Archive
Remembering Toshiro Mayuzumi, 1929-1997
Composer Toshiro Mayuzumi died in Kawasaki, Japan, ten years ago today, on April 10, 1997, at the age of 68.
One of the most important figures in post-war Japanese music, Mayuzumi was both an adventurous concert composer and an exceptionally prolific contributor to cinema, writing more than 100 film scores. His work ranged from Japanese art-house classics to major international productions, and in 1967 he became the first Japanese-born composer nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Mayuzumi was born in Yokohama on February 20, 1929. He studied composition with Kunihiko Hashimoto, Tomojiro Ikenouchi and Akira Ifukube at the Tokyo Music School and Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, graduating in 1951 before continuing his studies at the Paris Conservatoire. Exposure to Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez and musique concrète profoundly affected him, and on returning to Japan he became one of the country’s pioneers of electronic and avant-garde music.
Cinema accompanied him almost from the beginning. His score for Hideo Oba’s Homecoming (1950) won a Mainichi music prize even before he completed his studies, and during the following decade he became one of Japan’s busiest screen composers. His credits included Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Woman in the Rumor (1954) and Street of Shame (1956), Kon Ichikawa’s Enjo (1958), Yasujirō Ozu’s Good Morning (1959), and Mikio Naruse’s When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960). Read more…
Shop at the Movie Music UK Store
Member of the
MOVIE MUSIC UK 