Kunio Shimizu

Shimizu Kunio
Born	1936
Occupation	playwright
Home town	Niigata

Kunio Shimizu (清水 邦夫, Shimizu Kunio) is a Japanese playwright who was born in 1936.Niigata is his hometown, which is located on the Japan Sea. At Tama University of Fine Arts Shimizu is a professor working in the Moving Images and Performing Arts Department.

Shimizu Kunio grew up in the Niigata Prefecture. His father was a policeman. As a student at Waseda University located in Tokyo Shimizu wrote The Signatory in 1958 as well as Tomorrow I’ll Put Flowers There in 1959. These plays were produced in the year 1960 by Seihai, a professional theatre company. After he finished studying at Waseda University Shimizu worked at Iwanami Film Productions, which is a Tokyo firm. There he wrote scenarios for documentaries as well as public relations films. In 1965 he went on to be an independent playwright and left the company. Somewhere around 1968 Yukio Ninagawa asked Shimizu to write a play for him to direct. At the time, Ninagawa was an actor for Seihai. Shimizu wrote Such a Serious Frivolity for Ninagawa to produce, however, even though Ninagawa wanted to produce the play the script got rejected. Due to this incident Ninagawa and some other people who worked with him left Seihai. They made a new company that was called the Modern People’s Theater. Around this time there was a lot of social disruption. Young people across Japan from what was called the New Left started political argumentative meetings. Therefore, Shimizu wrote some plays in order to bring up a sense of the view of the people whose political reform demands were not being met. Shimizu Kunio married Matsumoto Noriko who was an actress. Together they founded a group of entertainers called the Winter Tree Company (Mokutōsha). He also set up the Modern Man’s Theater (Gendaijin gekijō) along with Ninagawa.

The plays he has written include The Dressing Room (Gakuya), Such a Serious Frivolity (Shinjō afururu keihakusa), Tango at the End of Winter (Tango fugu no owari ni), When We Go Down That Great Unfeeling River (Bokura ga hijō no taiga o kudaru toki), and An Older Sister, Burning Like a Flame (Hi no yō ni samishii ane ga ita). Shimizu Kunio went to Waseda University and started writing plays to be performed in the 1960s. His play When We Go Down That Great Unfeeling River (Bokura ga hijō no taiga o kudaro tiki) received the Kishida Prize for Drama for being the best play in the year 1974. Some of the topics Shimizu's plays deal with include reality and illusion, the present and the past, and also memories of the past. His plays incorporate the past as well as the present. Furthermore, memory plays an important role in his plays as there is always the question of which character's memory is correct. These techniques are displayed in the play The Dressing Room two ghosts of two actresses are looking at two actresses who are still living. The plot of this play is based on the memories of these characters. One theme that is in many of his plays has to do with the city versus the country. Another theme that is present in some of Shimizu's plays is memories having power. Also, a longing and an affection for the past are themes present in his work. In many of Shimizu’s plays the dramatic tension centers between siblings and their parents. For example, even though his plays are ironic or comedic, a death often occurs in the end.

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