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Ryuichi Sakamoto's farewell

author:Japan-China Communications

Few people knew that Ryuichi Sakamoto was in the terminal stages of cancer, and it was not until he announced his last concert that people burst into tears.

On October 25, Ryuichi Sakamoto, who has not appeared for a long time, made an announcement announcing that on December 11, he will hold a "Ryuichi Sakamoto: Playing the Piano 2022" piano solo concert for the world.

Mr. Sakamoto said, "Two years ago, on December 12, 2020, I held a solo piano concert, when the whole world was looking for light in the dark tunnel of the new crown virus pandemic. I was performing in a studio in Tokyo and there was no audience. This concert was broadcast live, but unfortunately it was not archived.

However, two years apart, on December 11th, Sakamoto will return again to show everyone "Sakamoto in playing".

Ryuichi Sakamoto's farewell

Ryuichi Sakamoto said, "I don't have enough physical strength to hold a live concert... This is probably the last time you'll see me playing this way. However, this concert will present everyone with new musical enjoyment better than ever. ”

After reading this passage of Ryuichi Sakamoto, we know that he began to say his final goodbye to the world.

On January 17, 1952, Ryuichi Sakamoto was born in Nakano-ku, Tokyo, a residential street scene that often appears in the anime "Crayon Shin", and in this environment, he learned to play the piano from the age of 3. When he was in kindergarten, he composed his first song "Little Rabbit Song".

In junior high school, Ryuichi Sakamoto loved the music of the Beatles and fell in love with the works of Claude Debussy. When I was in high school, I often skipped class to go to the Shinjuku Jazz Cafe, watch movies, visit bookstores, and participate in student parades. Influenced by leftist youth, he became fascinated by the works of Johann Cage and Jean-Luc Godard.

In 1970, Ryuichi Sakamoto, who had made an appointment with his classmates to boycott the college entrance examination, secretly applied for the composition major of the music department of Tokyo University of the Arts and was admitted. In college, he was so interested in world music, especially the traditional music of Okinawa, India and Africa, he delved into ethnomusicology and classical music, and experimented with electronic music equipment.

In 1975, Ryuichi Sakamoto participated in the piano recording of folk rock singer Masato Tomobe's "No One Can Draw My Painting", and began his career as a studio musician. The following year, he graduated with a master's degree from the Graduate School of Sound at Tokyo University of the Arts.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's farewell

In 1977, Sakamoto Ryu and musicians Hosono Harutomi and Takahashi Yukihiro formed the avant-garde band "YMO", and in August 1979, they held their first overseas performance in Los Angeles, USA, this band described by Keigo Higashino as a "genius", is a pioneer of electronic music, influencing early hip-hop and electronic music, because it was too avant-garde, it did not arouse a great reaction in Japan at first, but became popular in the United States. However, the band's album "Solid State Survivor" became a sensation in the international music industry, selling more than 2 million copies, and eventually won the "Best Album Award" at the 22nd Japan Record Awards.

In 1981, Ryu Sakamoto began as the host of NHK's music program "Sound Story", discovering new Japanese musicians. In May 1983, the album "Flower Heart of Us" was released, which won the top spot in the Japanese record chart sales chart. In the same year, Ryuichi Sakamoto co-starred with David Bowie in the war film "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence", in addition to playing Senoi, the director of the prisoner of war internment, was also responsible for the soundtrack of the film, the soundtrack of the film won the 37th British Academy Film Awards "Best Soundtrack Award" and was shortlisted for the 7th Japan Academy Film Awards "Best Soundtrack Award".

In 1987, Ryuichi Sakamoto played Masahiko Gansu, president of the Nisman Film Association, in the film "The Last Emperor" directed by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci and was responsible for the creation of film music, the soundtrack of the film won the 60th Academy Awards "Best Original Soundtrack Award", the 45th American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards "Best Film Score Award", and the 31st Grammy Award "Best Film and Television Instrumental Album Award".

In 1992, Ryuichi Sakamoto composed and conducted the music for the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympic Games. In the same year, he scored the film "Wuthering Heights" directed by Peter Kausminskin. In 1999, his opera "Life" was performed in Osaka and Tokyo; In the same year, he scored the movie "The Railroader" starring Ken Takakura.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's farewell

Since the 90s, Ryuichi Sakamoto has scored more than 30 domestic and foreign films and anime films, and is known as the "world's first soundtrack artist". Almost all of Hollywood's big directors have found him because his soundtrack can help the film enter the Oscars.

In 2012, Ryuichi Sakamoto won the "Outstanding Achievement Award in Film" at the 6th Asia-Pacific Film Awards. In 2013, he was responsible for the music composition of NHK's Taiga drama "Yae no Sakura". In August, he served as a jury member of the 70th Venice International Film Festival and won the "Soundtrack Star Award".

