c. 1970–71, Ningenza, Ultra Rare, B2 Size (c. 51.5 × 72.8 cm) - Gallery

This is an original Japanese B2 silkscreen theatre poster designed by Kiyoshi Awazu for Ningenza’s production of Honegami Tōge Hotoke Kazura (骨餓身峠死人葛), an extraordinary composition combining a graveyard landscape, distorted human figures, botanical imagery and intensely saturated red and yellow. The design belongs to Awazu’s work for the production at Shinjuku Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan Small Hall.

This particular version advertises the 5–7 January 1971 performances, following the production’s original October 1970 staging. It is therefore best dated circa 1970–71, distinguishing the period of preparation and printing from the January performances advertised on the sheet.

An arresting example of Awazu’s theatre graphics, the poster turns practical performance information into part of an unsettling imaginary world: the title becomes a monumental gravestone, the credits form a cemetery, and the human body merges with the surrounding landscape.

The production

The poster announces Ningenza’s 30th production, based on Akiyuki Nosaka’s Honegami Tōge Hotoke Kazura, published in 1969. The reading printed beside the central title is ほねがみとうげほとけかずら — Honegami Tōge Hotoke Kazura.

The production credits identify Kazuo Eda (江田和雄) as director and Masahiro Yamada (山田正弘) as the dramatist responsible for the stage adaptation. Awazu is also credited for art/design, while Toshi Ichiyanagi (一柳慧) appears in the music credit.

Prominently advertised above the title are Michiko Saga (瑳峨三智子) and Tatsumi Hijikata (土方巽), together with the Ankoku Butoh group. The collaboration between Saga and Hijikata was a notable feature of the production, giving the poster a direct connection to experimental performance as well as theatre and literature.

The venue and booking details are incorporated into the illustrated grave markers, including Shinjuku Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan Small Hall, the January performance dates and the ¥800 advance-ticket price.

Kiyoshi Awazu

Kiyoshi Awazu (1929–2009) was a self-taught artist and designer whose career extended across posters, publishing, exhibitions, film and performance. His work treated graphic design as an expressive and socially engaged practice rather than simply a means of presenting commercial information.

Here, that approach is visible throughout the composition. Dense hand-drawn textures, emphatic lettering and an unstable relationship between figures and landscape give the sheet the intensity of an independent artwork.

The imagery evokes the graphic force of woodblock illustration without merely imitating an antique print. Its stark colour divisions and unsettling transformations create something distinctly modern.

At the lower left, a small illustrated cartouche contains the printed credit:

「粟津潔の絵」
“Drawing by Kiyoshi Awazu.”

Design

The composition is divided into two powerful colour fields: a crimson upper landscape and a brilliant yellow foreground, unified by intricate black linework.

A great textured arch frames the upper scene. Beneath it, a crescent moon hangs above dark mountain silhouettes, curling clouds and scattered birds. Two small red-and-black photographic portraits occupy the upper corners, introducing a different visual register into the otherwise illustrated environment.

At the centre stands an enormous pale grave marker bearing the production’s title:

骨餓身峠死人葛

Its heavy black calligraphy dominates the sheet. Delicate climbing plants curl around the lettering, creating a contrast between the apparent permanence of the stone and the organic growth surrounding it.

Smaller markers recede across the landscape, carrying the names of the production’s collaborators. The cemetery is also the credit block—one of the design’s most effective and unusual devices.

In the yellow foreground, a reclining female figure stretches across the composition. Her flowing hair, open mouth and exaggerated proportions resist a straightforward narrative reading. Other faces emerge around her, while an enlarged flower overlaps the body and appears to connect it with the surrounding vegetation.

The image suggests a disturbing convergence of human vulnerability, mortality and organic growth. Body, flower and landscape become difficult to separate.

Rather than illustrating a single scene from the play, Awazu creates a visual atmosphere: intimate, disorientating and charged with unease.

Typography as part of the image

The lettering does not sit apart from the illustration. It occupies the same fictional space.

The central title is written onto the largest grave marker; the director, writer, designer and venue appear on smaller markers around it. Performance dates become another inscription within the cemetery.

This integration allows the poster to remain informative without breaking its visual spell. From a distance, the viewer sees a forceful red-and-yellow landscape. At closer range, its monuments reveal the practical details of a theatre engagement.

The contrast between bold calligraphy, delicate plant forms and densely worked black textures gives the design considerable richness despite its restricted palette.

The funeral-services advertisement

A particularly unusual detail appears in the lower-right corner: a black-and-white advertisement for Tōsō (東葬), offering funeral-related consultation.

Its wording includes:

「イザ!!というときは」
“When the need arises!”

and:

「葬儀なんでも相談室」
“Consultation for all funeral matters.”

Placed beside the illustrated cemetery and transformed human figures, this practical advertisement creates a disconcerting juxtaposition between the play’s imagery and everyday arrangements surrounding death.

It is an integral printed element of the design, not a later handwritten addition, and gives the poster a particularly distinctive period character.

Silkscreen printing

Produced as a silkscreen print on paper, the poster derives much of its impact from the broad, saturated areas of colour.

The red upper field and yellow foreground remain visually emphatic, while the fine black drawing preserves the detail of hair, vegetation, lettering and the densely patterned arch.

The contrast between these expansive colour fields and the intricate illustration rewards both distant viewing and close inspection. At approximately 51.5 × 72.8 cm, the B2 sheet provides ample space for the central image while retaining the intimacy of a carefully worked drawing.

This is theatre advertising rather than a film poster, with particular appeal for collectors of Kiyoshi Awazu, Japanese graphic design, experimental theatre and butoh-related material.

Condition

Excellent. The front retains particularly strong colour and excellent graphic impact, with vivid red and yellow fields, clearly defined black linework and legible production details.

Please review all photographs carefully; they show the exact poster for sale, front and reverse.

This is an original Kiyoshi Awazu silkscreen theatre poster associated with Ningenza’s January 1971 production.

It is not a modern reproduction or reprint.

It is over 50 years old.

Certificate of Authenticity included.