Tsuneo Fukuhara (; 14 November 1932 – 1 November 2022) was a Japanese composer and record producer.

Life and career

Born in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

, Fukuhara was the adoptive son of composer and record producer . He spent his early life in

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, and studied classical music at the

Osaka College of Music is a private university in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1915, and it was chartered as a university in 1958. Undergraduate majors This college has following undergraduate majors * Music Business * Compo ...

. He is considered a pioneer in fusing traditional Okinawan style with elements from other popular genres such as classical music,

rhythm & blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

and

bossa nova Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...

, and his peculiar compositions are known as "Fukuhara Melodies" ("普久原メロディー"). Fukuhara made his professional debut in 1961, and during his career composed over 500 songs. Among his best known compositions is the song "Bashofu" (1965), which was recorded by popular artists such as

Rimi Natsukawa is a Japanese singer. She is best known for her 2001 single "Nada Sōsō." Childhood Natsukawa was born in Ishigaki, the largest city in the Yaeyama Islands chain. From a young age she enjoyed singing, and wanted to be a singer after hearin ...

and

Tokiko Kato is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist, actress and activist. She was born in Harbin, Manchukuo, to Japanese parents and graduated from the University of Tokyo. She worked as a visiting professor at Josai International University. While ...

. During his career he received various awards and honors, including in 2014 a lifetime JASRAC Music Culture Award. Fukuhara died of

aortic stenosis Aortic stenosis (AS or AoS) is the narrowing of the exit of the left ventricle of the heart (where the aorta begins), such that problems result. It may occur at the aortic valve as well as above and below this level. It typically gets worse ove ...

on 1 November 2022, at the age of 89.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fukuhara, Tsuneo 1932 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Japanese composers 20th-century Japanese male musicians 21st-century Japanese composers 21st-century Japanese male musicians Japanese classical composers Japanese contemporary classical composers Japanese male classical composers Japanese record producers Musicians from Osaka Osaka College of Music alumni