Terayama Shuji is a Japanese avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (Angura) theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema.

His oeuvre includes a number of essays claiming that more can be learned about life through boxing and horse racing than by attending school and studying hard. Accordingly, he was one of the central figures of the "runaway" movement in Japan in the late 1960s, as depicted in his book, play, and film "Throw Away Your Books, Run into the Streets!" (書を捨てよ、町へ出よう).

In 1967, he formed the Tenjo Sajiki theater troupe, whose name comes from the Japanese translation of the 1945 Marcel Carné film "Les Enfants du Paradis" and literally translates to "ceiling gallery" (with a meaning similar to the English term "peanut gallery"). The troupe was dedicated to the avant-garde and staged a number of controversial plays tackling social issues from an iconoclastic perspective in unconventional venues, such as the streets of Tokyo or private homes. Some major plays include "Bluebeard" (青ひげ), "Yes" (イエス), and "The Crime of Fatso Oyama" (大山デブコの犯罪). Also involved with the theater were artists Aquirax Uno and Tadanori Yokoo, who designed many of the advertisement posters for the group.

Musically, he worked closely with experimental composer J.A. Seazer and folk musician Kan Mikami. Playwright Kishida Rio was also part of the company. She viewed him as a mentor, and together they collaborated on Shintokumaru (Poison Boy), The Audience Seats, and Lemmings. He experimented with 'city plays', a fantastical satire of civic life.

Also in 1967, he started an experimental cinema and gallery called 'Universal Gravitation,' which is still in existence at Misawa as a resource center. The Terayama Shuji Memorial Hall, which has a large collection of his plays, novels, poetry, photography and a great number of his personal effects and relics from his theatre productions, can also be found in Misawa.

In 1976, he was a member of the jury at the 26th Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1997, the Terayama Shuji Museum was opened in Misawa, Aomori, with personal items donated by his mother, Hatsu. The museum was designed by visual artist Kiyoshi Awazu, who had previously collaborated with Terayama. As of 2015, the museum's director is poet Eimei Sasaki, who had previously starred in "Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets" (1968).

Asahi Shimbun named an award after him with the inauguration of their Asahi Performing Arts Awards in 2001. "The Terayama Shuji Prize is meant to recognize artistic innovation by individuals or organizations who have demonstrated artistic innovation". However, the awards were suspended in 2008.

In March 2012, Tate Modern in London hosted a tribute to him that was attended by Kyoko Kujo and Terayama's assistant director, Henrikku Morisaki.

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