is a Japanese

video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led t ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical inst ...

who works for

Sega is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...

. He is among the oldest of the Sega sound team members, and one of the few from the 1980s still active today. He joined Sega in 1984 as a programmer, but quit the job and became a composer the following year. He is also known as Hiro, Master Hiro (Hiro師匠) and Hiroshi Miyauchi (宮内博史) (his pre-

mukoyōshi A ; () is an adult man who is adopted into a Japanese family as a daughter's husband, and who takes the family's surname. Generally in Japan, a woman takes her husband's name and is adopted into his family. When a family, especially one with a ...

name), and has been a part of both the

S.S.T. Band The (Sega Sound Team) was Sega's official in-house band from 1988 to 1993, specializing in rock versions of Sega arcade game themes for Japan-only compilation albums and festival appearances. Consisting of six musicians who worked in Sega's sou ...

and the sound unit . the latter of which he leads. He has also been a member of Chain Band, a hybrid between the groups .and Sonic Adventure Music Experience. He worked closely with game designer

Yu Suzuki is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimen ...

and served as composer for some of the company's most recognized series, such as ''

Space Harrier is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but tec ...

'', ''

Out Run (also stylized as ''OutRun'') is an arcade driving video game released by Sega in September 1986. It is known for its pioneering hardware and graphics, nonlinear gameplay, a selectable soundtrack with music composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi (comp ...

'', and '' After Burner'', and has contributed music to many others. He has often acted as a tutor to new Sega composers, such as Yasuhiro Takagi and Keitaro Hanada.

Works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kawaguchi, Hiroshi 1965 births Japanese composers Japanese male composers Japanese keyboardists Living people Musicians from Chiba Prefecture Sega people Video game composers