Joe Hisaishi

Joe Hisaishi
Joe Hisaishi in Paris in 2011
Background information
Birth name	Mamoru Fujisawa
Born	December 6, 1950 (1950-12-06) (age 60)
Origin	Nagano, Japan
Genres	Film score, New Age, Neoclassical
Occupations	Musical director, composer, conductor, arranger
Instruments	Violin, piano, keyboard
Years active	1974–present
Website	http://www.joehisaishi.com/

Mamoru Fujisawa (藤澤 守, Fujisawa Mamoru^?), known professionally as Joe Hisaishi (久石 譲, Hisaishi Jō^?, born December 6, 1950), is a composer and director known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981.

While possessing a stylistically distinct sound, Hisaishi's music has been known to explore and incorporate different genres, including minimalist, experimental electronic, European classical, and Japanese classical. Lesser known are the other musical roles he plays; he is also a typesetter, author, arranger, and head of an orchestra.

He is best known for his work with animator Hayao Miyazaki, having composed scores for many of his films including Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Porco Rosso (1992), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004) and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008). He is also recognized for the soundtracks he has provided for filmmaker 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano, including A Scene at the Sea (1991), Dolls (2002), Kikujiro (1999), Hana-bi (1997), Kids Return (1996), Ocean Heaven (2010) and Sonatine (1993).

Biography

Joe Hisaishi was born in Nakano, Nagano, Japan as Mamoru Fujisawa (藤澤 守, Fujisawa Mamoru^?). When he started to take violin lessons at age five, Hisaishi discovered his passion for music. Realizing his love, he attended the Kunitachi College of Music in 1969 to major in music composition. Hisaishi collaborated with minimalist artists as a typesetter, furthering his experience in the musical world.

He enjoyed his first success of the business in 1974 when he composed music for a small animation called Gyatoruzu. This and other early works were created under his given name. During this period, he composed for Sasuga no Sarutobi (Academy of Ninja) and Futari Taka (A Full Throttle).

In the 1970s, Japanese popular music, electronic music, and new-age music flourished; those genres, as well as the Yellow Magic Orchestra (a Japanese electronic band in 1978–1983), influenced Hisaishi's compositions. He developed his music from minimalist ideas and expanded toward orchestral work. Around 1975, Hisaishi presented his first public performance, spreading his name around his community. His first album, MKWAJU, was released in 1981, with Information being released a year later.

As his works were becoming well known, Hisaishi formulated an alias inspired by Quincy Jones, an African-American musician and producer. Retranscribed in Japanese, "Quincy Jones" became "Joe Hisaishi." ("Quincy," pronounced "Kuishi" in Japanese, can be written using the same kanji in "Hisaishi"; "Joe" comes from "Jones.")

In 1983, with his new name, Hisaishi was recommended by a record company to create an album for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Hisaishi and the director of the animated film, Hayao Miyazaki, became great friends and would work together on many future projects. This big break led to Hisaishi's overwhelming success as a composer of film scores. In 1986, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and later, in the 1990s, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, were released. As Hisaishi strengthened his reputation as one of the budding anime industry's top musical contributors, his compositions (including eight theatrical films and one OAV) would proceed to become some of the very hallmarks of early anime in the 1980s and 1990s. Hisaishi also composed for such TV hits as Sasuga no Sarutobi, Two Down Full Base and anime Tekuno porisu 21C (all 1982), Sasrygar (1983), Futari Taka (1984), Honō no Alpen Rose (1985) and Ozu no mahôtsukai (1986). He also scored the sci-fi adventure series Mospeada (1983), which was later reworked (without his music) into the third segment of Carl Macek's compilation, Robotech. Other films he scored included Birth (Bâsu) (1984), Arion (1986), Totoro (1988), Venus Wars (1989), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Ocean Heaven (2010) and Porco Rosso (1992).

As more exposure was given to Hisaishi and the anime industry, his career grew. He initiated a solo career, began to produce music, and created his own label (Wonder Land Inc.). A year later, the label released its first album, Pretender, in New York.

As a result of his work throughout the years, Hisaishi has won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Music six times—in 1992,^[1] 1993,^[2] 1994,^[3] 1999,^[4] 2000,^[5] 2009,^[6] and 2011.^[7] He also received the 48th Newcomer Award in 1997 from the Ministry of Education (Public Entertainment Section) among numerous other awards, being recognized as an influential figure in the Japanese film industry.

