Shūji Terayama was born in 1935 in Hirosaki, Japan. He was an avant-garde Japanese poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. According to many critics and supporters, he was one of the most productive and provocative creative artists to come out of Japan : he published more than 200 books and directed some 20 films (short and long features). His work, often experimental and crude, testify of an artistic activism with various influences from Antonin Artaud or Bertolt Brecht to Federico Fellini and Lautréamont. In Europe and in the United States, he is mostly know for his cinéma, while in Japan he is considered more as a poet and playwright. He died in May 1983 in Tokyo.