Masaru Satō
Known For: Sound
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: May 29, 1928
Day of Death: December 5, 1999 (72 years old)
Place of Birth: Rumoi, Hokkaido, Japan
Masaru Satō (佐藤 勝) was a Japanese composer of film scores. The youngest of six brothers, all of them music lovers, Masaru Sato decided early in life that he wanted to be a composer. His models were two other composers born, as he was, on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido: Akira Ifukube and Fumio Hayasaka. After hearing Hayasaka's score for Rashomon (1950), Sato decided Hayasaka was the only one he wanted for his teacher. He absorbed much of Hayasaka's modernist leanings, and grew to know Hayasaka's best friend Akira Kurosawa during this period. The year 1955 was a vast turning point for Sato: after scoring numerous insignificant pictures for various studios in Tokyo, Sato won the assignment for Gojira no Gyakushu (1955). Then his teacher Fumio Hayasaka died tragically young, while finishing the score for Kurosawa's Ikimono no Kiroku (1955). Sato stepped in to complete the score, uncredited. Kurosawa was sufficiently pleased with Sato to use him for all his pictures for the following ten years. Though the two had a falling-out after Akahige (1965), Sato remained one of Japan's most in-demand film composers, returning to the Gojira series several times and remaining a favorite of many other directors such as Kihachi Okamoto and June Fukuda. After scoring Dun-Huang in 1987, Sato had to call a brief halt to his career in order to tend to family interests in real estate in his native Hokkaido; but within a few years, the problems were wrapped up, and Sato was able to go back to film composing full time, at last reaching and surpassing his 300th movie score. Sato is almost unique among Japan's prolific film composers in that he has written extensively for his chosen field, but has never written for the concert stage.
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Music Producer
Battle of the Japan Sea
Music
Forward, Young People!
Music
The Great Japanese Pick-Pocket Club
Original Music Composer
Goyokin
Original Music Composer
Shinsengumi: Assassins of Honor
Music
Admiral Borneo: Betting at the Equator
Music
Travels of Lord Mito
Original Music Composer
Tenchu!
Music
Red Lion
Original Music Composer
The Magoichi Saga
Music
Futari no Koibito
Original Music Composer
Samurai Banners
Original Music Composer
Vagabond Schemer
1968
Music
Young People
Original Music Composer
Kill!
Original Music Composer
My Brother, My Love
Original Music Composer
Judge and Jeopardy
Music
Hishakaku and Kiratsune: A Tale of Two Yakuza
Music
Scrap Collectors
Original Music Composer
Golden Eyes
Original Music Composer
The Human Bullet
Original Music Composer
Admiral Yamamoto
1967
1966
1965
Original Music Composer
Three Yakuza
Music
Rokujō yukiyama tsumugi
Original Music Composer
Fort Graveyard
Original Music Composer
Cold Rice, Osan, Chan
Original Music Composer
Red Beard
Original Music Composer
Ironfinger
Music
Stairs of Evil
Original Music Composer
Samurai Assassin
Music
The Tattooed Lord
Original Music Composer
Sanshiro Sugata
1964
1963
Original Music Composer
High and Low
Music
Modern Children
Music
Warring Clans
Original Music Composer
A House in the Quarter
Music
Okashina yatsu
Original Music Composer
Samurai Pirate
Original Music Composer
The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman
Original Music Composer
Life of Hishakaku 2
Original Music Composer
Life of Hishakaku
Original Music Composer
Tale of Army Brutality
Original Music Composer
Zoku ôsho
Original Music Composer
Legacy of the 500,000
1962
Original Music Composer
Sanjuro
Music
Our Failures
Music
The Great Kurobe
Music
Gekkyū dorobō
Original Music Composer
Operation Enemy Fort
Music
Otoko no Uta
Music
The Crimson Sky
Music
零戦黒雲一家
Music
Facing to the Clouds
Original Music Composer
あの空の果てに星はまたたく
Original Music Composer
The Ambitious Youth
Music
Burūtaun aoi machi no ōkami
Music
Operation Sewer Rats
1961
Original Music Composer
Yojimbo
Original Music Composer
Run, Genta, Run!
Original Music Composer
Blueprint of Murder
Original Music Composer
Procurer of Hell
Original Music Composer
Lord Mito: Struggle of Suke and Kaku
Original Music Composer
Challenge to Live
Music
Yabure Kabure
Original Music Composer
Blood on the Sea
Music
Gambler in the Sea
1960
Original Music Composer
The Bad Sleep Well
Music
Sixteen years old
Original Music Composer
Chikûho no kodomotachi
Original Music Composer
The Last Gunfight
Original Music Composer
Westward Desperado
Music
Girls Behind Bars
Music
The Gambling Samurai
Original Music Composer
Intimidation
Original Music Composer
Man Against Man
1959
1958
Original Music Composer
The Hidden Fortress
Music
Akutoku
Original Music Composer
Rusty Knife
Music
The Man Who Wagers Tomorrow
Original Music Composer
A Slope in the Sun
Original Music Composer
Oban kanketsu hen
Original Music Composer
Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman
Music
Song for a Bride
Original Music Composer
The H-Man
Music
Crimson Wings
1957
Original Music Composer
Throne of Blood
Original Music Composer
The Lower Depths
Original Music Composer
I Am Waiting
Music
Streetlights
Music
Last Days of the Samurai
Original Music Composer
The Living Koheiji
Original Music Composer
Zoku Ôban: Fûun hen
Original Music Composer
Zokuzoku Ôban: Dotô hen
Original Music Composer
Ôban
Music
Muhō Ichidai