In 2014, Sakamoto initially felt unwell and was finally diagnosed with throat cancer at the age of 62.

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a genius in music and business, and since his debut, he has achieved great success in both the music business and the economic field. In 1982, he married singer Akiko Yano and gave birth to a daughter, Miyu Sakamoto, although he divorced in 2006, but he was cared for and tolerated by his family all his life.

"Maybe it's too smooth, God wants to give me a punishment," Mr. Sakamoto said in an interview with the media.

No matter how open-minded, for a musician, vocal cord damage is brutal.

After a year of silence, Ryuichi Sakamoto returned to the music scene as the music producer of the movie "The Revenant", the soundtrack of which was shortlisted for the "Best Original Film and Television Music Album Award" at the 59th Grammy Awards, and won the "Best Soundtrack Award" at the 73rd American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards and other awards.

In January 2021, Ryuichi Sakamoto was diagnosed with rectal cancer and was found to have metastasized all over the body. After 20 hours of surgery, Ryuichi Sakamoto felt the fragility of life for the first time. In just one year, Ryuichi Sakamoto underwent 6 surgeries.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's farewell

However, all these hardships did not dampen Ryuichi Sakamoto's passion for music. In this year, Ryuichi Sakamoto scored a Chinese film for the first time from his hospital bed, serving as the music composer for the film "The First Incense" directed by Xu Anhua.

Director Steven Nomura Skibo made a film documentary "Ryuichi Sakamoto: The Finale", which chronicles Ryuichi Sakamoto's daily life as he struggles with cancer, and he needs to take a dose of medication every day and receive regular treatment. However, he still dragged his tired body into his studio and created one film score after another.

In "Finale", Ryuichi Sakamoto pours out the sound of striking a fire hydrant in search of natural sounds, looking for the subtle sound of using a violin's bow across the gong. He came to the Arctic Ocean to listen to the most chilling wind on Earth. Step into the primeval forest and close your eyes to the whispering of the leaves in the breeze. Ryuichi Sakamoto wanted to incorporate the sounds of nature into his music to create a natural sound.

In "Finale", Sakamoto Ryuichi begins to think about life and death, saying: "Many people think that life is a well that does not dry up, but we really don't know when we will die. Everything is limited, how many happy childhoods and good afternoons have we had, but is there still a tenderness that makes you feel deep? Maybe it's only four or five times, maybe it's not there. How many more times can you see a full moon? ”

Perhaps he was eager to see the full moon a few more times, and when the doctor told him, "Cancer is terminal", Ryuichi Sakamoto did not fall, he still supported, using his broken body to interpret the most beautiful music.

However, the lack of physical strength has made Ryuichi Sakamoto feel the countdown to life.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's farewell

In June 2022, Ryuichi Sakamoto began publishing an autobiographical serialization in the monthly literary magazine "New Wave", titled "I still have a few more times, I can see the full moon".

Sakamoto writes in the opening preface: "The writer Natsume Soseki died of a stomach ulcer at the age of 49. In comparison, even if I died when I first discovered cancer in 2014, I lived to be 62 years old, which is already a long life. Now suffering from a new cancer and approaching the age of 70, although I don't know how many full moons I will see in my future life, since I finally survived, I should continue to compose music like the beloved Bach and Debussy until the last moment of my life. ”

Perhaps the last concert of his life, Ryuichi Sakamoto chose NHK's 509 recording room this time, which is where he first recorded and a starting point in his artistic life as a sound engineer and soundtrack.

He was no longer able to play in front of an audience, so he played his favorite song in the recording hall for a few days, edited it into a 60-minute film, which will be broadcast online four times on December 11 at 12 o'clock, 18 o'clock, 24 o'clock, and 6 o'clock on December 12.

For this last glory, he specially invited a film team from New York to record his thanks and farewells to fans around the world with the technique and art of filmmaking.

Ryuichi Sakamoto created a glorious musical era, however, he ultimately chose a simple farewell. When the full moon shines on the earth, purity and brightness are the highest pursuit of his life.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's farewell

That year, when Natsume Soseki was an English teacher at school, he gave students a short translation of a short article, he asked to translate the "I love you" that the male and female protagonists couldn't help saying when they were walking under the moon into Japanese, and the students directly translated the meaning of "I love you", Natsume Soseki said: No, to be implicit, it should be translated as "月が绮丽ですね (Tonight the moon is really beautiful)".

Ryuichi Sakamoto, who loves Natsume Soseki, said: "How many times do I have to see the full moon?" "Tear-jerking, because in his heart, there is too much attachment to the world.

"Because of you, the moon is particularly beautiful", this is a Japanese love saying, and it is also our undying respect for Ryuichi Sakamoto.

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Source: Shizuo Japan

Author: Xu Jingbo

Editor: Song Miao

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