"TADANORI YOKOO - Koshimaki-Osen (Osen in Petticoats)", Japanese Contemporary Art Poster, Original Silk Screen 1966, Ultra Rare, Size (c.102.2 x 72.5cm)
Please note the price is fixed for this item. It is not included in any of our periodic sales (e.g. Black Friday)!
This is an original Japanese silk screen poster printed in 1966 for the legendary avant‑garde theatre troupe Jokyo Gekijo’s inaugural production Koshimaki‑Osen: Bokyaku‑hen (“Osen in Petticoats – Oblivion Chapter”). Only around one hundred impressions are believed to have been produced, and to encounter an original example in such vibrant condition is exceptionally rare. With its explosive rays of colour, collaged photographic halftones and erotic peach motif, this is one of Yokoo’s most famous and instantly recognisable images – regularly reproduced in books, exhibitions and press features on post‑war Japanese design.
Impressions of this seminal poster are held in the world’s leading museums, underscoring its canonical status within 20th‑century graphic art. It forms part of the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where it is catalogued as a silkscreen poster from 1966. It is also in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), which records the work as a silkscreen of 102.2 × 72.5cm, acquired in 1983, and a closely related impression is preserved in the M+ Collection in Hong Kong.
MoMA
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/7957
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
https://mot-collection-search.jp/en/shiryo/3012/
M+ (Hong Kong)
https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/collection/objects/poster-koshimaki-osen-bokyaku-hen-performance-2016208/
An early, award‑winning work, Koshimaki‑Osen crystallises the tensions of 1960s Japan: post‑war disquiet, rapid urban modernisation and a flood of Western mass‑media imagery. Yokoo fuses the flattened perspectives and stylised waves of Ukiyo‑e with the brash palette and Ben‑Day dots of international Pop, creating a dazzling field of visual agitation. The theatrical embrace at the centre, framed by a rising‑sun burst and an outsized peach, stages a provocative play of desire, voyeurism and power that has made the image a touchstone in discussions of gender and the representation of women in Japanese popular culture.
The poster was conceived as a piece of agitational graphics for Jokyo Gekijo, a countercultural troupe that challenged the conventions of traditional Japanese theatre and took an overtly critical stance toward contemporary politics and society. As has often been noted, any poster for such a company needed to operate not merely as advertisement but as an extension of the performance itself – a manifesto on paper. Yokoo’s dense, collaged composition, laced with text, photography and cartoonish figuration, brilliantly embodies this spirit of protest and experimentation.
Japan Poster Shop has acquired a substantial and unique collection of original Tadanori Yokoo posters from one of the most prolific collectors in Japan. This individual has a very colorful life story, having invested and dedicated many decades to his love for Tadanori Yokoo`s vibrant designs. Works from this collection rarely come to market, and this impression of Koshimaki‑Osen is among the most coveted.
Silkscreen was the ideal medium for this radical imagery. In the mid‑1960s, screen printing allowed small avant‑garde theatre groups to produce limited runs of high‑impact posters at relatively low cost. Its “primitive” flat colour, coarse halftones and hand‑made character echo Edo‑period woodblock prints while standing in deliberate opposition to the slick perfection of commercial offset printing. For Yokoo, this medium perfectly matched his aims: to elevate the poster to the status of art while retaining the immediacy and subversive energy of underground print culture.
This particular impression survives in excellent vintage condition for its age: colours remain strong and saturated, the paper retains good strength, and only minor handling and edge wear are visible upon close inspection, as is typical of theatre posters that were originally pasted or pinned in public spaces. When framed, these small signs of age are unobtrusive and serve only to emphasise the work’s authenticity and history.
Please refer to the imagery (both front and back) as this is the exact poster that is for sale.
It is nearly 60 years old!
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
