Awazu was born 1929 in Tokyo. After dropping out of Hosei University, he garnered attention when he received the Japan Advertising Artists Club Award in 1955. He went on to win the Grand Prix of the World Film Poster Competition in France in 1958, and in 1960 joined the Metabolism group of architects. Awazu established his company, Awazu Design Room, in 1965, and in the same year began to lecture as an assistant professor at Musashino Art University.

In 1969, he won the Ito Kisaku Prize for the artwork for the movie “The Love Suicides at Amijima,” based on a play by Chikamatsu Monzaemon. He contributed to the Expo ’70 in Osaka with multiple design concepts, and during the 1970s continued to display a wide range of interests, for instance as a member of the exhibition committee of the National Museum of Ethnology (Osaka). While mainly known as a graphic designer, he also worked in other media such as bronze or as an art director for movies. He died 2009.