Ryuichi Sakamoto, once a member of the synth group Yellow Magic Orchestra, composed the soundtrack to "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" (1983) in which he also played one of the roles, alongside David Bowie.
Together with David Byrne, he received an Oscar in 1987 for the music to Bernardo Bertolucci's film "The Last Emperor".
Sakamoto experimented a lot and became influential in electronic music and also music for computer games. Over the years he collaborated with a wide range of artists, such as Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Youssou N'Dour and Iggy Pop.
Bach and the Beatles
He also became involved in the environmental movement and was active in the opposition to nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Sakamoto was born in Tokyo in 1952 and grew up in a home characterized by art and culture. Already at a young age he discovered the piano and as a teenager he is said to have been fascinated as much by Bach, Haydn and Debussy as by the Beatles and Rollings Stones.
In 2014, Sakamoto suffered from throat cancer from which he recovered, as depicted in the 2017 documentary "Coda". At the beginning of 2021, it turned out that he also had colon cancer.
Despite the serious illnesses, Sakamoto continued with his composing. Among the more acclaimed works in recent years are the music for the blockbuster film "The Revenant" from 2015 and the album "12", which was released in January this year.
Gave farewell concert
Last December, he gave a concert, broadcast on the internet, intended as a farewell performance.
According to a statement from his record label, Sakamoto passed away on March 28 and the funeral has already taken place.
"We'd like to share one of Sakamoto's favorite quotes: 'Ars longa, vita brevis.'
Translated from Latin to Swedish, it means "Art is long, life is short".
Ryuichi Sakamoto was 71.
In the clip above, you see bits of Sakamoto's career.