Notable Alumni of Tokyo University of the Arts [Sorted List]

1. Gôbara Kotô

1887-1965 (aged 78)

painter

Gobara Koto, whose real name was Horie Tōichirō, was a Japanese painter a native of Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, and an art educator during the period of Japanese rule in Taiwan. Inspired by the model of the Imperial Art Exhibition (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition) held in mainland Japan, Gobara Koto collaborated with artists such as Kinichiro Ishikawa, Tōho Shiotsuki, and...

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2. Kikuko Kanai

1906-1986 (aged 80)

composer

Kikuko Kanai was a Japanese composer and one of the first Japanese women to compose classical music in the Western tradition.

3. Go Hui-dong

1886-1965 (aged 79)

painter

Go Hui-dong, also known by the pen name Chun-gok, born in Seoul, was the first Korean painter to adopt Western styles. He spent most of his life in Seoul. He studied French there from 1899 to 1903 and briefly took a post with the Korean government. Leaving the post in 1905, he studied Korean painting for several years and then...

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4. Pehr Henrik Nordgren

1944-2008 (aged 64)

composer

Pehr Henrik Nordgren was a Finnish composer.

5. Wang Pai Yuan

1902-1965 (aged 63)

artist

Wang Baiyuan was a Taiwanese modernist poet and a Japanese-language writer.

6. Tetsumi Kudo

1935-1990 (aged 55)

performance artist painter illustrator sculptor visual artist

Tetsumi Kudо̄ was a Japanese avant-garde artist whose multidisciplinary practice included painting, performance, installation and sculpture. Associated with the Anti-Art (Han-geijutsu) movement in Japan in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Kudо̄'s provocative art was nourished by lifelong interests in science, sport and everyday objects. His work often presents a radically transformed and grotesque vision of the human body, calling...

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7. Tamaki Tokuyama

1903-1942 (aged 39)

opera singer actor

Tamaki Tokuyama was a classically trained baritone and a famous singer of popular music in early Shōwa era Japan.

8. Masaki Fujihata

1956-. (aged 70)

photographer artist

Masaki Fujihata is a Japanese sound, installation, and interactive artist. He is a professor at Keio University.

9. Tetsuya Noda

1940-. (aged 86)

printmaker

Tetsuya Noda is a contemporary artist, printmaker and educator. He is widely considered to be Japan’s most important living print-artist, and one of the most successful contemporary print artists in the world. He is a professor emeritus of the Tokyo University of the Arts. Noda is most well-known for his visual autobiographical works done as a series of woodblock, print,...

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10. Shiotsuki Tōho

1886-1954 (aged 68)

painter

Tōho Shiotsuki, also known by his birth name Zenkichi Nagano, was a Japanese painter from Miyazaki. From 1921 to 1946, he taught art in Taiwan, and his surviving works and images depict and show a great deal of concern for Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.

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11. Jitsuzō Hinago

1892-1945 (aged 53)

sculptor

Jitsuzo Hinago was a Japanese sculptor. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics and the 1936 Summer Olympics.

12. Takeo Yamaguchi

1902-1983 (aged 81)

painter

Takeo Yamaguchi was an avant-garde Japanese painter of monochrome Art Informel works.

13. Jin Goto

1968-. (aged 58)

illustrator painter

Jin Goto is a Japanese nihonga and picture book painter.

14. Hirafuku Hyakusui

1877-1933 (aged 56)

painter waka poet

Hirafuku Hyakusui, originally named Teizō was a Japanese painter in the nihonga style.

15. Cheng Maoyun

1900-1957 (aged 57)

composer

Cheng Maoyun was a Chinese composer and a professor at National Central University and Hangzhou Societal University (杭州社會大學). He composed the National Anthem of the Republic of China.

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16. Ryuko Kawaji

1888-1959 (aged 71)

writer poet literary critic critic

Ryuko Kawaji was the pen-name of Kawaki Makoto, a Japanese poet and literary critic active during the Shōwa period of Japan.

17. Sakunosuke Koyama

1864-1927 (aged 63)

composer musicologist

Sakunosuke Koyama was a Japanese composer and music teacher. He was the founder and president of the Japanese Music Education Federation.

18. Luke Hasegawa

1897-1967 (aged 70)

painter

Luke Hasegawa (9 July 1897 – 3 July 1967) was a Japanese artist and convert to Catholicism who was commissioned to paint murals remembering the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki for the Church of the Holy Japanese Martyrs in Civitavecchia, Italy.

