born Oct. 8, 1930, Tokyo, Japan
died Feb. 20, 1996, Tokyo
Japanese composer.
In 1951 he founded Tokyo's Experimental Laboratory to promote an integration of Japanese music with contemporary European developments. Soon acknowledged as Japan's leading composer, he explored avant-garde techniques such as serialism , aleatory music , graphic notation, and electronic music, combining them with traditional Japanese motives and instruments (e.g., November Steps , 1967, for biwa , shakuhachi , and orchestra). He created an individual sound world in which silence itself is an important element.