Expressive Meaning and Historical Grounding in the Film Music of Fumio Hayasaka and Toru Takemitsu

Abstract

As an introduction to the volume of the Journal of Film Music devoted to the film scores of Fumio Hayasaka and Toru Takemitsu, this article explores Hayasaka’s artistic legacy in establishing practices that Takemitsu would personalize and extend in his film music. Hayasaka’s contributions during the interwar and postwar years would help to establish modern artistic traditions in Japanese music and film that explore boundaries between reality and dream, provide social commentary on the present through references to the past, and express individuality through the active negotiation of Japanese traditions and global ways of framing knowledge. Takemitsu’s film and concert works display an originality grounded in multiple layers of tradition that directly relates to Hayasaka’s innovations. The article offers a critical perspective on the role of music in films by Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Philip Kaufman.