Ryuichi Sakamoto: When Eastern Music meets Western chords

Ryuichi Sakamoto, a 70-year-old Japanese composer, sits gracefully in front of his piano and plays ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,’ a song that he has performed countless times. He dons his iconic round glasses and a classic black suit that fits him perfectly. Against the monochrome image, his gray hair shines, and he looks as fashionable as he did in his younger days, despite his old age.

In a poignant moment on December 11th, 2022, Ryuichi Sakamoto live-streamed what would be his ‘final’ concert due to his worsening cancer, which may prevent him from performing in the future. The concert was witnessed by a global audience, and recordings of the image and music were segmented for posterity. Sakamoto was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and was later diagnosed with rectal cancer in June 2020, which has since stabilized.

Throughout his first fifty years, Sakamoto's life was marked by a history of brilliant growth, as he formed music bands, directed films, and won numerous awards. He maintained a free spirit and seemingly boundless creativity until mid-age. However, after being struck by cancer twice and experiencing changes in the social environment, he emerged from his own world and began to use his music to pay attention to society and others. His goodwill has received positive recognition, and according to foreign media outlets such as Yahoo, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away at the age of 71 on March 28th, 2023.

Iconic Music from the East

Sakamoto gained recognition for his work on The Last Emperor in 1988, winning the Best Original Score award at the age of 36. Despite this achievement, he was still surprised and worried about being embarrassed on stage when he reminisced about the moment. How did he come to be on the prize-winning stage? Initially, he only wanted to form a music band that would perform the most innovative electronic music of the time. His recordings did not make waves in Japan, but they went viral in Europe and the U.S. His distinctive Eastern appearance caught the attention of Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, who invited him to act in the film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence in 1983.

At the Cannes Film Festival in the same year, he met Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, who was also fascinated with the East. Bertolucci frequently traveled to China to prepare for his movie The Last Emperor, which chronicled the life of Fuyi. Sakamoto joined the crew of ‘The Last Emperor’ in 1986, and during his teenage years, he was enamored with Chinese culture, which made a profound impression on him. He learned the melody from ‘Let's sway twin oars’ while composing ‘The East Wind.’ He also traveled to Beijing, Changchun, and Dalian, and even gained access to the Forbidden City to shoot the film. From his perspective, Chinese streets were tranquil yet vibrant. He felt the hustle and bustle in a department store where people rushed to purchase goods. These sound and image impressions remained vivid in his mind until his old age.

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Although the job as an actor failed to captivate him, Ryuichi Sakamoto found his true calling when Bernardo Bertolucci unexpectedly approached him to compose a piece of music for the original soundtrack of the ‘coronation’ of Manchukuo ‘emperor’ Fuyi, which would be played live by the orchestra. Despite being given just two days to complete the task, Sakamoto tackled it with passion and delivered a piece of music that Bertolucci was pleased with within a few days. This led to more requests from Bertolucci for Sakamoto to compose additional pieces. With intense dedication, Sakamoto rehearsed with bands and composed more than 40 songs in just two weeks.

This experience proved to be a turning point in Sakamoto's career, as he continued to gain global recognition after winning the Academy Award. He earned the nickname ‘Professor’, coined by his partner Takahashi Yukihiro when Sakamoto organized his music band, due to his impressive level of education and vast knowledge base. Born into a family of intellectuals, Sakamoto was influenced by his environment and developed a habit of conducting extensive research when composing music.

During his work on the score of The Last Emperor for Bernardo Bertolucci, Sakamoto had no prior knowledge of Chinese music. To overcome this, he purchased 20 Chinese folk music CDs and incorporated the pipa (Chinese lute) and guzheng (Chinese zither) into the western orchestra. Similarly, when composing the theme song for ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence’, he blended the eastern pentatonic scale with western chords to create a well-known melody. For the soundtrack, which was supposed to include the sound of a church bell during Christmas, he instead opted for the sound of the Southeast Asian traditional instrument ‘Camelan’ to represent the story's setting on Java Island. The resulting song, which seamlessly combined Eastern and Western culture, captivated audiences worldwide.

