Tokyo, 1930 · Tokyo, 1996
Tōru Takemitsu
Japan's great 20th-century composer wrote for the films of Kurosawa, Kobayashi and Teshigahara.
He is the best-known Japanese concert composer of the 20th century, and he also wrote around a hundred film scores. For Hiroshi Teshigahara he made Woman in the Dunes, with electronic sounds and sliding strings; for Masaki Kobayashi, Harakiri and Kwaidan; and for Akira Kurosawa, Ran, which won him the Japan Academy Prize.
- Style
- Silences, traditional Japanese timbres and richly coloured modern orchestra.
- Awards
- Japan Academy Prize for Ran.
Discography
- Crazed Fruit (1956) Spotify · Apple Music
- Ran (1985) Spotify · Apple Music
- Rising Sun (1993) Spotify · Apple Music
"Spotify" and "Apple Music" open the album directly on each platform; if only Spotify appears, we have not yet been able to check that album on Apple Music. "Search Spotify" opens an album search for that title. If a link does not lead to the right album, write to [email protected]. "Album" marks the year of that album edition when it differs from the film's.
Listen
- Face of Another: Waltz · The Face of AnotherSpotifyApple MusicYouTube
Awards counted up to the 2026 Academy Awards. Facts reviewed in October 2026.