Akira Ifukube

Akira Ifukube Born May 31, 1914 Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan Died February 8, 2006 (aged 91) Meguro Hospital, Tokyo, Japan Occupation Musical Composer First work Snow Trail (1947) Notable work Godzilla (1954)

“	The Ainu, with their improvisational style of both composing music and dancing, greatly influenced me. I became very different from the other music students, who had been raised with European pieces, because of this. They had been taught that composition is very difficult, but to me, it seemed relatively easy because of the freedom allowed for by the improvisational style of the Ainu.	„
	— Akira Ifukube, as quoted by David Milner and translated by Yoshihiko Shibata

“	Unlike American film score composers, Japanese film score composers are given only three or four days in which to write the music for a movie. Because of this, I have almost always been very frustrated while writing a score. I therefore can't select any of my scores as favorites.	„
	— Akira Ifukube, as quoted by David Milner and translated by Yoshihiko Shibata

Akira Ifukube (伊福部 昭,   Ifukube Akira) was a Japanese musician who was born in 1914 and died in 2006. He is considered to be one of Japan's most revered classical composers.

During World War II, Ifukube was asked to compose nationalistic themes for the islands liberated by Japan. One such theme, Kishi Mai, played when Japan officially surrendered to the United States in 1945. Starting in 1947 with the film Snow Trail, Ifukube became prominent in film composition. He worked on the first Godzilla in 1954, and went on to score 11 more Godzilla films as well as 13 of Toho's sci-fi and fantasy films. His final Godzilla film was Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, and although he never composed the scores of any of the subsequent movies, his famous theme for Godzilla has been used countless times in the series, and many other pieces of his music were remixed in Godzilla Final Wars. He passed away on February 8th, 2006 from multiple organ failure, composing a total of 43 films during his lifetime.

Selected filmography

Composer

• Godzilla (1954)
• Rodan (1956)
• The Mysterians (1957)
• Varan (1958)
• The Three Treasures (1959)
• Battle in Outer Space (1959)
• Killer Whale (1962)
• King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
• Atragon (1963)
• Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
• Dogora (1964)
• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
• Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965)
• Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
• Daimajin (1966)
• The War of the Gargantuas (1966)
• Return of Daimajin (1966)
• Wrath of Daimajin (1966)
• King Kong Escapes (1967)
• Destroy All Monsters (1968)
• Latitude Zero (1969)
• Space Amoeba (1970)
• Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972) [stock music]
• Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
• Toho Unused Special Effects Complete Collection (1986)
• Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) ["Godzilla's Theme"]
• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
• Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
• Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) ["Godzilla's Theme"]
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
• Godzilla Island (TV 1997-1998) [stock music, uncredited]
• Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999) ["Godzilla's Theme"]
• Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000) ["Godzilla's Theme"]
• Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) ["Godzilla's Theme," "Monster Zero March"]
• Godzilla Final Wars (2004) ["Godzilla's Theme"]

Posthumous

Note: All posthumous credits are either for use of stock music or new arrangements of Ifukube's original compositions.

• Geharha: The Dark and Long Haired Monster (2009)
• Shin Godzilla (2016) [with Shiro Sagisu]
• Ready Player One (2018) ["Godzilla Title"]
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) ["Godzilla's Theme"]
• Godzilla Singular Point (TV 2021) ["Godzilla's Theme"]

Interviewee

• Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1998)

Gallery

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  Ifukube (left) with Sei Ikeno

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  Akira Ifukube with a Godzilla 1984 maquette

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  Akira Ifukube with Godzilla

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  Akira Ifukube with the KiryuGoji suit to celebrate his 90th birthday

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  Ifukube (left) with film historian Steve Ryfle (right) in 1996

Trivia

• Ifukube is posthumously credited as co-composer of the score for Shin Godzilla along with Shiro Sagisu, having passed away a decade before the film's release. All of his contributions to the film's score consist of stock music from prior Toho tokusatsu films he had scored.

External links

• Official English-language website
• Official English Twitter
• Interview by David Milner (December 1992)
• Interview by David Milner (December 1993)
• Interview by David Milner (December 1995)

References

This is a list of references for Akira Ifukube. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]

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