AKIRAIFUKUBE.ORG - Biography - Film Composer and Pedagogue

In 1939 Ifukube's long-time friend Fumio Hayasaka moved to Tokyo to become a film composer. Upon Ifukube's recovery from radiation exposure in 1946, Hayasaka persuaded Ifukube to join him in the Japanese capital to try his hand at writing music for movies. This was certainly a more lucrative opportunity than working for the university, and, for Ifukube, the idea of composing on a more full-time basis was extremely appealing.

In 1946 Ifukube and his wife moved from Hokkaido to Tokyo. Upon his arrival to Japan's capital, he was offered the position of music teacher at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Ifukube enthusiastically accepted.

Now that Ifukube was settled in Tokyo with a prestigious teaching post the the Tokyo National University, he was hired by Toho (Japan's leading film studio) and by 1947 he had scored his first film, Ginrei no hate (To the End of the Silver Mountains). Incidentally, Ginrei no hate was written by Akira Kurosawa and was Toshiro Mifune's first feature film.

In 1947 Ifukube was chosen by Akira Kurosawa to write the score for a film called Shizukanaru ketto (The Quiet Duel). However, the composor and the director had very divergent views on how music should be used in a film and this led to a less-than-compatible relationship. Due to their constant disagreements, the two master artists parted ways permanently after the film was completed.

During the late 1940's and early 1950's, Ifukube scored a multitude of other films including Kaneto Shindô's Children of Hiroshima (1952) and Josef von Sternberg's Saga of Anatahan (1953). Ifukube's scores were well respected and his skills as a composer became a valuable commodity within the Japanese film industry. Due to this, Ifukube decided to abandon his teaching post at the Tokyo National University in 1953 to focus on the more lucrative prospects of writing film music.

In 1954, Ifukube was asked by Toho to score Gojira (Godzilla), a giant monster film to be directed by Ishiro Honda. Many of Ifukube's colleagues tried to convince him not to take the job, thinking the film would not be a success. Ifukube did not listen to his detractors and accepted the project. As a result, his score for Gojira has become one of the most famous film scores in history and propelled Ifukube to heights of fame that no other Japanese film composer has ever reached. Additionally, Ifukube regarded his Gojira music as the best score he had ever written for a motion picture.

Ifukube also created Godzilla's trademark roar. Technicians at Toho originally went to the Tokyo Zoo and recorded the grunts and growls of several animals hoping to find the perfect sound effect for Godzilla's roar. Dissatisfied with the animal sounds they had collected, the technicians turned to Ifukube, an expert in acoustics, and asked him to produce the needed sound effect. After some experimentation, Ifukube recorded himself taking a resin-covered leather glove and dragging it along the loosened strings of a double bass (the largest and lowest pitched bowed orchestral string instrument) and slowed down the playback speed of the tape. The result was the now familiar Godzilla roar. Additionally, Ifukube created the sound of Godzilla's footfalls by striking an amplifier box with a large, knotted piece of rope.

After the huge success of Gojira, Ifukube became even more heavily sought after by Japanese directors and studios to write music for their films. Some of Ifukube's most famous scores after the success of Godzilla include The Burmese Harp (1956), The Birth of Japan (1959), Shaka (1961), The Little Prince and the Eight Headed Dragon (1963), Daimajin (1966) and Sandakan 8 (1974). Of course, during the span of his film career, Ifukube remained the primary composer for Toho's internationally successful Godzilla series, and he also wrote the music for the famous Zatoichi movies.

Akira Ifukube (far right) meets with director Ishiro Honda (left, in hat) during the production of King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

In 1975 Ifukube became the president of the Tokyo College of Music but still composed a handful of film scores before he retired from the film industry in 1978. During this time, Ifukube focused his attention on teaching and writing concert works.

Akira Ifukube during his days as a teacher

Years later in 1988, Ifukube gave up his post as President of the Tokyo College of Music. Though he did not want to be the president anymore, he became the head of the school's Department of Ethnomusicolgy. In this capacity, Ifukube was one of Japan's foremost authorities on the music of the Ainu and other northern Asian peoples.