Rest in peace, Mr. Sakamoto.
A personal letter to the Japanese maestro and one of my role models
Last weekend, just like the rest of the world, I learned that you left this world after battling cancer.
And like so many around the world, I was a huge admirer of yours and your music. My admiration began after watching the film “The Last Emperor.”
I was barely a teenager then. My parents took me and my brothers to a theater in the countryside of Japan where we lived at the time. You were one of the three composers of the film’s original score for which you won an Oscar. To this day, you remain to be the only Japanese musician to have won this award. Even as a young, innocent Japanese boy, I remember feeling proud that a Japanese artist was being recognized on such a prominent international stage.
The movie and your music made such a strong impression on me that I wrote in my school essay that I wanted to become a film director and work with musicians. Although I never pursued that path, your work influenced me to enter the creative field as a career choice.
In a way, I wanted to be like you.
Since then, I followed your work and I’ve seen you play live many times in Tokyo, New York, and of all the places, Florence, Italy where I studied briefly while I was…
