TOKYO: Ryuichi Sakamoto, 71, the Oscar-winning composer of The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and other epic films, died.
Sakamoto co-founded Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) and was an actor.
“He lived with music until the very end,” Avex, his recording label, said on its website. “He had been suffering from cancer, but kept working in his home studio whenever his health allowed,” the statement said.
Avex says he died March 28.
Sakamoto loved music since learning the piano as a kid. He counted Tokyo commuter train sounds as a high schooler.
Sakamoto, who idolized French composer Claude Debussy, studied ethnomusicology at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, focusing on Okinawan, Indian, and African music.
“Asian music heavily influenced Debussy, and Debussy heavily influenced me. So the music goes around the world and comes full circle,” he told WNYC public radio in 2010.
He, Haruomi Hosono, and Yukihiro Takahashi created YMO in 1978 to play electronic music. The band’s innovative utilization of many electronic instruments gained home and international success.
In 1983’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Sakamoto scored and starred as a prisoner of war camp warden. BAFTA-winning score.
He starred in 1987’s The Last Emperor, his most acclaimed picture. The score won Oscars, Grammys, and Golden Globes.
Fans paid tribute online.
“Rest in peace Maestro. Your music enriched our lives and changed our view of the world around us and within us,” read one tweet.
In 2014, anti-nuclear and environmental activist Sakamoto took a year off to cure throat cancer. In January 2021, he stated on his website that he had rectal cancer.
Sakamoto held an online goodbye concert for followers in December 2022.
“My strength has really fallen, so a normal concert of about an hour to ninety minutes would be very difficult,” he said online some days earlier.
As a result, I’ve recorded it song by song and edited it so it can be presented like a regular performance, which I think will be enjoyable. Please enjoy.
