Akira Ifukube

"Ifukube" redirects here. For Emperor Monmu's maid of honor, see Ifukube no Tokotari.

Akira Ifukube 伊福部 昭
Ifukube in 1954
Background information
Born	(1914-05-31)31 May 1914 Kushiro, Hokkaido, Empire of Japan
Died	8 February 2006(2006-02-08) (aged 91) Tokyo, Japan
Genres	Classical, film scores
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, educator
Years active	1935-2006
Spouse	Ai Yuzaki (dancer)
Website	akiraifukube.org

Akira Ifukube (伊福部 昭, Ifukube Akira, 31 May 1914 – 8 February 2006) was a Japanese composer. He is best known for composing several entries in the Godzilla franchise as well as developing the titular monster's roar.

Biography

Early years in Hokkaido

Akira Ifukube was born on 31 May 1914, in Kushiro, Japan as the third son of a police officer Toshimitsu Ifukube. The origins of this family can be traced back to at least the 7th century with the birth of Ifukibe-no-Tokotarihime. He was strongly influenced by the Ainu music as he spent his childhood (from age of 9 to 12) in Otofuke near Obihiro, where was with a mixed population of Ainu and Japanese. His first encounter with classical music occurred when attending secondary school in Sapporo city. Ifukube decided to become a composer at the age of 14 after hearing a radio performance of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and also cited the music of Manuel de Falla as a major influence.

Ifukube studied forestry at Hokkaido Imperial University in Sapporo and composed in his spare time, which prefigured a line of self-taught Japanese composers. His first piece was the piano solo, Piano Suite (later the title was changed to Japan Suite, arranged for orchestra), dedicated to George Copeland who was living in Spain. Atsushi Miura, Ifukube's friend at the university, sent a letter to Copeland. Copeland replied, "It is wonderful that you listen my disc in spite of you living in Japan, the opposite side of the earth. I imagine you may compose music. Send me some piano pieces." Then Miura, who was not a composer, presented Ifukube and this piece to Copeland. Copeland promised to interpret it, but the correspondence was unfortunately stopped because of the Spanish Civil War. Ifukube's big break came in 1935, when his first orchestral piece Japanese Rhapsody won the first prize in a competition for Japanese composers promoted by Alexander Tcherepnin. The judges of that contest—Albert Roussel, Jacques Ibert, Arthur Honegger, Alexandre Tansman, Tibor Harsányi, Pierre-Octave Ferroud, and Henri Gil-Marchex were unanimous in their selection of Ifukube as the winner. Ifukube studied modern Western composition while Tcherepnin was visiting Japan, and his Piano Suite received an honourable mention at the I.C.S.M. festival in Venice in 1938. Japanese Rhapsody was performed in Europe on a number of occasions in the late 1930s.

On completing University, he worked as a forestry officer and lumber processor in Akkeshi, and towards the end of the Second World War was appointed by the Imperial Japanese Army to study the elasticity and vibratory strength of wood. He suffered radiation exposure after carrying out x-rays without protection, a consequence of the wartime lead shortage. Thus, he had to abandon forestry work and became a professional composer and teacher. Ifukube spent some time in hospital due to the radiation exposure, and was startled one day to hear one of his own marches being played over the radio when General Douglas MacArthur arrived to formalize the Japanese surrender.

From 1946 to 2006 in Tokyo

Ifukube in 1956

He taught at the Tokyo University of the Arts (formerly Tokyo Music School), during which period he composed his first film score for Snow Trail, released in 1947. Over the next fifty years, he would compose more than 250 film scores, the high point of which was his 1954 music for Ishirō Honda's Toho movie, Godzilla. Ifukube also created Godzilla's trademark roar – produced by rubbing a resin-covered leather glove along the loosened strings of a double bass – and its footsteps, created by striking an amplifier box.

