RYUICHI Sakamoto, the Japanese musician who composed the haunting score to ‘Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence’ and received an Oscar for Bernardo Bertolucci’s ‘The Last Emperor’, has died at the age of 71.
Sponichi, a Japanese tabloid, announced late Sunday that Sakamoto died on March 28, and the artist's official Twitter account verified the news.
Sakamoto revealed in June of last year that he was suffering from stage 4 cancer. In 2014, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, and in 2021, he was diagnosed with rectal cancer.
Sakamoto, who was born in Tokyo in 1952, studied music composition in the early 1970s. Around this time, he began working as a session guitarist and as a songwriter for other performers.
He met Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi through this work, with whom he later established the synth-pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra. Together, the trio became big stars in Japan and an international sensation.
Sakamoto began publishing solo music at the same time as YMO, beginning with 1978's ‘Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto’.
Sakamoto, who was more experimental in character, spent the late 1970s and most of the 1980s experimenting with electronic sounds and global cultures, with songs like 1980's ‘Riot in Lagos’ impacting New York rappers, Detroit techno composers, and many others.
At the same time, he remained a sought-after pop producer in Japan, working with famous artists.
Sakamoto became significantly involved in the film business as well. His debut film composition was for ‘Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence’, released in 1983, in which he also appeared onscreen alongside famed singer David Bowie.
In the years that followed, he continued to compose film soundtracks, notably one for Bertolucci’s ‘The Last Emperor’, which he collaborated on with fellow musicians David Byrne and Cong Su.
He was the first Japanese musician to receive an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
He remained busy in the 1990s, composing the music for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona while also dabbling in everything from orchestra work to easy-breezy bossa nova.
Sakamoto created Japanese chart history towards the end of the decade when his single ‘Energy Flow’ topped the Oricon Charts, being the first instrumental song to do so.
Sakamoto, who has lived in New York for the past three decades, remained creatively engaged throughout the 2010s, despite a cancer diagnosis in 2014.
Sakamoto announced in June that he had stage 4 cancer, and in December he presented what he called his final concert ever. He released ‘12’, his final original album in January 2023.
The news of Sakamoto's death on Sunday night sparked an outpouring of sadness and admiration for his extensive collection of work. He leaves behind four children.
His record label and management put out a statement on the Avex website in which they asked for privacy for his family and shared the musician’s favorite quote: “Ars longa, vita brevis,” which translates to “Art is long, life is short.” – The Vibes, April 3, 2023
