Tōru Takemitsu (武満徹) was born on 8 October 1930 in the northern Hongō district of Tokyo to Takeo and Reiko Takemitsu.^[1][2][3] In under a month, Tōru and his mother joined Takeo in Dalian, China, where he was a government official.^[1][4] While an expatriate in Dalian—then part of the Japanese-controlled Manchuria—Takeo lived a privileged ruling class lifestyle, with particular enthusiasm for jazz records and a hobby playing the Shakuhachi Japanese flute.^[4][5] It was Dixieland jazz, such as Kid Ory and his band, that left the strongest impression on the young Takemitsu.^[4] After his father's early death in 1938, Tōru's mother Reiko sent him back to Japan to attend elementary (1938–1943) and middle school (1944).^[6] He lived with an aunt and uncle, again in Hongō, Tokyo but his education was cut short aged fourteen by the Japanese Nationalist government's military conscription,^[2] which he described as an "extremely bitter" experience.^[7]

Takemitsu first became conscious of Western classical music during his term of military service, in the form of a popular French Song ("Parlez-moi d'amour") which he listened to with colleagues in secret, played on a gramophone with a makeshift needle fashioned from bamboo.^[7][8]

https://www.google.com/books/edition/%E6%AD%A6%E6%BA%80%E5%BE%B9_%E3%81%9D%E3%81%AE%E9%9F%B3%E6%A5%BD%E5%9C%B0%E5%9B%B3/Fb6fEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%E6%AD%A6%E6%BA%80%E5%BE%B9&pg=PT3&printsec=frontcover ?

• Composing Japanese musical modernity

• Burt, Peter (2001). The Music of Toru Takemitsu. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-78220-3.
• Narazaki, Yoko; Kanazawa, Masakata (2002) [2001]. "Takemitsu, Tōru". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.27403. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription, Wikilibrary access, or UK public library membership required)
• Ohtake, Noriko (1993). Creative sources for the Music of Toru Takemitsu. Aldershot: Scolar Press. ISBN 978-0-85967-954-1. OCLC 26396266.
• Siddons, James (2001). Toru Takemitsu: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport: Greenwood Press. doi:10.5040/9798216026532. ISBN 978-0-313-27237-0. OCLC 45871176.
• Schmerda, Susanne (2016) [2006]. "Takemitsu, Tōru". MGG Online (in German). Kassel: Bärenreiter. (subscription required)
• Slonimsky, Nicolas; Kuhn, Laura; McIntire, Dennis, eds. (2001). Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 3 Haar-Levi. New York: Schirmer. ISBN 978-0-02-866091-2. OCLC 712690363.
• IRCAM staff (2010). "Takemitsu: Biography". IRCAM.
• "武満徹 Toru Takemitsu" (in Japanese). Schott Music. Retrieved 7 August 2026.

Nothing on legacy, but use elsewhere:^[1] Check later:^[2]

• Tokita, Alison McQueen; Hughes, David W., eds. (2016) [2008]. The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music. SOAS Musicology Series. Milton Park: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-5699-9.
• Whittall, Arnold. 1999. Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816684-2 (cloth) ISBN 0-19-816683-4 (pbk.)
• https://www.google.com/books/edition/Contemporary_Music_and_Spirituality/5krUDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=takemitsu+%22students%22&pg=PT206&printsec=frontcover
• [1]
• Kennedy, Michael; Kennedy, Joyce Bourne, eds. (2013) [2007]. "Takemitsu, Toru". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920383-3.

Film music

• [2]
• [3] (page 3)

November steps

• Joseph Auner, Music in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries, 2013 pp. 275–276
• [4]
• Cornwell, Lewis. “Tōru Takemitsu’s November Steps.” Journal of New Music Research
• Contemporary Music Review 21 – https://www.google.com/books/edition/T%C5%8Dru_Takemitsu_Memorial_Edition/SJ1c0QEACAAJ?hl=en
• [5]

Early career

• [6]

Obits

• [7]
• [8]
• [9]
• [10]

East vs West

• Fallacy argument [11]
• [12]
• [13]

Music

• Need to make Buddhist Ma (negative space) more prominent (& Zen satori or sawari?) — see Burt 252
  • Mentioned by Yang, p. 6
• More on the intentionality of titles (often comes up with them first [14])
  • Titles mentioned by Knussen in Independent obit, and in SFGATE obit
• Influenced by French composers, but didn't study with any: [15]. Although regarded highly by Dutilleux [16] and close friends with Xenakis 335
• Messiaen
  • Messiaen influence from a not-totally primary source
  • [17]
• Debussy
  • In Silence, he says "Of course, I studied in my own way, but I think of him as my great mentor." — Debussy ("great mentor")[silence ref] and Messiaen ("spiritual mentor"),[silence ref] and although he was in contact with the French musical establishment—Dutilleux spoke highly of him [Dutilleux ref above] and he was close friends with Xenakis [ref above]—he did not study privately with them, unlike Yoshihisa Taira...^[3]
• Need to be explicit about his orchestration reknown:
  • "While conspicuous and undisguised, the quotations create no sense of irony or stylistic rupture, Takemitsu’s orchestral textures sharing with Debussy’s a refinement, luminosity and remarkable transparency that caused him to be regarded, by the end of his life, as one of the finest orchestrators of the late 20th century."^[4]
  • Like Debussy as an orchestrator^[5]

Criticisms

• Burt 243
• He was able to get away with departing from the avant-garde style because his music was "stamped with the legitmising seal of Eastern cultural difference"

Collaborators: (list also given in NYT obit, also briefly in Independent)

• Nobuko Imai, viola concerto premiere^[6]
• Manuel Barrueco, champion of his guitar music^[7]
• Christian Lindberg, commissioned his trombone concerto^[8]
• Paula Robison, flutist who commissioned Takemitsu pieces^[9]
• Aristid von Würtzler, harpist who commissioned Takemitsu pieces^[10]
• Roger Woodward, pianist who championed Takemitsu among other contemporary composers^[11]
• John Williams (guitarist), guitarist who premiered Takemitsu works ^[12]
• Serkin, of course
• More in Grove, if seeming to be important

Need stronger citation for "Takemitsu never accepted a long-term university post" (can't remember where it was—maybe in an obit?)