Despite his financial success as a film composer, Ifukube's first love had always been his general classical work as a composer. In fact his compositions for the two genres cross-fertilized each other. For example, he was to recycle his 1953 music for the ballet Shaka, about how the young Siddhartha Gautama eventually became the Buddha, for Kenji Misumi's 1961 film Buddha. Then in 1988 he reworked the film music to create his three-movement symphonic ode Gotama the Buddha. Meanwhile, he had returned to teaching at the Tokyo College of Music, becoming president of the college the following year, and in 1987 retired to become head of the College's ethnomusicology department.

He trained younger generation composers such as Toshiro Mayuzumi, Yasushi Akutagawa, Akio Yashiro, Teizo Matsumura, Sei Ikeno, Minoru Miki, Maki Ishii, Riichirō Manabe, Hajime Okumura, Reiko Arima, Taichiro Kosugi, Kaoru Wada, Motoji Ishimaru, Shigeyuki Imai, and Satoshi Imai. See: List of music students by teacher: G to J#Akira Ifukube. He also published Orchestration, a 1,000-page book on theory, widely used among Japanese composers.

He died in Tokyo at Meguro-ku Hospital of multiple organ dysfunction on 8 February in 2006, at the age of 91 and buried at the Ube shrine in Tottori.

Honors

Ifukube in 1960

The Japanese government awarded Ifukube the Order of Culture. Subsequently, he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class.

Tribute

On May 31, 2021, Google celebrated the 107th anniversary of his birth with a Google Doodle.

Works

Orchestral/chamber

• Japanese Rhapsody (1935)
• Triptyque Aborigène: trois tableaux pour orchestre de chambre (1937); dedicated to Alexander Tcherepnin.
• Ballet symphonique après Etenraku (1940)
• Symphony Concertante for piano and orchestra (1941)
• Ballata Sinfonica (1943)
• Overture to the Nation of Philippines (1944)
• Arctic Forest (1944)
• Rapsodia Concertante for violin and orchestra (Violin Concerto No. 1) (1948, revised 1951/59/71)
• Salome, ballet (1948, score revised and expanded 1987 for Suite) based on Oscar Wilde's play
• Fire of Prometheus, ballet (1950)
• Drumming of Japan, ballet (1951, revised 1984)
• Sinfonia Tapkaara (1954, revised 1979)
• Ritmica Ostinata for piano and orchestra (1961, revised 1971)
• Ronde in Burlesque for wind orchestra (1972, arranged to orchestra in 1983)
• Violin Concerto No. 2 (1978)
• Lauda concertata for marimba and orchestra (1979)
• Eglogue symphonique for 20-strings koto and orchestra (1982)
• Symphonic Fantasia No. 1 (1983); arrangement from the film scores
• Symphonic Fantasia No. 2 (1983); arrangement from the film scores
• Symphonic Fantasia No. 3 (1983); arrangement from the film scores
• Gotama the Buddha, symphonic ode for mixed chorus and orchestra (1989)
• Japanese Suite for orchestra (1991); arrangement from the piano suite
• Japanese Suite for string orchestra (1998); arrangement from the piano suite

Instrumental

• Piano Suite (1933)
• Toka: Cantilena ballabile sul mode antico de Giappone, for guitar (1967)
• Kugoka for guitar (1969)
• Toccata for guitar (1970)
• Fantasia for baroque lute (1980)
• Sonata for violin and piano (1985)
• Ballata sinfonica for duo-treble and bass 25-stringed koto (2001)

Vocal

• Ancient Minstrelsies of Gilyak Tribes, for soprano and piano (1946)
• Three Lullabies among the Native Tribes on the Island of Sakhalin, for soprano and piano (1949)
• Eclogues after Epos among Aino Races, for soprano and timpani (1950)
• A Shanty of the Shiretoko Peninsula (1961)
• The Sea of Okhotsk for soprano, bassoon, piano (or harp) and double bass (1988)
• Tomo no oto for traditional ensemble and orchestra (1990)
• Lake Kimtaankamuito (Lake Mashū) (摩周湖, Mashū-ko) for soprano, viola and harp or piano (1992)
• Five Poems after Inaba Manyo (1994); text by Ōtomo no Yakamochi
• La Fontaine sacrée for soprano, viola, bassoon and harp (1964, 2000); arrangement by the composer from the 1964 film score Mothra vs. Godzilla
• Ao Saghi (Grey heron) for soprano, oboe, double bass and piano (2000); text by Genzō Sarashina

