Fumio Hayasaka
Encyclopedia
Fumio Hayasaka was a Japanese composer of classical music
and film scores.
. In 1918, Hayasaka and his family moved to Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaidō
. In 1933, Hayasaka and Akira Ikufube organized the New Music League, which held a new music festival the year after.
Hayasaka won a number of prizes for his early concert works; in 1935, his piece Futatsu no sanka e no zensōkyoku won first prize in a radio competition, and another concert piece, Kodai no bukyoku, won the 1938 Weingartner Prize. Other early works include a Nocturne (1936) for piano
and the orchestral Ancient Dance (1938). In 1939, Hayasaka moved to Tokyo
to begin a career as film composer. By early 1940, Hayasaka was seen as "a major composer for Japanese Cinema".
. The year after, 1947, Hayasaka received the Mainichi film music award for Teinosuke Kinugasa
's Actress (Joyu).
In the late 1940s, Hayasaka invited his friend Akira Ifukube
to write film music with him at Toho
Studios. Ifukube's first film score for Toho was for Senkichi Taniguchi
's Snow Trail
(Ginrei no hate) in 1947. Toshirō Mifune
, the famous actor who later starred in most of Kurosawa’s films, first met Kurosawa at a pre-screening of this movie.
. It was short-lived due to his early death. The 1948 film Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi) was the first film directed by Akira Kurosawa that Hayasaka composed music for. The director and composer collaborated to test “oppositional handling of music and performance”. Their collaboration turned into a very deep artistic relationship, with Hayasaka contributing ideas to the visual part of the film. In his autobiography, Kurosawa would say that working with Hayasaka changed his views on how film music should be used; from then on, he viewed music as “counterpoint” to the image and not just an “accompaniment”. This is also the first film that Kurosawa used Toshirō Mifune
as an actor.
Among the films Hayasaka scored for Kurosawa are Stray Dog
(1949), Rashomon
(1950), Ikiru
(1952) and Seven Samurai (1954). During the 1950s, Hayasaka also created the scores for some of the final works of another Japanese master filmmaker, Kenji Mizoguchi
. Hayasaka composed music for Ugetsu
(1953), Sansho the Bailiff
(1954), and The Crucified Lovers
(1954).
The 1950 film Rashomon was especially significant for Hayasaka. This film won the 1951 Golden Lion from the Venice film festival, and is considered the first Japanese film to be widely seen in the West. In the Japanese film culture, directors normally wanted music that sounded like well-known Western works; Kurosawa specifically had Hayasaka compose music that sounded like Ravel’s Bolero. Masaru Sato, then a young composer, was so impressed with the music that he decided to study with Hayasaka. This film was also related to the atomic scar of the Japanese culture; although the American occupation forces forbade the Japanese media from “criticizing America’s role in the tragedy” of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Rashomon depicts a historical era of Japan where her cities are in ruin and social chaos abounds.
Hayasaka was continually productive in the years leading up to his death. In 1950, he founded the Association of Film Music. The 1953 film Ugetsu, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, featured a score by Hayasaka; the film wons the silver prize at the 1953 Venice Film Festival
. The year after, 1954, Hayasaka did another Mizoguchi film, the jidai-geki Sansho the Bailiff (Sansho dayu). This film shared the 1954 Silver Lion prize from the Venice Film Festival with Kazan’s
On the Waterfront
, Fellini’s
La Strada
, and Kurosawa’s
Seven Samurai.
Seven Samurai, a Kurosawa jidai-geki film, also features music by Hayasaka. At the time, it was the largest Japanese film production ever. This film featured strong directorial music choices that are closely related to Western symphonic concert music. Masaru Sato assisted with the orchestration of Hayasaka's score. This score utilized the leitmotif, which is a method of compositional organization borrowed from western operas.
During his time in Tokyo, Hayasaka also wrote several notable concert works including Ancient Dances of the Left and on the Right (1941), a Piano Concerto (1948) and the orchestral suite Yukara (1955).
