HAYASHI, Hikaru

Born in Tokyo on 22 October 1931, Hikaru Hiyashi studied composition at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music with Hisatada Otaka and Tomojirō Ikenouchi. In 1953 he formed the composers’ group Yagi no Kai together with Michio Mamiya and Yūzō Toyama. He was awarded the Prize of the Arts Festival sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 1953 for his Symphony in G, the 4th Otaka Prize in 1956 for his Variations for Orchestra, the Composition Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1961 for his music for the film The Naked Island directed by Kaneto Shindō, and the 44th Otaka Prize in 1996 for his viola concerto Elegia.
His oeuvre extends over a wide range embracing instrumental music, vocal music and music for the theatre and cinema. Many of his works, such as Scenes from Hiroshima for mixed chorus, convey a social message. He showed particular interest in the innate linkage between the Japanese language and music. He composed more than thirty operas including Hakuboku no wa (The Monochrome Ring), Shiroi kemono no densetsu (The Legend of the White Beast), Sero-hiki no Gōshu  (Gorsch the Cellist), Mori wa ikite iru (The Forest is Alive), Wagahai wa neko de aru (I Am a Cat), Henshin (Transformation), Kagami no mori no monogatari (The Tale of the Forest of Mirrors) and Sannin shimai (The Three Sisters). In 1998 he was awarded the 30th Suntory Music Prize for his important contributions to opera in Japan, which included occupying the positions of artistic director and composer-in-residence at the Opera Theatre Konnyaku-za.
Hikaru Hayashi was also a prolific author and published many books including Watashi no sengo ongakushi (My Post-war Music History; Heibonsha), Nihon opera no yume (The Dreams of Japanese Opera; Iwanami shinsho), Hayashi Hikaru sakkyokuka no dōgubako (Composer Hikaru Hayashi’s Tool Box; Hitotsubashi Shobō), and Gendai sakkyokka tanbōki (Exploration of Contemporary Composers; Yamaha Music Media). The publishing company Shōgakukan has issued a set entitled Hayashi Hikaru no ongaku (The Music of Hikaru Hayashi) comprising twenty CDs and a book. 
Hikaru Hayashi died at the age of eighty on 5 January 2012.