Film scores

Year	Title	Director(s)	Notes
1947	Snow Trail	Senkichi Taniguchi
	Kôfuku eno shôtai	Yasuki Chiba
	Meitantei Hiroshi kun	Hideo Sekigawa	Short film
1948	Daini no jinsei	Hideo Sekigawa
	Kuro-uma no danshichi	Hiroshi Inagaki
	Woman In the Typhoon Belt
	The President and a Female Clerk
1949	The Quiet Duel	Akira Kurosawa
	Late Night Confession
	Jakoman and Tetsu
	Rainbow Man
	Detective Hiroshi
1950	City of the Spider
	White Beast
	Listen to the Student's Memoirs Senbotsu Japan, Voice of Wadatsumi
	Flowers of Seven Colors
1951	Beyond Love and Hate
	Clothes of Deception
	Free School
	The Tale of Genji	Kōzaburō Yoshimura
1952	Children of Hiroshima	Kaneto Shindo
	Violence
	Swift Current
	Tenryu River
1953	A Thousand Paper Cranes
	Epitome
	Anatahan	Josef von Sternberg
	White Fish
	Crab Ship
	Hiroshima	Hideo Sekigawa
1954	Sakuma Dam Part One
	Cape Ashizuri
	Muddy Youth
	Godzilla	Ishiro Honda
	Dobu
1955	Ningen Gyorai Kaiten	Shūe Matsubayashi
	Women of Ginza
	The Maid's Kid	Tomotaka Tasaka
	Sakuma Dam Part Two: Transformation of the Great Tenryu
	Three Faces
	Kabuki Jūhachiban Narukami: Beauty and the Sea Dragon
	Baruuba
1956	The Burmese Harp	Kon Ichikawa
	Wandering Shore
	Onibi
	Sound of the Fog
	The Good Natured Couple
	Godzilla, King of the Monsters!	Terry O. Morse Ishirō Honda	American version
	Rodan	Ishirō Honda
1957	Osaka Story
	Advancing Vitamin B1
	Yagyu Secret Scrolls
	Sakuma Dam Part Three
	Hateful Things
	Who Committed Murder
	The Final Escape
	Bastards of the Sea
	Downtown
	The Ground
	The Mysterians	Ishirō Honda
1958	Yagyu Secret Scrolls: Ninjitsu
	Sorrow Is Only for Women
	A Bridge for Us Alone
	Ice Wall
	Varan the Unbelievable	Ishirō Honda	Japanese version
1959	Boss of the Underworld
	Whistling in the Kotan
	Woman and the Pirates
	Tear Down Those Walls	Kō Nakahira
	The Three Treasures	Hiroshi Inagaki
	Battle in Outer Space	Ishirō Honda
1960	Baluchaung Project
	Shinran
	Shinran Continued
	Castle of Flames
1961	The Story of Osaka Castle	Hiroshi Inagaki
	Musashi Miyamoto
	Challenge in the Snow
	Buddha
	Hangyakuji
	Different Sons
1962	The Tale of Zatoichi	Kenji Misumi
	The Whale God
	King Kong vs. Godzilla	Ishirō Honda	Japanese version
	The Great Wall
	Chūshingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki	Hiroshi Inagaki
1963	The New Tale of Zatoichi	Tokuzō Tanaka
	The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon	Yūgo Serikawa
	13 Assassins	Eiichi Kudo
	Zatoichi the Fugitive	Tokuzō Tanaka
	Yoso
	Zatoichi on the Road	Kimiyoshi Yasuda
	Atragon	Ishirō Honda
1964	Teikoku Bank Incident: Prisoner of Death Row
	Mothra vs. Godzilla	Ishirō Honda
	Dogora	Ishirō Honda
	Fight, Zatoichi, Fight	Kenji Misumi
	The Last Woman of Shang
	The Woman Running on the Shore
	Suruga yukyoden
	Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster	Ishirō Honda
	Whirlwind
1965	Tokugawa Ieyasu
	Zatoichi's Revenge	Akira Inoue
	Japanese Archipelago
	Frankenstein vs. Baragon	Ishirō Honda
	Invasion of Astro-Monster	Ishirō Honda
