{"id":155478,"date":"2023-04-14T20:15:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T20:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culture.org\/?p=155478"},"modified":"2023-04-14T20:15:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T20:15:43","slug":"ryuichi-sakamoto-pioneering-japanese-composer-dies-at-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culture.org\/archive\/ryuichi-sakamoto-pioneering-japanese-composer-dies-at-71\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pioneering Japanese Composer, Dies at 71"},"content":{"rendered":"           <!--  <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n                jQuery(document).ready(function() {\r\n                    jQuery(\".key-accordion-item .key-menu\").on(\"click\", function() {\r\n                        if (jQuery(this).parent().hasClass(\"active\")) {\r\n                            jQuery(this).next().slideUp();\r\n                            jQuery(this).parent().removeClass(\"active\");\r\n                        } else {\r\n                            jQuery(\".key-content\").slideUp();\r\n                            jQuery(\".key-accordion-item\").removeClass(\"active\");\r\n                            jQuery(this).parent().addClass(\"active\");\r\n                            jQuery(this).next().slideDown();\r\n                        }\r\n                    });\r\n                })\r\n            <\/script> -->\r\n\r\n\r\n            <!-- start html -->\r\n\r\n            <div class=\"news-key-takeaway-wapper\">\r\n                                <span style=\"background-color:;\">Key Takeaways<\/span>\r\n                <ul class=\"news-key-nbox\" style=\"border-color:;background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);\">\r\n                                                        <li>Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away at 71 after battling cancer.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>Sakamoto scored over 40 films and received numerous accolades, including two Golden Globes, a Grammy, and a BAFTA.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>He was a founding member of the influential Yellow Magic Orchestra trio and released more than 20 solo albums.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>Sakamoto was a longtime political activist, particularly against nuclear power and weapons.<\/li>\r\n                                                <\/ul>\r\n            <\/div>\r\n            \n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oscar-winning composer, musician, actor, and activist Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away at the age of 71 after battling cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sakamoto was a prominent figure in the music industry, scoring over 40 films, including The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and The Revenant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He received numerous accolades throughout his career, such as two Golden Globes, a Grammy, and a BAFTA.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Early Life and Musical Beginnings<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Born in Tokyo in 1952, Sakamoto was surrounded by music, art, and culture from a young age.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He began playing the piano at age 3 and attended the same famously liberal and creative preschool as Yoko Ono.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While studying at Tokyo University of the Arts, Sakamoto discovered electronic music and later became a founding member of the influential Yellow Magic Orchestra trio in 1978.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He released more than 20 solo albums throughout his career, with his B-2 Unit album in 1980 cited as an early influence on electro and hip-hop productions.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Film Scoring and Acting Career<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sakamoto made his debut as a film composer and actor in Nagisa Oshima&#8217;s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, winning a BAFTA.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He played a Japanese Imperial Army officer in both Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and Bernardo Bertolucci&#8217;s The Last Emperor, which won nine Oscars, including best picture, director, and best original score for Sakamoto alongside David Byrne and Cong Su.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He continued to work on scores for various films, such as Oliver Stone&#8217;s Wild Palms and Brian de Palma&#8217;s Snake Eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>                        <!-- <div class=\"container-c\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- <div class=\"row justify-content-between\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- <div class=\"col-post-800\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- start html -->\r\n                        <div class=\"blockquote-wapper\">\r\n                            <div>\r\n                                <span class=\"text_quot\">\r\n                                    <p>Sakamoto was a prominent figure in the music industry, scoring over 40 films, including The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and The Revenant.<\/p>\n                                <\/span>\r\n\r\n                                <div class=\"quot_icon\">\r\n                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-content\/themes\/culture\/icons\/i_quot.svg\" type=\"image\/svg+xml\">\r\n                                <\/div>\r\n                            <\/div>\r\n\r\n                            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"quot_tick\" src=\"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-content\/themes\/culture\/icons\/i_quot_tri.svg\" type=\"image\/svg+xml\">\r\n                        <\/div>\r\n                        <!-- end html -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                                    <\/h2>\n<h2><strong>Personal Life and Activism<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sakamoto was a longtime political activist, campaigning against nuclear power and weapons, and was a prominent voice in the anti-nuclear protests following the Fukushima meltdowns of 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was married twice, first in his student days, then to musician Akiko Yano, with whom he had a daughter, Miu Sakamoto, who became a successful pop singer in Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1990, he began a relationship with his manager Norika Sora, marrying her and having two children.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Cancer Diagnosis and Later Years<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sakamoto was diagnosed with Stage 3 throat cancer in June 2014 and took the first significant break in his career.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He announced his recovery a little over a year later, working on Yoji Yamada&#8217;s Living With My Mother and scoring Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu&#8217;s The Revenant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He served on the jury at the Berlin Film Festival in 2018 and was awarded Asian Filmmaker of the Year by the Busan film festival a few months later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sakamoto&#8217;s influence on the music industry is undeniable, with his experimental electronic music inspiring various genres and artists around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His passing leaves a lasting legacy in the world of music and activism.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":155480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}