“Pastoral: To Die in the Country” (田園に死す), Original Japanese ATG Movie Poster 1974, B2 Size (c. 51.5 × 72.8 cm) ZA1245

An original Japanese B2 poster for the first theatrical release of Shūji Terayama’s Pastoral: To Die in the Country, released by the Art Theatre Guild (ATG) in Japan on 28 December 1974. Heikichi Harata designed the photomontage, with the sweeping yellow title lettering by Kiyoshi Awazu.

In Excellent condition for its age. The colours remain vivid, and the fine red verse printed across the schoolboy’s black uniform is clear.

Film background

Terayama drew on his own collection of short poems to tell the story of a boy growing up with his widowed mother near Mount Osore in Aomori. A travelling circus arrives, and the boy dreams of leaving the village with the young woman who lives next door. Midway through the film, the adult filmmaker meets his younger self and begins to question the childhood he has put on screen.

Hiroyuki Takano plays the boy pictured on the poster, and Kantarō Suga plays his adult self. The film screened in competition at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival.

Poster design

Railway tracks converge behind Takano’s head beneath a pointing hand. Circus performers flank him on the left, while a woman in a red kimono carries a baby on the right. Along the lower edge, Harata places a horn gramophone and a woman reclining in a wicker chair against a stretch of open seashore.

The French title, Cache-cache pastoral, appears in a yellow panel at the upper left. Awazu’s Japanese lettering runs down the red right-hand border, with the ATG logo among the credits below. Beside the title is the boy’s appeal to his mother:

「原体験からの忘却の旅が人生ならば　手をはなしてよ、母さん！」
“If life is a journey of forgetting what first shaped us, let go of my hand, Mother!”

Condition

Excellent overall for its age. The red right-hand border shows minor edge wear and a short tear near the lower-right corner. Please see the close-up photograph for this detail.

An original vintage Japanese theatrical poster.
Over 50 years old.
Certificate of Authenticity included.