Background
Koreya Senda was born on September 15, 1904 in Tokyo, Japan. His real name: Kunio Ito.
是也 千田
Koreya Senda was born on September 15, 1904 in Tokyo, Japan. His real name: Kunio Ito.
He studied at Waseda University and at the Reinhardt Dramatic School.
After studying at Waseda University, he joined the Tsukiji Little Theater of Kaoru Osanai (1924). He went to Germany in 1927. In the late 1920s and early 1930s Senda lived in Berlin, where he was involved with underground theatre performances. He was involved with the community of Japanese artists living in Germany who were actively engaged with political activism.
To supplement his income, in 1930 Senda founded the design studio Tomoe in Berlin, together with the painter Osuke Shimazaki, lacquer artist Kotaro Fukuoka, photographer Hiroshi Yoshizawa, and Bauhaus students Iwao Yamawaki, a photographer and architect, and his wife Michiko, a textile artist. The studio produced posters, gift-wrap paper and leaflets, and undertook window dressing and interior design for Japanese restaurants.
Senda and his wife, Irma, returned to Japan in January 1931 via Moscow on the Trans-Siberian Railway. After returning to Japan, he introduced expressionist technique. He was a member of the Shinltyo and Shin Tsukiji Theater Groups before he organized the Haiyuza Theater after the war.