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19. Shin Kusakawa

1893-1948 (aged 55)

violinist composer

Shin Kusakawa was a Japanese composer famous for his doyo, "夕やけこやけ (Yūyake koya ke)"/"Sunset Glow."

20. Takahiro Sonoda

1928-2004 (aged 76)

pianist

Takahiro Sonoda was a Japanese classical pianist.

21. Akiko Seki

1899-1973 (aged 74)

choir director singer

Akiko Seki was a Japanese soprano. She is commonly recognized as the founder of the movement of The Singing Voice of Japan (Japanese: 日本のうたごえ, Nihon no Utagoe / うたごえ運動, Utagoe-undō). In 1955 she was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize.

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22. Noritaka Tatehana

1985-. (aged 41)

fashion designer

Noritaka Tatehana is a Japanese shoe designer born into a family that ran a public bathhouse. He studied fine arts, Japanese craft, dyeing, and weaving at the Tokyo University of the Arts.

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23. Chen Zhiqi

1906-1931 (aged 25)

painter sculptor

Chen Chih-chi was a Taiwanese painter.

24. Tadashi Yanada

1883-1959 (aged 76)

composer

Tadashi Yanada was a Japanese composer. His music was performed at Seijo Elementary School.

25. Eisaku Wada

1874-1959 (aged 85)

painter

Wada Eisaku was a Japanese painter and luminary of the yōga (or Western-style) scene in the late Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa eras. He was a member of the Japan Art Academy, an Imperial Household Artist, a recipient of the Order of the Sacred Treasure and Order of Culture, an Officier in the Légion d'honneur, and a Person of Cultural Merit.

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26. Kunihiko Hashimoto

1904-1949 (aged 45)

composer conductor violinist music educator

Hashimoto Kunihiko was a Japanese composer, violinist, conductor, and musical educator.

27. Shotaro Sanada

2000-. (aged 26)

researcher painter YouTuber business manager

Shotaro Sanada is a Japanese painter and researcher. He is known for large-scale abstract paintings that explore "new landscapes" and for interdisciplinary work linking art, aesthetics, and artificial intelligence.

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28. Narashige Koide

1887-1931 (aged 44)

painter

Narashige Koide was a Japanese painter and illustrator, noted for his work in pioneering the Hanshinkan Modernism trend in yōga (Western-style) portraiture and nude painting in early 20th century Japanese painting.

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29. Toshiko Sekiya

1904-1941 (aged 37)

composer singer

Toshiko Sekiya, also written Sekiya Toshiko, was a Japanese singer and composer. As a soprano she was noted for her exceptional vocal control and precision of tone. She wrote several songs and operas, some left unfinished after she took her own life at the early age of 37.

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30. Wajiro Kon

1888-1973 (aged 85)

architect sociologist

Wajiro Kon was a Japanese architect, designer, and educator. He is known as the father of "modernology" (kogengaku), a branch of sociology which studied the changes in cityscape and people which emerged as a consequence of Tokyo becoming a modern metropolis in the early Showa Era. His maternal grandfather was the kokugakusha Osari Nakaakira.

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31. Yūko Hasegawa

1955-. (aged 71)

art critic

Yuko Hasegawa is the director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa and professor of curatorial and art theory at Tokyo University of the Arts.

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32. Akeo Watanabe

1919-1990 (aged 71)

violinist teacher conductor

Akeo Watanabe was a Japanese symphonic conductor, known for his recordings of the works of Jean Sibelius.

33. Ryūtarō Hirota

1892-1952 (aged 60)

composer

Ryūtarō Hirota was a Japanese composer.

34. Yoko Nagae Ceschina

1932-2015 (aged 83)

harpist

Yoko Nagae Ceschina was a Japanese-born patron of the arts and noted patroness of classical music.

35. Yen Shui-long

1903-1997 (aged 94)

painter sculptor

Yen Shui-long was a Taiwanese painter and sculptor, folk craft researcher, and art educator, who spent most of his life researching and promoting Taiwanese handicrafts, as well as cultivating Taiwanese folk craft talents. Yen was born in Ensuikō Chō, Japanese Taiwan (modern-day Xiaying, Tainan, Taiwan), after 1950, Yan began focusing his works on both the indigenous people and scenery of...

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36. Takanori Oguiss

1901-1986 (aged 85)

painter designer illustrator draftsperson graphic artist

Takanori Ogisu, styled as Takanori Oguiss, was a Japanese figurative painter who lived and worked most of his life in France. He is known by his cityscape paintings.