Hayasaka served as a musical mentor to both Masaru Satō
and Tōru Takemitsu
.
at the age of 41. He died while working on the score for Record of a Living Being (I Live In Fear, Ikimono no kiroku), so Masaru Sato completed the score. The depth of the relationship between Hayasaka and Kurosawa is shown in that this film was based on a conversation between the two friends. Hayasaka was very ill at the time, and pondering the fear of his own death. Weak and sickly from TB, he told Kurosawa that “with this illness threatening my life, I can’t work”; these words deeply affected Kurosawa. Due to recent nuclear testing
in the Pacific, as well as a deep cultural scar from the first atomic bombs
, the fear of atomic death was prevalent among the Japanese. Illustrating the lingering death and fear from the end of the war, Kurosawa would later remark (in 1991) that “the atomic bomb is still killing Japanese”. Kurosawa was deeply affected by his friend’s death and “fell into a deep depression”. The film Record of a Living Being combined his depression and the Japanese atomic scar to create a film that illustrates the “human experience in the atomic age”.
, sealing his fame as a composer of music for Japanese horror films. This movie was another of a series of postwar films that displayed a Japanese fear of the effects of atomic weapons.
After finishing Hayasaka's score for Record of a Living Being, Masuro Sato went on to score seven more films by Kurosawa. Keeping with Hayasaka's western-orchestral influence, for Kurosawa's 1957 jidai-geki film, Throne of Blood
(Kumonosu-jo), Sato composed a score that also borrows from the western composer Verdi
. Sato continued to use demonstrate deep western influences through the rest of his career, making his scores (and the films they accompany) "especially accessible to non-Oriental listeners". This was another film of Kurosawa’s that indirectly alluded to the atomic bombs, being set in “a period after cataclysmic destruction to a center of Japanese life and political power”.
In his memory, as a homage, Tōru Takemitsu
wrote his Requiem for strings (1957).
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
and film scores.
Early life
Hayasaka was born in the city of Sendai on the main Japanese island of HonshūHonshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
. In 1918, Hayasaka and his family moved to Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaidō
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
. In 1933, Hayasaka and Akira Ikufube organized the New Music League, which held a new music festival the year after.
Hayasaka won a number of prizes for his early concert works; in 1935, his piece Futatsu no sanka e no zensōkyoku won first prize in a radio competition, and another concert piece, Kodai no bukyoku, won the 1938 Weingartner Prize. Other early works include a Nocturne (1936) for piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and the orchestral Ancient Dance (1938). In 1939, Hayasaka moved to Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
to begin a career as film composer. By early 1940, Hayasaka was seen as "a major composer for Japanese Cinema".
Post-War film music
After the war, Hayasaka continued working on films, quickly winning recognition for his abilities. In 1946, he received the film music award for An Enemy of the People (Minshu no Teki, 1946) at the first annual Mainichi Film AwardsMainichi Film Awards
The Mainichi Film Awards are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun , one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946.-Animation awards:...
. The year after, 1947, Hayasaka received the Mainichi film music award for Teinosuke Kinugasa
Teinosuke Kinugasa
-External links:* *...
's Actress (Joyu).
In the late 1940s, Hayasaka invited his friend Akira Ifukube
Akira Ifukube
was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores, perhaps best known for his work on the soundtracks of the Godzilla movies by Toho.-Biography:...
to write film music with him at Toho
Toho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
Studios. Ifukube's first film score for Toho was for Senkichi Taniguchi
Senkichi Taniguchi
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.Born in Tokyo, Japan, he attended Waseda University but left before graduating due to his involvement in a left-wing theater troupe. He joined P.C.L...
's Snow Trail
Snow Trail
Snow Trail is a 1947 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Senkichi Taniguchi. It was the first film role for Toshirō Mifune, later to become one of Japan's most famous actors. Mifune and the other main actor in the film Takashi Shimura, later became long-term collaborators of film director...
