Rest in Peace, Mr. Sakamoto.
A personal letter to the Japanese maestro and one of my role models
A personal letter to the Japanese maestro and one of my role models
Last weekend, just like the rest of the world, I learned that you left this world after battling cancer.
And like so many around the world, I was a huge admirer of yours and your music. My admiration began after watching the film “The Last Emperor.”
I was barely a teenager then. My parents took me and my brothers to a theater in the countryside of Japan where we lived at the time. You were one of the three composers of the film’s original score for which you won an Oscar. To this day, you remain to be the only Japanese musician to have won this award. Even as a young, innocent Japanese boy, I remember feeling proud that a Japanese artist was being recognized on such a prominent international stage.
The movie and your music made such a strong impression on me that I wrote in my school essay that I wanted to become a film director and work with musicians. Although I never pursued that path, your work influenced me to enter the creative field as a career choice.
In a way, I wanted to be like you.
Since then, I followed your work and I’ve seen you play live many times in Tokyo, New York, and of all the places, Florence, Italy where I studied briefly while I was in college. Every time, I was in awe. Your music—for films like “The Last Emperor,” “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” “The Little Buddha,” and so many other scores as well as numerous pieces—has been my default playlist when I work, travel, and relax.
Several years ago, I finally had a chance to meet you and your wife, Ms. Norika Sora (who is also amazing) over dinner in New York. It wasn’t easy containing my excitement throughout. You were exactly what I had imagined you to be: calm, intelligent, gentle, and humble.
Most people outside of Japan don’t know that you’ve been an active voice in protecting nature with initiatives like More Trees, a forest conservation organization you’ve led for so many decades well before it was trendy for anyone to do so. My father Tadashi Inamoto, also an environmental activist since the 1970s, has been your acquaintance since my teenage years. Little did you know that I was his son.
I probably could have met you through my father but I wanted to meet and build relationships with interesting people like you on my own, not through him. I didn’t want to be “Tadashi Inamoto’s son.” It ended up taking more than two decades but finally, I got to meet and to know you.
After that, I’ve had the fortune of corresponding with you on several occasions. Every time, you treated me as an equal even though you were so much more knowledgeable, accomplished, and established.
Outside of music, film, and forest conservation, you’ve also been an outspoken anti-nuclear activist. It might be an unpopular view, particularly in the West, but you’ve kept your voice strong and persistent. That was another lesson I had from you indirectly.
In the years I’ve known you directly, I never got to tell you what you and your work had meant to me. I never told you that I looked up to you as a role model. Perhaps, I was too embarrassed that I would come across as such a fanboy. Silly me. But I now know that compliments can go a long way for anyone. So here we go:
Mr. Sakamoto, I’d like you to know that you, your music, and your work on nature and peace have been such an incredible influence all through my life.
Thank you for the inspiration you’ve given me and the rest of the world.
Rest in peace, Mr. Sakamoto.