14 Facts About Fumio Hayasaka

Fumio Hayasaka was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores.

Fumio Hayasaka won a number of prizes for his early concert works; in 1935, his piece Futatsu no sanka e no zensokyoku won first prize in a radio competition, and another concert piece, Kodai no bukyoku, won the 1938 Weingartner Prize.

In 1939, Fumio Hayasaka moved to Tokyo to begin a career as film composer.

The year after, 1947, Fumio Hayasaka received the Mainichi film music award for Teinosuke Kinugasa's Actress.

On 22 June 1948 a concerto by Fumio Hayasaka was premiered in Tokyo with Hiroshi Kajiwara as soloist on the grand piano and the Toho Symphony Orchestra under Masashi Ueda.

Fumio Hayasaka had a celebrated association with the pre-eminent Japanese director Akira Kurosawa which was short-lived due to Hayasaka's early death.

The 1948 film Drunken Angel was the first film directed by Akira Kurosawa that Fumio Hayasaka composed music for.

Fumio Hayasaka composed music for Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff, and The Crucified Lovers.

Fumio Hayasaka was continually productive in the years leading up to his death.

The year after, 1954, Fumio Hayasaka did another Mizoguchi film, the jidai-geki Sansho the Bailiff.

Fumio Hayasaka served as a musical mentor to both Masaru Sato and Toru Takemitsu.

In 1955, Fumio Hayasaka died of tuberculosis in Tokyo at the age of 41.

Fumio Hayasaka died while working on the score for I Live in Fear, so Masaru Sato completed the score.

Fumio Hayasaka was very ill at the time, and pondering the fear of his own death.