In 1998, he provided the soundtrack to the 1998 Winter Paralympics. The following year, he composed the music for the third installment in a series of popular computer-animated educational films about the human body.

In 2001, Hisaishi produced music for Takeshi Kitano's film, Brother, and Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece, Spirited Away. He also served as executive producer of the Night Fantasia 4 Movement at the Japan Expo in Fukushima 2001. On October 6, Hisaishi made his debut as a film director in Quartet, having also written both its music and script. The film received excellent reviews at the Montreal Film Festival. His first soundtrack for a foreign film, Le Petit Poucet, was released in the same year.

Joe Hisaishi in Krakow, 2011

Another Miyazaki film, Howl's Moving Castle, for which Hisaishi composed the score, was released on November 20, 2004 in Japan. From November 3 to November 29, 2004, Hisaishi embarked on his "Joe Hisaishi Freedom – Piano Stories 2004" tour with Canadian musicians. In 2005, he composed the soundtrack for the Korean film, Welcome to Dongmakgol (웰컴 투 동막골). He also partook in Korea's historically landmarked big budget drama series production by composing the soundtrack for Korea's MBC drama series, The Legend (태왕사신기 "The Story of the First King's Four Gods"), which released in 2007. Hisaishi has a large fan base in Korea due to the popularity of Miyazaki films.

In 2006, Hisaishi released a studio album, Asian X.T.C., the compositions of which demonstrated a significantly eclectic and contemporary Eastern style. The erhu player of the Chinese band 12 Girls Band Zhan Li Jun played in a live concert featuring music from that album. The following year, he composed and recorded the soundtrack for Frederic Lepage's film, Sunny and the Elephant and the Miyazaki film, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, both released in 2008, as well as the score for Jiang Wen's film, The Sun Also Rises.

In 2008, Hisaishi composed soundtracks for Academy Award-winning film Departures as well as for I'd Rather Be a Shellfish (私は貝になりたい, Watashi wa Kai ni Naritai^?), a post-World War II war crimes trial drama which is based on the 1959 Tetsutaro Kato novel and film currently being remade and directed by Katsuo Fukuzawa, starring Masahiro Nakai and Yukie Nakama.

Hisaishi also released a new solo album in early 2009 featuring tracks from Shellfish and Departures.

In November 2009, he was awarded with a Medal of Honour with purple ribbon by the Government of Japan.^[8]

Discography

Hisaishi's full discography and list of projects may be accessed at his official website.

Albums

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

1980s

1990s

2000s

DVDs

Blu-Ray discs

Published scores

(released by Zen-On Music Company Ltd.)

Sources:^[9]

There are also numerous television and cinema soundtracks created by Joe Hisaishi which were never released for sale.

See also

• Studio Ghibli

References

1. ^ "第15回日本アカデミー賞優秀作品" (in Japanese). Japan Academy Prize. http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=15. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
2. ^ "第16回日本アカデミー賞優秀作品" (in Japanese). Japan Academy Prize. http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=16. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
3. ^ "第17回日本アカデミー賞優秀作品" (in Japanese). Japan Academy Prize. http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=17. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
4. ^ "第22回日本アカデミー賞優秀作品" (in Japanese). Japan Academy Prize. http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=22. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
5. ^ "第23回日本アカデミー賞優秀作品" (in Japanese). Japan Academy Prize. http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=23. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
6. ^ "第32回日本アカデミー賞優秀作品" (in Japanese). Japan Academy Prize. http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=32. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
7. ^ "第34回日本アカデミー賞優秀作品" (in Japanese). Japan Academy Prize. http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=34. Retrieved 20 May 2011. 
8. ^ "678 individuals, 24 groups awarded Medals of Honor,"^{[dead link]} Mainichi Shimbun. November 3, 2009; "Ghibli Composer Joe Hisaishi Awarded Medal of Honour," Anime News Network. November 3, 2009.
9. ^ Team Ghiblink. "Discography of Joe Hisaishi". Nausicaa.net. http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/hisaishi/discography.html. Retrieved 2008-01-19. 

External links

• Official Website
• Chinese Fansite
• Info at Nausicaa.net

Persondata
Name	Hisaishi, Joe
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1950-12-06
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death