	Zatoichi and the Chess Expert	Kenji Misumi
1966	Daimajin	Kimiyoshi Yasuda
	Adventure in Kigan Castle
	Zatoichi's Vengeance	Tokuzō Tanaka
	The War of the Gargantuas	Ishirō Honda
	Return of Daimajin	Kenji Misumi
	Thirteen Thousand Suspects
	Daimajin Strikes Again	Kazuo Mori
1967	King Kong Escapes	Ishirō Honda
	Eleven Samurai	Eiichi Kudo
	Zatoichi Challenged	Kenji Misumi
1968	The Snow Woman	Tokuzō Tanaka
	Destroy All Monsters	Ishirō Honda
	Young Challengers	Yasuki Chiba
1969	Dawn of the Skyscraper
	The Devil's Temple
	Latitude Zero	Ishirō Honda
1970	Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo	Kihachi Okamoto
	Space Amoeba	Ishirō Honda
	Will to Conquer
1972	Godzilla vs. Gigan	Jun Fukuda	Stock music
1973	Zatoichi's Conspiracy
	The Human Revolution
1974	The Last Samurai	Kenji Misumi
	Sandakan No. 8
1975	Terror of Mechagodzilla	Ishirō Honda
	The Door Has Opened
1976	The Great Elm
1977	The Sea, the Wings and Tomorrow
1978	Ogin-sama	Kei Kumai
1991	Dozoku no ranjo
	Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah	Kazuki Ōmori
1992	Godzilla vs. Mothra	Takao Okawara
1993	Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II	Takao Okawara
	Kushiro Marshland
1994	Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla	Kensho Yamashita	Stock music
1995	Godzilla vs. Destoroyah	Takao Okawara
1999	Godzilla 2000	Takao Okawara	Stock music
2000	Godzilla vs. Megaguirus	Masaaki Tezuka	Stock music
2001	Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack	Shusuke Kaneko	Stock music
2004	Godzilla: Final Wars	Ryuhei Kitamura	Stock music
2007	Tetsujin 28-gô: Hakuchû no zangetsu	Yasuhiro Imagawa	Posthumous score
2016	Shin Godzilla	Hideaki Anno Shinji Higuchi	Stock music
2019	Godzilla King of the Monsters	Bear McCreary Michael Dougherty	Original themes
2023	Godzilla Minus One	Takashi Yamazaki	Original themes

Awards and honours

Ifukube obtained the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1980, the 3rd class Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1987, and was honoured as a Person of Cultural Merit in 2003.

References

Sources

• Ryfle, Steve (1998). Japan's Favorite Mon-star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G". ECW Press. ISBN 9781550223484.

External links

• Official website (archived version)
• Akira Ifukube at IMDb
• A guide to Ifukube's concert music on CD
• Information about his death in Japanese Archived 17 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
• AKIRAIFUKUBE.ORG:A virtual museum dedicated to Akira Ifukube
• Larson, Randall D. "Voice of Gojira: Remembering Akira Ifukube". Archived from the original on 18 April 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2006. at musicfromthemovies.com
• Milner, David. Yohihiko Shibata (trans.) December 1992 & December 1993. "The Complete Akira Ifukube Interview", Kaiju Fan Online.
• Watch the documentary The Man Who Created Monsters with Sound: Godzilla vs Akira Ifukube (2014) (Japanese with English subtitles)