Joe Hisaishi Biography
Joe Hisaishi was born in Nagano, Japan as Mamoru Fujisawa (?? ? Fujisawa Mamoru). When he started to take violin lessons at age five, Hisaishi discovered his passion for music. Realizing his love, he attended the Kunitachi College of Music to major in music composition in 1969. Hisaishi collaborated with music minimalists as a typesetter, furthering his experience in the musical world.
He enjoyed his first success of the business in 1974, when he composed music for a small animation called Gyatoruzu. This and other early works were created under his real name. During this period, he composed for Sasuga No Sarutobi (Academy of Ninja) and Futari Taka (A Full Throttle).
In the 1970s, Japanese popular music, electronic music, and new-age music flourished - those genres, as well as the Yellow Magic Orchestra (Japanese electronic band in 1978-1988), influenced Hisaishi's compositions. He developed his music from the ideals of minimalism and expanded toward orchestral work. Around 1975, Hisaishi presented his first public performance, spreading his name around his community. His first album, Mkuwaji, was released in 1981, with its first work, Information, being released a year later.
As his works were becoming well-known, Hisaishi formulated an alias inspired by Quincy Jones, an African-American musician and producer. The name, "Quincy Jones," was retranscribed in Japanese as "Joe Hisaishi." ("Quincy," pronounced "Kuishi" in Japanese, is close to the Japanese pronunciation of the kanji for "Hisaishi"; "Joe" came from "Jones.") This pseudonym became part of Mamoru Fujisawa and remains with him.
In 1983, with his new name, Hisaishi was recommended by a record company to create an album for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Hisaishi and the director of the animated movie, Hayao Miyazaki, became great friends and worked together on many projects. This big break led to Hisaishi fervently composing more Japanese movie soundtracks; in 1986, Laputa Castle in the Sky was released; later, in the 1990s, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away were revealed to the public. Hisaishi cemented his reputation as one of the budding Anime industry's top musical contributors and his compositions (including eight theatrical films and one OAV) would go on to become one of the very hallmarks of early Anime in the 1980s and 1990s. Hisaishi scored such TV series hits as Sasuga no Sarutobi, Two Down Full Base (both 1982), Sasrygar (1983), Futari Taka (1984) and Honoo no Alpen Rose (1985). He also scored the sci-fi adventure Mospeada (1983), which was later reworked into the third segment of Carl Macek's compilation, Robotech. The remaining movies, in order of appearance, are Arion, Totoro (1988), Venus Wars, Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), and Porco Rosso (1992).
As more exposure was given to Hisaishi and the anime industry, Joe Hisaishi's career grew. He not only started a solo career as a musician, but he also started to produce music and create his own label (Wonder Land Inc.). A year later, the label produced its first album, Pretender, in New York.
Because of his hard work throughout the years, Hisaishi has won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Music five times - in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1999, and 2000. He also received the 48th Newcomer Award in 1997 from the Ministry of Education (Public Entertainment Section) and many other music awards as a revered figure in the Japanese movie industry.
In 1998, he provided the soundtrack to the 1998 Winter Paralympics. In 1999, Hisaishi composed the music for the third installment in a series of popular computer-animated educational films about the human body.
The year of 2001 was the busiest; Hisaishi produced music for Takeshi Kitano's Brother and Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away and served as executive producer of the Night Fantasia 4 Movement at the Japan Expo in Fukushima 2001. Quartet, the film directed by Hisaishi, received excellent reviews at the Montreal Film Festival. On October 6, Hisaishi made his debut as the film director for Quartet, in addition to writing both the music and script for the movie. His first soundtrack for a foreign film, Le Petit Poucet, was released in the same year.
Hayao Miyazaki's film, Howl's Moving Castle, has been finished and was released on November 20, 2004 in Japan; Hisaishi composed the score for that movie. From November 3 to November 29, 2004, Hisaishi was on his "Joe Hisaishi Freedom - Piano Stories 2004 Tour" with Canadian musicians. In 2005, Hisaishi composed the soundtrack for the Korean film, Welcome to Dongmakgol. It was a huge breakthrough when it was announced because a famous Japanese composer was composing for a Korean movie. Hisaishi has a large fan base in Korea, due to the popularity of Miyazaki films.
