Kunio Shimizu (清水邦夫): Poetry of the Underground Stage

Introduction

Kunio Shimizu (清水邦夫, 1936--2021) was a Japanese playwright and director whose work is closely linked with the theater of the late 1960s and 1970s. He received the 18th Kishida Kunio Drama Award in 1974 for When We Go Down That Heartless River, sharing it with Kohei Tsuka's Atami Murder Case. He is best known outside Japan for his collaboration with the director Yukio Ninagawa, and for Tango at the End of Winter.

Early Life and Career

Shimizu was born on November 17, 1936, in Arai (now Myoko), Niigata Prefecture. He studied drama at Waseda University, where he was already writing plays: The Signatory (署名人, 1958) won the Teatro Theater Award and the Waseda Theater Award. After graduating in 1960 he joined the film company Iwanami Productions, writing scenarios, and left in 1965 to work as an independent playwright.

Around 1968, Ninagawa, then an actor with the company Seihai, asked Shimizu to write a play for him to direct. The result was Such a Serious Frivolity (真情あふるる軽薄さ). When Seihai rejected the script, Ninagawa and others left the company, and Shimizu and Ninagawa formed Gendaijin Gekijo (現代人劇場, Modern Man's Theater) in 1968, followed by Sakurasha (櫻社), which dissolved in 1974.

In 1976 Shimizu founded Mokutosha (木冬社) with his wife, the actress Noriko Matsumoto. The company ran until 2001. From 1994 to 2007 he was a professor at Tama Art University.

The Kishida Prize-Winning Work

When We Go Down That Heartless River (ぼくらが非情の大河をくだる時), first staged in 1972, is also known in English under other titles, including When We Descend the Merciless River. The play opens at night in a public toilet in Tokyo. Its characters include a younger brother, a poet who has fallen into madness, an older brother who acts out his brother's dreams, and their father. Its theme is the sense of defeat left by a failed dream of revolution.

The first production cast Renji Ishibashi as the older brother and Keizo Kanie as the younger. In October 2022 Eri Watanabe staged a version incorporating other Shimizu plays at Shinjuku Theater Tops, as Bokura ga Hijo no Taiga o Kudaru Toki: Shinjuku Bara Senso.

Major Works

Among Shimizu's plays are:

When We Go Down That Heartless River (ぼくらが非情の大河をくだる時, 1972) --- The Kishida Prize-winning work.
Such a Serious Frivolity (真情あふるる軽薄さ, 1968) --- The play written for Ninagawa to direct.
The Dressing Room (楽屋, 1977) --- Available in English in Alternative Japanese Drama: Ten Plays (University of Hawaii Press, 1992). See the play's page in our library.
My Soul Is Shining Water (わが魂は輝く水なり, 1980) --- Winner of the Izumi Kyoka Prize for Literature.
Elegy: Father's Dream Dances (エレジー父の夢は舞う, 1983) --- Winner of the Yomiuri Prize for Literature.
Tango at the End of Winter (タンゴ・冬の終わりに, 1984) --- A middle-aged actor who cannot accept growing old retreats into fantasy and memories of his youth, after his wife arranges a fake love affair to revive his talent. Peter Barnes wrote an English version, directed by Ninagawa at London's Piccadilly Theatre in 1991 with Alan Rickman.

Legacy and Influence

Kunio Shimizu died on April 15, 2021, at the age of 84, five years after Ninagawa's death in 2016. His honors included the Medal with Purple Ribbon (2002) and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette (2008).

His plays remain on the stage. Besides Watanabe's 2022 production, Kyojin Naomote Ojo o Togu (狂人なおもて往生をとぐ, 1969) was staged in Tokyo in 2025, directed by Kae Inaba.

How to Experience Their Work

To discover Kunio Shimizu's plays, visit our script search page to search for available scripts. In English, Alternative Japanese Drama: Ten Plays includes three of his plays: The Sand of Youth, How Quickly, Those Days: A Lyrical Hypothesis on Time and Forgetting, and The Dressing Room. Peter Barnes's English version of Tango at the End of Winter is listed by Concord Theatricals.

Kunio Shimizu (清水邦夫) | Kishida Prize-Winning Playwright Guide