A long teenage period

Ryuichi Sakamoto's global recognition continued to grow after winning an Academy Award, and he also became well-known as 'Professor' worldwide. This nickname was given to him by his partner Takahashi Yukihiro when Ryuichi Sakamoto organized his music band. Yukihiro was impressed by his extensive education and knowledge base, and the nickname was fitting as Ryuichi was born into a family of intellectuals, with a literary editor father and a designer mother.

Growing up in this environment influenced Ryuichi's music style, and he developed a habit of researching whenever he composed music. When he composed the score for The Last Emperor for Bernardo Bertolucci, he had no prior knowledge of Chinese music. To overcome this, he purchased 20 Chinese folk music CDs and combined traditional instruments like the Pipa (Chinese lute) and Guzheng (Chinese zither) with western orchestra to create a unique sound.

Similarly, when composing the theme song for 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,' Ryuichi incorporated an eastern pentatonic scale with western chord to create a well-known melody. The original soundtrack was meant to include the sound of church bells during Christmas, but Ryuichi opted to use the sound of Southeast Asian traditional instrument 'Camelan' instead to reflect the story's location in Java Island. His ability to combine Eastern and Western culture in his music impressed the world.

Image from China News Service Video

Apart from being an intellectual, Ryuichi Sakamoto was also characterized by his spirit of freedom and rebellion, which was a reflection of the era of the 1960s and 1970s. During this time, rock music and the Hippie movement were introduced to Japan from the U.S., and left-wing ideas of equality, peace, justice, anti-war, and Eastern Zen became popular among young people.

Despite the overall situation and his personal growth, Ryuichi Sakamoto never pushed himself to live a rigid lifestyle. When he worked part-time jobs, he met many folk and rock singers and gained their trust. He also met his band partners, Yukihiro Takahashi and Haruomi Hosono, who helped him start his electronic music career. During a time when global youth were rebelling, artists continued to express their creativity. Many of them broke down the barriers of academicism to create wherever and whenever they could.

Reborn in the shadow of death

Golden eras may come to an end at any time, and Ryuichi Sakamoto witnessed one such unforgettable moment during breakfast on an ordinary day in September 2001, shortly after he had moved to New York City for a decade. The World Trade Center was hit by a plane, causing a huge plume of smoke and a long, piercing siren. He witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which led him to realize suddenly that he was overwhelmed by fear of war. In response, he and his friend wrote a quote called "No War" to help them cope with their depression. It stressed that war was not acceptable for any reason, and this marked the first time he had explicitly expressed his political views as an artist.

Over time, he felt that more extreme views were emerging, casting shadows over peaceful days. He began to use music to express his opinions, and his style became increasingly unconventional. In 2002, he traveled to Kenya, the origin of human beings, to discover what kind of sounds could be heard in this country. A few years later, he went to Greenland and threw a recorder into an ice hole to record the sound of the melting glacier, humorously calling it "fishing for sound".

In 2012, he played music for victims of the Fukushima nuclear accident, hoping to help them fall asleep safely and soundly. Inspired by the artist John Milton Cage Jr, who "added the daily elements into the music," Ryuichi Sakamoto is using music as a tool to influence reality.

The anti-nuclear power alliance and three other groups held a mass gathering in Tokyo on 9th of March 2014. Ryuichi Sakamoto was at a rally at the Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall, calling for no nuclear weapons.

Ryuichi Sakamoto faced a series of challenges while traveling around the world. In 2014, he was suddenly diagnosed with throat cancer, which led to him canceling most of his work to undergo treatment. However, he continued to compose music for movies, such as The Revenant.

In July 2022, he wrote an article for Shincho magazine, in which he revealed that he had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in June 2020. Over the past two years, he has undergone six operations in several hospitals to remove tumors from his rectum, lung, and lymphatic system. Despite these difficulties, he continued to create music until his final moment, inspired by the likes of Bach and Debussy.

On a Chinese video website, people paid tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto through bullet comments in a video where he gently and slowly spoke in Chinese, saying "Hi everyone, long time no see. I am Ryuichi Sakamoto."