Akira Ifukube

Award won Role or nomination

1. 1914 age 0

   Born

2. 1949 age 35

   CreditThe Quiet Duelcomposer

3. 1952 age 38

   CreditChildren of Hiroshimacomposer

4. 1953 age 39

   CreditAnatahancomposer

5. 1954 age 40

   CreditGodzillacomposer

6. 1956 age 42

   CreditGodzilla, King of the Monsters!composer

   CreditThe Burmese Harpcomposer

   CreditRodancomposer

7. 1957 age 43

   CreditThe Mysterianscomposer

8. 1958 age 44

   CreditVaran the Unbelievablecomposer

9. 1959 age 45

   CreditBattle in Outer Spacecomposer

10. 1962 age 48

    CreditKing Kong vs. Godzillacomposer

11. 1963 age 49

    CreditAtragoncomposer

12. 1964 age 50

    CreditMothra vs. Godzillacomposer

    CreditGhidorah, the Three-Headed Monstercomposer

13. 1965 age 51

    CreditInvasion of Astro-Monstercomposer

    CreditFrankenstein Conquers the Worldcomposer

14. 1966 age 52

    CreditThe War of the Gargantuascomposer

15. 1967 age 53

    CreditKing Kong Escapescomposer

16. 1968 age 54

    CreditDestroy All Monsterscomposer

17. 1970 age 56

    CreditSpace Amoebacomposer

18. 1972 age 58

    CreditGodzilla vs. Gigancomposer

19. 1974 age 60

    CreditSandakan No. 8composer

20. 1975 age 61

    CreditTerror of Mechagodzillacomposer

21. 1991 age 77

    CreditGodzilla vs. King Ghidorahcomposer

22. 1992 age 78

    CreditGodzilla vs. Mothracomposer

23. 1993 age 79

    CreditGodzilla vs. Mechagodzilla IIcomposer

24. 1994 age 80

    CreditMonster Planet of Godzillacomposer

25. 1995 age 81

    CreditGodzilla vs. Destoroyahcomposer

26. 2006 age 91

    Died

• TTTomoyuki Tanaka21 titles
• IHIshirō Honda17 titles
• KSKenji Sahara15 titles
• HNHaruo Nakajima13 titles
• AHAkihiko Hirata9 titles
• YTYoshio Tsuchiya8 titles
• SSShinichi Sekizawa8 titles
• YTYoshifumi Tajima8 titles
• TSTakashi Shimura6 titles
• JTJun Tazaki6 titles

• 
  Photo:Unknown author Unknown authorPublic domain

• The Ainu, with their improvisational style of both composing music and dancing, greatly influenced me. I became very different from the other music students, who had been raised with European pieces, because of this. They had been taught that composition is very difficult, but to me, it seemed relatively easy because of the freedom allowed for by the improvisational style of the Ainu.

  Akira Ifukube, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Unlike American film score composers, Japanese film score composers are given only three or four days in which to write the music for a movie. Because of this, I have almost always been very frustrated while writing a score. I therefore can't select any of my scores as favorites.

  Akira Ifukube, CC BY-SA 4.0

• There are two types of composers. Like Stravinsky, some always are aware of the instrument that will be playing a given melody. However, other composers do work out the orchestration only after they have finished composing. I'm like Stravinsky. I always write music with specific instruments in mind.

  Akira Ifukube, CC BY-SA 4.0

• For the roar of Godzilla, I took out the lowest string of a contrabass and then ran a glove that had resin on it across the string. The different kinds of roars were created by playing the recording of the sound that I'd made at different speeds. Toho's sound engineers previously had tried to use the roars of many different animals for Godzilla's roar. They went to a zoo and recorded the roars of many different mammals, but no matter how the sounds were manipulated, they seemed too much like the roars of each of the animals. The sound engineers also tried to alter the call of a night heron bird, but that also was not successful.

  Akira Ifukube, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I don't know much about the score for GODZILLA 1985. However, my impression of GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE is a negative one, both in terms of the direction and the music. For example, the music that is heard while the scenes that take place in Saradia are shown is just ridiculous. The composer used European music instead of some modern Arabic music. By the way, during the production of GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE, Toho asked for permission to use some of my music in the film. I said that I would allow its use as long as it was not turned into popular music. Toho agreed to that, but just before GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE was completed, a Toho representative came to me and said, "Well, your music was turned into popular music." By that time, it was too late to do anything about the situation. After GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE was released, my daughter came to me and said, "No matter how much you try to escape from Godzilla movies, Toho always uses your name and your melodies, so why don't you just score t

  Akira Ifukube, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I don't think that American audiences would accept the tonal character of my music.

  Akira Ifukube, CC BY-SA 4.0