Classical music by Japanese composers. Recommended classical music.
When we hear the term “classical music,” many of us immediately think of works by well-known foreign composers.
These pieces are often used in various everyday contexts with different arrangements, and there are many works that people have naturally heard at least once and can name right away.
However, if you’re asked to name classical works by Japanese composers, fewer people may be able to answer quickly.
Here, we focus on classical music composed by Japanese composers and highlight representative works.
This is recommended even for those who regularly enjoy classical music but haven’t listened much to works by Japanese composers.
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Classical music by Japanese composers. Recommended classical music (11–20)
Three Japonismes (Orchestral Version)Majima Toshio
The original piece is a wind band composition by Toshio Mashima, one of Japan’s prominent wind ensemble composers.
Commissioned by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and completed in 2001, it consists of three movements: “Dance of the Cranes,” “River of Snow,” and “Festival.” Expressing traditional Japanese aesthetics through Western musical techniques, the work ambitiously explores a fusion of East and West.
Each movement delicately yet powerfully portrays scenes such as the graceful dance of cranes, a tranquil winter landscape, and a vibrant festival, allowing listeners to experience Japan’s seasons and culture through music.
It’s highly recommended not only for fans of classical and wind band music, but also for those interested in traditional Japanese culture.
Elegy for the Crested IbisYoshimatsu Takashi
This orchestral piece was composed between 1977 and 1980 by Takashi Yoshimatsu, a composer active across a wide range of genres including not only symphonies but also film scores and pop music.
It is said to have been inspired by the death of Nori, the last crested ibis on Honshu, which was captured in 1971.
Throughout the work, a mournful atmosphere conveys the sense that the ibis population is dwindling and nearing its end.
It feels like a requiem for the ibis, while also sounding like the bird’s own sorrow and cries.
regretTaki Rentarō
Rentaro Taki, who composed children’s songs and art songs that every Japanese person knows—such as “Kojo no Tsuki” (Moon Over Ruined Castle) and “Oshogatsu” (New Year)—left an indelible mark on the history of Japanese music.
Although he died far too young at the age of 23, his best-known works are the songs mentioned at the outset.
Yet in the dawn of Western music in Japan during the Meiji era, Taki was deeply influenced by German music and studied in Germany as the third Japanese musician sent to Europe.
He also became the first Japanese composer to write a piano solo piece, the “Minuet.” The piece introduced here, “Kan” (Regret), is one of Taki’s rare piano works and effectively his final composition.
Characterized by a beautiful yet faintly wistful melody, “Kan” is said—just as its title suggests—to embody Taki’s poignant feelings as he sensed his own approaching death.
One can’t help but wonder how the history of music in Japan and the world might have unfolded if Taki had lived longer; it may be worthwhile to listen to this piece while imagining such possibilities.
Echo Patterns for Children’s Choir and OrchestraMiyoshi Akira
This is a piece themed around anti-war.
A children’s chorus and orchestra perform as one, using the nursery rhyme “Kagome Kagome” as a motif to evoke memories of war.
Premiered in 1984, it received high acclaim, including the Otaka Prize.
Employing a rich orchestral scoring and an array of percussion, it presents a three-dimensional sonic landscape and a distinctive musical language.
The innocent voices of the children and the complex orchestration are used in stark contrast, allowing listeners to experience, on a sensory level, the themes of “life and death” and “purity and fear.” It’s recommended not only for those interested in classical music, but also for anyone looking to explore contemporary Japanese music.
Victory Cry and PeaceYamada Kōsaku
This work, Kachidoki to Heiwa (Victory and Peace), is said to be the first symphony written in Japan.
Composed in 1912 by Kōsaku Yamada— a pioneer of Western music in Japan and a towering figure in modern Japanese music history who produced many great works— it is also known as an orchestral piece written following his Overture, the first orchestral work by a Japanese composer, likewise by Yamada.
Yamada, who had encountered Western music in his teens and was already composing, wrote this piece while studying composition at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1910.
It can be seen as the first fruit of his youthful years in Germany, where he absorbed the essence of Western music at its source.
While the style follows the late Romantic tradition, the melody heard at the opening of the first movement is said to quote the tune of Kimigayo, making it fascinating as a work in which admiration for Western music and a Japanese identity are beautifully fused.
BugakuMayuzumi Toshirō
This work has attracted attention as a piece that fuses Japanese traditional culture with contemporary music.
Released in 1962, the composition was inspired by the traditional Japanese dance form bugaku, and its innovative musical expression had a major impact on the music scene of the time.
It employs strings, percussion, and woodwinds, featuring tense tempo shifts and subtle dynamics.
Structured in two parts, it unfolds a generally minimal sonic and rhythmic texture throughout both sections.
Mayuzumi’s attempt to blend traditional Japanese music with modern orchestration has been highly acclaimed as an experimental endeavor that merges the classical with the contemporary.
It is a must-listen for anyone interested in Japanese classical music.
sand ripplesHoshina Hiroshi
Hoshina Hiroshi is a composer highly regarded in the field of wind band music.
His piece “Fūmon” (Wind Patterns) was selected as a set piece for wind band competitions and has been performed at contests known as the “Kōshien of wind ensembles,” moving many performers and audiences alike.
The work is a delicate and beautiful composition that musically evokes the patterns the wind forms on the surface of water, drawing inspiration from natural phenomena and the landscapes of Japan.
In 2015, Hoshina received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, and his many years of educational and instructional activity have also been highly praised.
This piece is recommended not only for lovers of wind bands and orchestral music, but also for those who wish to experience Japan’s traditional sense of beauty.
Cyber Bird ConcertoYoshimatsu Takashi
This is a representative work by Takashi Yoshimatsu, known as a composer who has pioneered new frontiers in Japan’s classical music scene.
While featuring the saxophone as the main instrument, it also uses piano and percussion in a soloistic manner, and is characterized by a style that incorporates jazz rhythms and improvisational elements.
Comprising three movements—each titled “Birds in Colors,” “Birds in Sorrow,” and “Birds in the Wind”—the piece premiered in March 1994.
It carries the composer’s feelings for his sister, who passed away during its creation, unfolding a unique worldview that overlays the near-futuristic image of birds in cyberspace with birds as symbols of nature and life.
It is a recommended piece for those who wish to enjoy a fusion of classical, pop, and jazz.
Fantasy on Osaka Folk SongsŌguri Yutaka
This is an orchestral piece by Hiroshi Ōguri, one of the composers who represent Japan’s classical music scene.
Born in Osaka, Ōguri is known for his distinctive style that fuses Western musical forms with local folk songs and popular tunes as thematic material.
A revised version for wind ensemble was completed in 1970, and it received its premiere by the Osaka Municipal Symphonic Band on May 30, 1974.
The piece employs melodies that evoke the climate, culture, and everyday lives of the people of Osaka, making it a captivating work that conveys the city’s history and sentiment.
It is recommended for those interested in traditional Japanese music and for listeners curious about expressing regional culture through music.
Interoceptive cosmosYuasa Joji
Born in Fukushima Prefecture in 1929, Joji Yuasa is a pioneer of contemporary and experimental music in Japan.
He holds a unique view of music as “the spatial and temporal transition of an acoustic energy body,” and this piece, too, creates atonal music reminiscent of Scriabin.
The piano’s star-like, twinkling melodies envelop the listener.