Akira Ifukube Essentials

Best remembered for scoring Ishirō Honda’s iconic Godzilla films—as well as the mythical beast’s haunting roar—Akira Ifukube’s contribution to Japanese cinema is insurmountable. The Hokkaido-born maestro was also a respected composer of epic symphonies and reflective, instrumental pieces alike. Inspired by the dissonant heft of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which helped spark a life of music at the age of 14, Ifukube elegantly coupled Japanese history with the Western classical tradition.