The renowned Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamotoresponsible for the music for the opening of the Olimpic games from Barcelona, died on March 28 at the age of 71 as a result of a colorectal cancerwhich he had since 2020, as confirmed by his agency this Sunday.
The composer not only put music to the big moment of the Fura dels Baus in 1992, but was a founder of the seminal Japanese techno-pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). It also added fruitful work for Oshima’s film soundtracks, Almodovar i Bertolucciwith whom, precisely, he had won the Oscar for ‘The Last Emperor’ the 1988.
“While undergoing treatment for the cancer discovered in June 2020, Sakamoto continued to create work whenever his health permitted. He lived with music until the end”, said his agency, Commmons, in a statement. According to the agency and in accordance with the wishes of the artist, the funeral service would have been held with his close relatives, although he did not provide more details and asked that the privacy of the family be respected .
«‘Ars longa, vita brevis’. Art is long, life is short», highlighted the common text as one of the favorite phrases of the compositor. The pianist, who had throat cancer in 2014 from which he managed to recover, confirmed in early 2021 that he had colorectal cancer, which spread to other organs in the form of metastasis.
Sakamoto underwent six surgeries last year, including a 20-hour one to try to remove a primary tumor in his rectum and others that had metastasized.
Sakamoto was one of the most international Japanese creators of his time, with a complex work that has been formed by several stages, from his first successful group, the experimental Yellow Magic Orchestra, to the creation of soundtracks.
In this section he received numerous awards apart from ‘The Last Emperor’. He also wrote the music for well-known titles such as ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’ (‘Bon Nadal, Mr. Lawrence’, 1983), in which he also acted giving life to the commandant of a Japanese prison camp during the Pacific War and ‘The revenant’ (‘The reborn’, 2015) .
His last concert was on December 11, in an ‘online’ format so that his fans in different time zones could listen to him, and when the cancer was already in stage IV, so many of his followers thought that could be the last.