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37. Isoya Yoshida

1894-1974 (aged 80)

architect

Isoya Yoshida was a Japanese architect. He graduated from Tokyo Art School (now Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music) in 1923. His style, which he called sukiya with reference to the centuries-old sukiya-zukuri tradition, combines elements of traditional Japanese architecture and modernist architecture. Among his notable projects was the fourth iteration of the Kabuki-za, which was torn down...

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38. Kazuo Yamada

1912-1991 (aged 79)

composer conductor

Kazuo Yamada was a Japanese conductor and composer.

39. Keiichi Oku

1955-. (aged 71)

keyboardist music arranger composer

Keiichi Oku is a Japanese keyboardist, composer and arranger. He was the keyboardist in the Japanese band Spectrum from 1979 to 1981. In 2009, he won the JASRAC International Award for the background music used in the Ashita no Nadja anime television series from Toei Animation.

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40. Yasushi Sugiyama

1909-1993 (aged 84)

painter

Yasushi Sugiyama was a Japanese painter of the Shōwa and Heisei eras, who practiced the nihonga style of watercolour painting.

41. Nagayo Motoori

1885-1945 (aged 60)

composer

Nagayo Motoori was a Japanese composer.

42. Chiang Wen-yeh

1910-1983 (aged 73)

composer

Chiang Wen-yeh or Jiang Wenye was a Taiwan-born composer, active mainly in Japan and later in mainland China. He was born in Dadaocheng, Taipei, and died in Beijing. While often known in the West by renditions of his Chinese name, the three Chinese characters that form his name are pronounced Kō Bunya (こうぶんや) in Japanese, and thus he is...

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43. Goyō Hashiguchi

1880-1921 (aged 41)

wood engraver painter ukiyo-e artist

Goyō Hashiguchi was a Japanese artist. At the forefront of the shin-hanga ("new prints") movement, a revival of ukiyo-e, he designed fourteen woodblock prints which are regarded as masterpieces of the genre.

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44. Kazushi Ōno

1960-. (aged 66)

conductor music director

Kazushi Ōno is a Japanese conductor. He is currently music director of the Brussels Philharmonic and of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of New National Theatre Tokyo.

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45. Tadashi Kawamata

1953-. (aged 73)

university teacher painter sculptor visual artist photographer

Tadashi Kawamata is a Japanese installation artist. After first studying painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, Kawamata discovered his interest in the practice of installation. Using recuperated construction materials, like wood planks, he began building rudimentary partitions in gallery spaces and apartments to explore the perception of space.

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46. Yasutake Funakoshi

1912-2002 (aged 90)

sculptor

Yasutake Funakoshi was a Japanese sculptor and painter.

47. Li Mei-shu

1902-1983 (aged 81)

sculptor university teacher painter educator legislator

Li Mei-shu was a Taiwanese painter, sculptor, and politician. He was best known for his paintings as well as his restoration attempt of the Changfu Temple.

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48. Oki

1957-. (aged 69)

lutenist

Oki Kano, known professionally as OKI, is a Japanese musician of mixed Japanese Ainu ancestry.

49. Kiyoshi Nobutoki

1887-1965 (aged 78)

musicologist cellist composer

Kiyoshi Nobutoki was a Japanese composer, teacher and cellist.

50. Tamezō Narita

1893-1945 (aged 52)

composer

Tamezō Narita was a Japanese composer.

51. Hiroyuki Iwaki

1932-2006 (aged 74)

music educator conductor professor percussionist essayist

Hiroyuki Iwaki AO was a Japanese conductor and percussionist.

52. Tachikawa Sumito

1929-1985 (aged 56)

teacher singer

Tachikawa Sumito was a Japanese baritone singer and radio host. At first a singer of opera and lieder, his repertoire later included musicals and popular music. In addition to being a performing musician, he was also a radio host and television personality.

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53. Gen'ichirō Inokuma

1902-1993 (aged 91)

painter

Gen'ichirō Inokuma was a Japanese painter. Inokuma is best known for his large-scale abstract paintings that allude to industrial landscapes, ladders, rail tracks, derricks, cranes, urban maps, and city planners’ blueprints.

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54. Taku Satoh

1955-. (aged 71)

graphic designer

Taku Satoh is a Japanese graphic designer born in Tokyo. He graduated in 1979 from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (currently Tokyo University of the Arts) in the Department of Design. He completed his master's degree in 1981. In 1984 he founded Taku Satoh Design Office after working at Dentsu Inc. His work in graphic design includes...