(Ginrei no hate) in 1947. Toshirō Mifune
Toshiro Mifune
Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...
, the famous actor who later starred in most of Kurosawa’s films, first met Kurosawa at a pre-screening of this movie.
Relationship with Akira Kurosawa
Fumio Hayasaka had a celebrated association with the pre-eminent Japanese director Akira KurosawaAkira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
. It was short-lived due to his early death. The 1948 film Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi) was the first film directed by Akira Kurosawa that Hayasaka composed music for. The director and composer collaborated to test “oppositional handling of music and performance”. Their collaboration turned into a very deep artistic relationship, with Hayasaka contributing ideas to the visual part of the film. In his autobiography, Kurosawa would say that working with Hayasaka changed his views on how film music should be used; from then on, he viewed music as “counterpoint” to the image and not just an “accompaniment”. This is also the first film that Kurosawa used Toshirō Mifune
Toshiro Mifune
Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...
as an actor.
Among the films Hayasaka scored for Kurosawa are Stray Dog
Stray Dog (film)
is a 1949 film noir police procedural directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring frequent collaborators Toshirō Mifune and Takashi Shimura.-Plot:Action takes place during a heatwave in a bombed-out, post-war Tokyo...
(1949), Rashomon
Rashomon (film)
The bandit's storyTajōmaru, a notorious brigand , claims that he tricked the samurai to step off the mountain trail with him and look at a cache of ancient swords he discovered. In the grove he tied the samurai to a tree, then brought the woman there. She initially tried to defend herself with a...
(1950), Ikiru
Ikiru
is a 1952 Japanese film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film examines the struggles of a minor Tokyo bureaucrat and his final quest for meaning. The film stars Takashi Shimura as Kanji Watanabe.-Plot:...
(1952) and Seven Samurai (1954). During the 1950s, Hayasaka also created the scores for some of the final works of another Japanese master filmmaker, Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972. Mizoguchi is renowned for his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène...
. Hayasaka composed music for Ugetsu
Ugetsu
Ugetsu is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Set in 16th century Japan, it stars Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō, and is inspired by short stories by Ueda Akinari and Guy de Maupassant...
(1953), Sansho the Bailiff
Sansho the Bailiff
-External links:* at the Japanese Movie Database* * and QuickTime trailer* essay by Mark Le Fanu...
(1954), and The Crucified Lovers
The Crucified Lovers
is a 1954 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It was adapted from Monzaemon Chikamatsu's 17th century play Daikyoji sekireki , hence the title.-Synopsis:...
(1954).
The 1950 film Rashomon was especially significant for Hayasaka. This film won the 1951 Golden Lion from the Venice film festival, and is considered the first Japanese film to be widely seen in the West. In the Japanese film culture, directors normally wanted music that sounded like well-known Western works; Kurosawa specifically had Hayasaka compose music that sounded like Ravel’s Bolero. Masaru Sato, then a young composer, was so impressed with the music that he decided to study with Hayasaka. This film was also related to the atomic scar of the Japanese culture; although the American occupation forces forbade the Japanese media from “criticizing America’s role in the tragedy” of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Rashomon depicts a historical era of Japan where her cities are in ruin and social chaos abounds.
Hayasaka was continually productive in the years leading up to his death. In 1950, he founded the Association of Film Music. The 1953 film Ugetsu, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, featured a score by Hayasaka; the film wons the silver prize at the 1953 Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
. The year after, 1954, Hayasaka did another Mizoguchi film, the jidai-geki Sansho the Bailiff (Sansho dayu). This film shared the 1954 Silver Lion prize from the Venice Film Festival with Kazan’s
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
, Fellini’s
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
La Strada
La Strada
La Strada is a 1954 Italian neorealist drama directed by Federico Fellini in which a naïve young woman is sold to a brutish man and goes on the road as a part of his itinerant show....
