{ "id": "epfj8hdgjn", "slug": "emperor-tomato-ketchup", "title": "Emperor Tomato Ketchup (トマトケチャップ皇帝)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts", "label": "Animated and short films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.short-films-individual", "label": "Individual short films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.short-films-individual" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000: Animated and short films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts", "label": "Animated and short films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Emperor Tomato Ketchup (トマトケチャップ皇帝, Tomato Kecchappu Kōtei) is Shūji Terayama's 1970/1971 Japanese experimental film in which children overthrow adults and found a ketchup-symbol state; 75-minute director's cut released 1996.", "snippet": "Emperor Tomato Ketchup (トマトケチャップ皇帝, Tomato Kecchappu Kōtei) is Shūji Terayama's 1970/1971 Japanese experimental film in which children overthrow adults and found a ketchup-symbol state; 75-minute director's cut released 1996.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.short-films-individual", "markdown": "# Emperor Tomato Ketchup (トマトケチャップ皇帝)\n\n**Emperor Tomato Ketchup** (トマトケチャップ皇帝, *Tomato Kecchappu Kōtei*) is a Japanese experimental film directed, written, and edited by [Shūji Terayama](https://www.edgepedia.org/shuji-terayama) (寺山修司, 1935–1983), made in 1970 and first released in a shortened 27-minute cut in 1971[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/). It depicts a dystopian Japan in which children have overthrown the adults, established an independent state headed by a child emperor, and made tomato ketchup, the emperor's favorite food, the symbol of the nation[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/). The film is based on Terayama's early radio drama *Otona-gari* (Adult Hunting, 1960)[2](https://eurekamag.com/research/108/011/108011316.php).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director, writer, editor | Shūji Terayama (寺山修司, 1935–1983)[3](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/index.php/document/detail-work/5673) |\n| Made and released | Produced in 1970; released in 1971 as a 27-minute shortened cut[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/) |\n| 1996 director's cut | A 75-minute version restored from the only original print Terayama owned, theatrically released 27 January 1996 and specially invited to the Rotterdam International Film Festival[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/) |\n| Format | 16 mm, tinted black and white, shot in documentary style in public without permission[4](https://fmkjournals.fmk.edu.rs/index.php/AM/article/view/376) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Hajime Sawatari; music J.A. Seazer and Terayama; producer Michi Tanaka[3](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/index.php/document/detail-work/5673) |\n| Production | Art Theatre Guild (ATG) and Tenjo Sajiki; 1996 distribution by Image Forum[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066468/) • [1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/) |\n| Honors | Special jury prize at the Toulon Film Festival; invited to the Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight[6](https://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cw5t-stu/TERAYAMA/tomato.html) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise and content\n\nThe story begins when a boy, beaten by his father for not doing his homework, turns and stabs his father to death; this is the signal for children across the country to rise up at once[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/). The children hunt down the adults who flee and hide, and build an independent state with an emperor at its head[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/). Tomato ketchup, the emperor's favorite food, becomes the national symbol, and the children enact a Tomato Ketchup Constitution and an X (batsu) legal code[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/). Under the constitution read out in narration, adults who contradict children, use physical force, or provide too much protection are struck from the voters' register, and adults who ban smoking, drinking, freedom of expression, or sexuality are sentenced to death or eighty years in prison[7](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1996/films/tomato-kechappu-kotei). The children's special targets are schoolteachers and juvenile-police officials, who are sentenced to extreme punishment[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/).\n\nThe film has no central narrative. It presents a series of graphic tableaux in which children commit cruel and abusive acts against adults[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066468/). Its deepest controversy lies in the depiction of children's sexual contact with enslaved adults, which made the film an object of Japanese and Western censorship; the violence and atrocities function as symbols of the dawn of a societal order in postwar Japan[8](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/20/71/76/19/2020717619/2020717619.pdf). The narration parodies the [Meiji Constitution](https://www.edgepedia.org/meiji-constitution), declaring the emperor sacred and inviolable, and the film has been read as also parodying the [Cultural Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/cultural-revolution)-style persecution of teachers and intellectuals[9](https://eastend55.jpn.org/screen5/z5-002-tmt.html).\n\n## Production and origins\n\nTerayama based the film on his radio drama *Otona-gari* (Adult Hunting, 1960), a work surrounded by an aura of scandal; both works propose a dystopic image of social disintegration in which children mercilessly slaughter adults and set up a marionette state headed by the titular emperor[2](https://eurekamag.com/research/108/011/108011316.php). The film was shot in 16 mm tinted black and white in a documentary style, filmed in public without permission, in keeping with the guerrilla tactics of Terayama's experimental approach[4](https://fmkjournals.fmk.edu.rs/index.php/AM/article/view/376). It was produced by the Art Theatre Guild, a staple of Japanese New Wave cinema, together with Terayama's Tenjo Sajiki theater troupe[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066468/). Much of the cast were non-professional child performers, and the credits list the children collectively as \"100 children\" (百人の子供たち)[6](https://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cw5t-stu/TERAYAMA/tomato.html). Named adult cast members include Keiko Niitaka, Salvador Tari, Taro Apollo, Goro Abashiri, Maya Kaba, Masako Ono, Shiro Demaemochi, and Mitsufumi Hashimoto[3](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/index.php/document/detail-work/5673).