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55. Ryōhei Koiso

1903-1988 (aged 85)

painter Yōga painter

Ryōhei Koiso was a Japanese artist. He graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts western art department in 1927 and had a successful career from early on. During World War II he was often commissioned paintings depicting Japanese military scenes, such as the signing of the British surrender of Singapore, and Japanese infantrymen making their way through high grass...

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56. Jun'ya Ishigami

1974-. (aged 52)

university teacher architect

Jun'ya Ishigami is a Japanese architect.

57. Motoko Ishii

1938-. (aged 88)

lighting designer engineer

Motoko Ishii is a Japanese lighting designer. From 1965 to 1967 she worked at lighting-design offices in Finland and Germany. Returning to Japan in 1968, she established the Ishii Motoko Design Office.

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58. Shirō Hamaguchi

1969-. (aged 57)

composer music arranger

Shirō Hamaguchi is a Japanese composer, arranger and orchestrator. He is best known for composing music to the anime franchises Girls und Panzer, One Piece, and Oh My Goddess! and arranging/orchestrating music in the Final Fantasy series. He frequently collaborates with fellow composers Kohei Tanaka and Akifumi Tada on anime scores.

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59. Huang Tu-Shui

1895-1930 (aged 35)

artist sculptor

Huang Tu-shui was a pioneer of modern sculpture in Taiwan. From his youth, Huang was familiar with the traditional carving of Taiwan, and was influenced by modern Western styles during his studies in Tokyo.

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60. Shin'ichirō Ikebe

1943-. (aged 83)

composer musicologist clarinetist film score composer

Shin'ichirō Ikebe is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music.

61. Akiko Futaba

1915-2011 (aged 96)

singer actor

Akiko Futaba was a Japanese popular music (ryūkōka) singer. As of the end of World War II, she was one of the most popular female singers in Japan, competing with Hamako Watanabe and Noriko Awaya. In addition, she took part in the Kōhaku Uta Gassen, one of Japan's most famous annual musical television shows, ten times.

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62. Chiyonosuke Azuma

1926-2000 (aged 74)

actor choreographer television actor

Chiyonosuke Azuma was a Japanese actor and Nihon-buyō dancer. He appeared in more than 40 films from 1954 to 1993.

63. Shinpei Nakayama

1887-1952 (aged 65)

musicologist songwriter composer

Shimpei Nakayama was a Japanese songwriter famous for his many children's songs (warabe uta) and popular songs (ryūkōka) that have become deeply embedded in Japanese popular culture.

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64. Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi

1940-. (aged 86)

composer conductor university teacher musician

Ken'ichiro Kobayashi is a Japanese conductor and composer. In Japan he is known among his fans as “Kobaken.”

65. Teiichi Okano

1878-1941 (aged 63)

musicologist educator composer

Teiichi Okano was a Japanese composer.

66. Ikuo Hirayama

1930-2009 (aged 79)

academic administrator painter

Ikuo Hirayama was a Japanese Nihonga painter and educator. Born in Setoda-chō, Hiroshima Prefecture, he was famous in Japan for Silk Road paintings of dreamy desert landscapes in Iran, Iraq, and China.

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67. Na Hye-sok

1896-1948 (aged 52)

printmaker writer philosopher activist politician

Na Hye-sŏk was a Korean feminist, poet, writer, painter, educator, and journalist. Her art name was Jeongwol (정월; 晶月). She was a pioneering Korean feminist writer and painter. She was the first female professional painter and the first feminist writer in Korea. She created some of the earliest Western-style paintings in Korea, and published feminist novels and short stories. She...

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68. Yuzo Saeki

1898-1928 (aged 30)

painter

Yūzō Saeki was a Japanese painter, noted for his work in developing modernism and Fauvist Expressionism within the yōga (Western-style) art movement in early twentieth-century Japanese painting.

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69. Eriko Kishida

1929-2011 (aged 82)

poet writer translator novelist lyricist

Eriko Kishida was a Japanese poet, children's author, lyricist, and translator. She is known for writing the lyrics to popular animated children's television shows like Anne of Green Gables and Heidi, Girl of the Alps, as well as her children's picture books. Kishida was a member of the Kai group and published poetry in the "Kai" literary magazine founded by...

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70. Riken Yamamoto

1945-. (aged 81)

head teacher architect

Riken Yamamoto is a Japanese architect. In 2024, he received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered to be the most prestigious award in architecture, becoming the 9th Japanese architect to receive such honor.