, and Kurosawa’s
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
Seven Samurai.
Seven Samurai, a Kurosawa jidai-geki film, also features music by Hayasaka. At the time, it was the largest Japanese film production ever. This film featured strong directorial music choices that are closely related to Western symphonic concert music. Masaru Sato assisted with the orchestration of Hayasaka's score. This score utilized the leitmotif, which is a method of compositional organization borrowed from western operas.
During his time in Tokyo, Hayasaka also wrote several notable concert works including Ancient Dances of the Left and on the Right (1941), a Piano Concerto (1948) and the orchestral suite Yukara (1955).
Hayasaka served as a musical mentor to both Masaru Satō
Masaru Sato
was a Japanese composer of film scores. He was born in Rumoi, Hokkaidō and raised in Sapporo. While studying at the National Music Academy, Sato came under the influence of Fumio Hayasaka, Akira Kurosawa's regular composer for his earlier films. He became a pupil of Hayasaka's, studying film...
and Tōru Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu
was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...
.
Death
In 1955, Hayasaka died of tuberculosisTuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
at the age of 41. He died while working on the score for Record of a Living Being (I Live In Fear, Ikimono no kiroku), so Masaru Sato completed the score. The depth of the relationship between Hayasaka and Kurosawa is shown in that this film was based on a conversation between the two friends. Hayasaka was very ill at the time, and pondering the fear of his own death. Weak and sickly from TB, he told Kurosawa that “with this illness threatening my life, I can’t work”; these words deeply affected Kurosawa. Due to recent nuclear testing
Nuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
in the Pacific, as well as a deep cultural scar from the first atomic bombs
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
, the fear of atomic death was prevalent among the Japanese. Illustrating the lingering death and fear from the end of the war, Kurosawa would later remark (in 1991) that “the atomic bomb is still killing Japanese”. Kurosawa was deeply affected by his friend’s death and “fell into a deep depression”. The film Record of a Living Being combined his depression and the Japanese atomic scar to create a film that illustrates the “human experience in the atomic age”.
Influence on other composers
Akira Ifukube, influenced by Hayasaka to work with films, scored Toho Studio's GodzillaGodzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
, sealing his fame as a composer of music for Japanese horror films. This movie was another of a series of postwar films that displayed a Japanese fear of the effects of atomic weapons.
After finishing Hayasaka's score for Record of a Living Being, Masuro Sato went on to score seven more films by Kurosawa. Keeping with Hayasaka's western-orchestral influence, for Kurosawa's 1957 jidai-geki film, Throne of Blood
Throne of Blood
Throne of Blood is a 1957 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. Its original Japanese title is Kumonosu-jō , which means "Spider Web Castle". The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth to feudal Japan.-Plot:...
(Kumonosu-jo), Sato composed a score that also borrows from the western composer Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
. Sato continued to use demonstrate deep western influences through the rest of his career, making his scores (and the films they accompany) "especially accessible to non-Oriental listeners". This was another film of Kurosawa’s that indirectly alluded to the atomic bombs, being set in “a period after cataclysmic destruction to a center of Japanese life and political power”.
In his memory, as a homage, Tōru Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu
was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...
wrote his Requiem for strings (1957).
Hayasaka's Style
Hayasaka's early musical style was late-Romantic with influences of traditional Japanese music. In the years before his death his style drifted towards atonality and modernism. Keeping with tradition and the demands of film makers, while scoring for films his music was closely related to (and often borrowed from) western orchestral music.Selected list of classical works
- Prelude for Two Hymns (1936)
- Ancient Dance (1938)
- Overture in D (1939)
- Ancient Dances on the Left and on the Right (1941)
- Four unaccompanied songs to poems by Haruo Sato for solo soprano (1944)
- Piano Concerto (1948)
- String Quartet (1950)
- Suite in Seven Parts (1952)
- Metamorphosis for orchestra (1953)
- Yukara (1955)