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Your ‘dad crush’, Ryuichi Sakamoto is “deconstructing the past, and the present, in order to lead us into the future with a greater scope”. | Hot Asian Guy Friday

Written by Maari Sugawara（Managing Editor） on

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This handsome composer wears glasses but his eyes will still get you lost.

According to an article by the New York Times, Sakamoto, who resides in New York, wrote politely to the chef of his favorite Manhattan restaurant, offering to take charge of the playlist, after sitting through a list of questionable song selections over dinner. Sakamoto is sensitive and believes that music should be taken more seriously.

The Japanese composer, singer, songwriter, record producer, activist, and actor is a master of a diverse range of styles, from classical pieces, to electro, to pop. He was also a founding member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO).

The sixty-seven-year-old genius is still working hard, writing the score for an episode of the new season of Black Mirror, “Smithereens”. Ryuichi Sakamoto’s last studio album, async, was released in April 2017. In 2018, along with Alva Noto, Sakamoto released an improvisational live album, Glass. He also composed the award-winning soundtracks for a number of critically acclaimed films such as The Revenant, The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and Sheltering Sky. He was awarded, in 2009 for his contributions to music, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Ministry of Culture of France.

The composer is also an environmentalist and human rights activist. After the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Sakamoto participated in the protest, along with other celebrities, in Yoyogi Park. He also took the stage, speaking to the 170.000 protestors, say that, “It is just electricity. Why do we risk lives, just for that? I hope that in 2050, it will be normal for every household and office to produce their own energy.” And added that “Keeping silent after Fukushima is barbaric”.

Sakamoto was, however, diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and has since then been receiving treatment. Sakamoto cancelled all of his projects but one, the score for Innaritu’s ‘The Revenant’, which was a critically acclaimed film that achieved commercial success as well.

Sakamoto Ryuichi writes in his bio on his Twitter page: deconstructing the past, and the present, in order to lead us into the future with a greater scope. His music is often described as being ‘timeless’. Perhaps timelessness is achieved through looking critically at the past and the present, and, through that, predict how the future will look like. Through mixing genres and traditions in his music, and being outspoken about issues close to his heart, Sakamoto Ryuichi, one of the greatest composers of our time, is more than a dad crush, but someone we should all look up to.

Maari Sugawara is an emerging artist who lives and works in Toronto. After two years of working as part of an artist management team in Tokyo, she moved to Toronto conduct research on diasporic communities and spaces. Maari is a photographer, translator, a research assistant at Ryerson University’s image arts program.