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71. Hiroshi Senju

1958-. (aged 68)

painter

Hiroshi Senju is a Japanese Nihonga painter known for his large scale waterfall paintings.

72. Masashi Hamauzu

1971-. (aged 55)

composer pianist lyricist songwriter music arranger

Masashi Hamauzu is a Japanese composer, pianist, and lyricist. Hamauzu, who was employed at Square Enix from 1996 to 2010, was best known during that time for his work on the Final Fantasy and SaGa video game series. Born into a musical family in Germany, Hamauzu was raised in Japan. He became interested in music while in kindergarten, and took...

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73. Yoshitoshi ABe

1971-. (aged 55)

draftsperson character designer visual artist mangaka illustrator

Yoshitoshi Abe, also stylized as yoshitoshi ABe, is a Japanese graphic artist who works predominantly in anime and manga. He first gained fame for his work on the avant-garde anime Serial Experiments Lain. He is also responsible for the concept and character design for the series NieA_7. He is the creator of the dōjinshi Haibane Renmei, which was also adapted...

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74. Shigeaki Saegusa

1942-. (aged 84)

composer musicologist

Shigeaki Saegusa is a Japanese composer.

75. Yoshinao Nakada

1923-2000 (aged 77)

composer musicologist

Nakada Yoshinao was a Japanese composer.

76. Hiroshi Teshigahara

1927-2001 (aged 74)

film director potter director architect writer

Hiroshi Teshigahara was a Japanese avant-garde filmmaker and artist from the Japanese New Wave era. He is best known for the 1964 film Woman in the Dunes. He is also known for directing other titles such as The Face of Another (1966), Natsu no Heitai (Summer Soldiers, 1972), and Pitfall (1962), which was Teshigahara's directorial debut. He has been called...

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77. Toshiro Mayuzumi

1929-1997 (aged 68)

film score composer choreographer composer pianist musicologist

Toshiro Mayuzumi was a Japanese composer. He was known for his implementation of avant-garde instrumentation alongside traditional Japanese musical techniques. His works drew inspiration from a variety of sources ranging from jazz to Balinese music, and he was considered a pioneer in the realm of musique concrète and electronic music, being the first artist in his country to explore these...

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78. Akira Senju

1960-. (aged 66)

composer DJ producer music arranger conductor

Akira Senju is a Japanese composer, arranger and conductor.

79. Yōichi Kotabe

1936-. (aged 90)

mangaka illustrator animator

Yōichi Kotabe is a Japanese animator and character designer, best known for his work on classic anime of the 1960s and 1970s, the Super Mario video game series, and the Pokémon franchise in television and film. He was an employee at Nintendo for two decades doing illustrations, character designs, and supervision from 1985 to 2007. After that, he began to...

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80. Makoto Aida

1965-. (aged 61)

photographer installation artist sculptor performance artist painter

Makoto Aida is a Japanese contemporary artist known for his provocative works of manga, painting, video, photography, sculpture, and installation. Though less well known internationally than Takashi Murakami or Yoshitomo Nara, he is recognized in Japan as one of the preeminent figures of Japanese contemporary art.

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81. Eiji Aonuma

1963-. (aged 63)

computer scientist video game developer video game producer game designer

Eiji Aonuma is a Japanese video game designer, director, and producer at Nintendo. He is a senior officer within their Nintendo EPD division and serves as the producer of the Legend of Zelda franchise.

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82. Shin Sang-ok

1926-2006 (aged 80)

manufacturer director film director film producer screenwriter

Shin Sang-ok, anglicized as Simon Sheen, was a South Korean filmmaker who directed 74 films in a career spanning over five decades. He is best known in South Korea for his efforts during the 1950s and 1960s, many of them collaborations with his wife Choi Eun-hee. Shin posthumously received the Gold Crown Cultural Medal, the country's top honor for an...

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83. Ichirō Fujiyama

1911-1993 (aged 82)

composer music arranger conductor singer

Ichirō Fujiyama, born Takeo Masunaga (増永丈夫, Masunaga Takeo), was a Japanese singer and composer, known for his contribution to Japanese popular music called ryūkōka by his Western classical music skills. He was born in Chūō, Tokyo, and graduated from the Tokyo Music School. Although he was regarded as a tenor singer in Japanese popular music, he was originally a...

