Blue Room Tribe: The Flower of the Avant-garde in Harajuku in the 1970s (December 1974)

Blue Room Tribe: The Flower of the Avant-garde in Harajuku in the 1970s (December 1974)

In Omotesando, Harajuku in the 1970s, the Blue Room Tribe, a group of young people who gathered on the streets in search of a place to express themselves, predated the later Takenoko-zoku. Strongly influenced by Shuji Terayama, the standard-bearer of underground theater, they performed poetry readings, improvised plays, and performances on improvised stages. Their experimental activities of bringing art into everyday life and challenging existing social norms by transforming the streets of the city into a stage reflected the smoldering desire for expression and a sense of alienation in the hearts of the young people. In an era when the afterglow of postwar economic growth was cooling off, some young people who had begun to feel a sense of emptiness in the midst of affluence used the space of the city to search for self-expression and community. Although their activities are poorly documented, they cannot be overlooked as a cornerstone of later subcultures and street culture.
The "Blue Room Tribe," a group that intersected theater, poetry, and urban space, was a single flower of heresy that bloomed in the cracks of the times.