\n\nThe soundtrack is an eclectic score by the experimental composer J.A. Seazer, who scored all of Terayama's features and several of his shorts, together with music by Terayama himself[3](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/index.php/document/detail-work/5673). Scholars have read the film as reflecting the turbulent Japan of the 1960s, when the reinvention of national identity was pursued from both right and left, and as reviving the repressed memory of Japan's own fascist and colonial behavior during the Asia-[Pacific War](https://www.edgepedia.org/pacific-war)[4](https://fmkjournals.fmk.edu.rs/index.php/AM/article/view/376) • [10](https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action?itemFileId=32193&itemId=13882).\n\n## Versions and dates\n\nThe film's dating and running time vary across sources, and the versions are a genuine point of confusion. The full film was produced in 1970, re-edited, and released in 1971 as a 27-minute shortened cut[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/). Festival databases list the short version at 27 to 28 minutes[7](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1996/films/tomato-kechappu-kotei), while IMDb and MUBI list a 72-minute runtime for the 1971 film[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066468/) • [11](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/emperor-tomato-ketchup).\n\n**The 1996 restoration.** After Terayama's death in 1983, a 75-minute original director's cut was restored from the only original print Terayama himself had owned and released theatrically in Japan on 27 January 1996, distributed by Image Forum[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/). It was a special invitation work at the 1996 Rotterdam International Film Festival[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/). A Japanese reviewer notes that the final 15 minutes of the 75-minute version consist of material from a separate work, *Janken sensō* (Rock-Paper-Scissors War, 1971), and IMDb likewise lists the film as edited from that title[9](https://eastend55.jpn.org/screen5/z5-002-tmt.html) • [5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066468/). The short version circulated on home video in the *Experimental Image World of Shuji Terayama* series[3](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/index.php/document/detail-work/5673).\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nThe film received a special jury prize at the Toulon Film Festival and was invited to the Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight; [Letterboxd](https://www.edgepedia.org/letterboxd) records a Cannes premiere on 4 May 1972 and a screening at the Montreal International 16mm Film Festival on 25 October 1973[6](https://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cw5t-stu/TERAYAMA/tomato.html) • [12](https://letterboxd.com/film/emperor-tomato-ketchup/). It has been described as Terayama's most notorious film, a controversial political satire built around a [Lord of the Flies](https://www.edgepedia.org/lord-of-the-flies)-style child-run autonomous state, with motifs of sadomasochism and Nazism, and it has drawn Western comparisons to [Federico Fellini](https://www.edgepedia.org/federico-fellini)[13](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2025/great-directors/terayama-shuji/).\n\nThe title entered popular music twice. Retrospectives, including a 2017 Harvard Film Archive series presenting Terayama's short and feature films together for the first time in the United States, have contributed to the wider recognition of his cinema[14](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/663bdfaadfb59.pdf).\n\n## References\n\n1. [トマトケチャップ皇帝 オリジナル完全版, 映画.com](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/38202/)\n2. [Karolak, N. (2016). Revolutionary worlds. Adult hunting by Terayama Shuji, Konteksty 70(1)](https://eurekamag.com/research/108/011/108011316.php)\n3. [トマトケチャップ皇帝（オリジナル完全版）, Musashino Art University Museum & Library Image Library database](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/index.php/document/detail-work/5673)\n4. [Došen, Ana (2018). Emperor Tomato Ketchup: Some Reflections on Carnality and Politics, AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 15](https://fmkjournals.fmk.edu.rs/index.php/AM/article/view/376)\n5. [Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1971), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066468/)\n6. [「トマトケチャップ皇帝」, Terayama Shuji filmography](https://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cw5t-stu/TERAYAMA/tomato.html)\n7. [Tomato kechappu kotei, International Film Festival Rotterdam 1996](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1996/films/tomato-kechappu-kotei)\n8. [Conflict and Controversy in Small Cinemas, Library of Congress](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/20/71/76/19/2020717619/2020717619.pdf)\n9. [イーストエンド劇場5-002: トマトケチャップ皇帝](https://eastend55.jpn.org/screen5/z5-002-tmt.html)\n10. [Nettelton, Taro E.F., dissertation, University of Rochester](https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action?itemFileId=32193&itemId=13882)\n11. [Emperor Tomato Ketchup, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/emperor-tomato-ketchup)\n12. [Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/film/emperor-tomato-ketchup/)\n13. [Terayama, Shuji, Senses of Cinema, Great Directors](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2025/great-directors/terayama-shuji/)\n14. [Shuji Terayama, Emperor of the Underground, Harvard Film Archive calendar, September–November 2017](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/663bdfaadfb59.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Individual short films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/emperor-tomato-ketchup", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/emperor-tomato-ketchup.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. 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Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Emperor Tomato Ketchup is Shūji Terayama's 1970/1971 Japanese experimental film in which children overthrow adults and found a ketchup-symbol state; 75-minute director's cut released 1996." }