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84. Ikuma Dan

1924-2001 (aged 77)

composer conductor musicologist essayist

Ikuma Dan was a Japanese composer. Dan was born in Tokyo, the descendant of a prominent family, his grandfather Baron Dan Takuma having been President of Mitsui before being assassinated in 1932. He graduated from Aoyama Gakuin and Tokyo Music School in 1946. He studied with teachers including Kosaku Yamada, Kunihiko Hashimoto, Kan'ichi Shimofusa, Saburō Moroi, and Midori Hosokawa.

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85. Kaii Higashiyama

1908-1999 (aged 91)

painter

Kaii Higashiyama was a Japanese writer and artist particularly renowned for his Nihonga style paintings. As one of the most popular artists in post-war Japan, Higashiyama was awarded the Japan Art Academy Prize in 1956 and the Order of Culture in 1969.

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86. Tan Teng-pho

1895-1947 (aged 52)

painter

Chen Cheng-po, was a Taiwanese painter and politician. In 1926, his oil painting Street of Chiayi was featured in the seventh Teiten (Imperial Arts Exhibition) in Japan, which was the first time a Taiwanese artist's work could be displayed at the exhibition. Chen devoted his life to education and creation, and was greatly concerned about the development of humanist culture...

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87. Ryusuke Hamaguchi

1978-. (aged 48)

film director screenwriter

Ryusuke Hamaguchi is a Japanese filmmaker. An alumnus of the University of Tokyo and Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, he first gained international recognition for Happy Hour (2015), Asako I & II (2018) and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021), which premiered at the main competitions of Locarno, Cannes and Berlin respectively.

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88. Yasushi Akutagawa

1925-1989 (aged 64)

conductor television presenter writer composer radio personality

Yasushi Akutagawa was a Japanese composer and conductor. His father was Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.

89. Kōsaku Yamada

1886-1965 (aged 79)

musicologist conductor composer

Kōsaku Yamada was a Japanese composer and conductor.

90. Shigeru Ban

1957-. (aged 69)

restorer architect

Shigeru Ban is a Japanese architect, known for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard tubes used to quickly and efficiently house disaster victims. Many of his notable designs are structures which are temporary, prefabricated, or incorporate inexpensive and unconventional materials in innovative ways. He was profiled by Time magazine in their projection of 21st-century innovators in the field...

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91. Akira Yamaoka

1968-. (aged 58)

composer guitarist video game producer sound designer

Akira Yamaoka is a Japanese composer, producer and sound designer. He is known for scoring every installment of Konami's horror video game series Silent Hill (1999–present), with the exception of Downpour and Book of Memories, though he still played guitar on the latter. He has also produced many of the games and composed the soundtracks of the Silent Hill film...

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92. Tōru Takemitsu

1930-1996 (aged 66)

pedagogue film score composer writer composer autodidact

Tōru Takemitsu was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu was admired for his subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre. He is known for combining elements of oriental and occidental philosophy and for fusing sound with silence and tradition with innovation.

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93. Rentarō Taki

1879-1903 (aged 24)

composer pianist

Rentarō Taki was a Japanese pianist and composer of the Meiji era.

94. Ryuichi Sakamoto

1952-2023 (aged 71)

pianist keyboardist record producer composer actor

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his YMO bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres. As a film score composer,...

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95. Yūsuke Iseya

1976-. (aged 50)

film director director model television actor actor

Yusuke Iseya is a Japanese actor, director, artist, and businessman.

96. Takashi Murakami

1962-. (aged 64)

film director painter sculptor installation artist visual artist

Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial media (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. His work draws from the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of postwar Japanese culture. He...

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97. Mansai Nomura II

1966-. (aged 60)

actor nōgaku artist

Nomura Mansai II is a Japanese kyōgen and film actor. He played Abe no Seimei in Onmyoji and Onmyoji 2, an original work by Baku Yumemakura. He received the Best Actor prize at the Blue Ribbon Awards for his work in Onmyoji.

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98. Erina Matsui

1984-. (aged 42)

painter

Erina Matsui is a Japanese contemporary artist. She is known for her surreal self-portraits, mostly done as oil paintings. Her work has been praised for its jarring visual impact as it defies normal representations of childhood being cute and innocent.

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99. Masaaki Suzuki

1954-. (aged 72)

choir director conductor composer university teacher organist

Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist, conductor, and the founder and music director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for which he is also recording Bach's concertos, orchestral suites, and solo works for harpsichord and organ. He is also an...

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100. Kan’ichi Shimofusa

1898-1962 (aged 64)

composer

Kanichi Shimofusa was a Japanese composer.