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Inspired by popular Japanese electronic artists like Yellow Magic Orchestra in the 1970s, and American avant-garde musicians like Steve Reich, he released his first album, MKWAJU, in 1981.

Prior to his film-scoring days, Hisaishi made a name for himself as a solo artist. HE’S AN ESTABLISHED ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN Outside of film awards, Hisaishi was also awarded the Medal of Honour by the Government of Japan in 2009 for his services to the arts. His score was nominated at the Japanese Academy Awards that year, but he lost out to… himself, for his work on the Studio Ghibli film Ponyo. Departures, meanwhile, was the first Japanese film to win Best Foreign Film at the Oscars in 2008. He provided the score for Takeshi Kitano’s violent yakuza drama Fireworks in 1997, which won the Golden Lion at Venice, while Spirited Away famously won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars in 2003. He seemingly has a knack for working on films that go on to snap up top honours at international ceremonies, too. Joe Hisaishi’s won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Music a whopping eight times in his career, and his music features in four of the top 11 all-time highest grossing films in Japan. Of the other Studio Ghibli composers, only Yuji Nomi has scored more than one major release – he worked on both 1995’s Whisper of the Heart and 2002’s The Cat Returns. Hisaishi would eventually score Takahata’s final Studio Ghibli film, 2013’s The Tales of Princess Kaguya, though it was originally commissioned to a different composer. Notably, the films of Isao Takahata, which include wartime tragedy Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, and Pom Poko, were each scored by different people. While Joe Hisaishi is the main musical associate of Studio Ghibli, he’s only rarely scored films not directed by the studio’s co-founder. HE’S NOT THE ONLY COMPOSER TO SCORE STUDIO GHIBLI’S FILMS Like Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams (who scored the likes of Jaws, Jurassic Park, and the Indiana Jones series), Miyazaki’s bond with Hisaishi remains strong to this day, with their most recent collaboration coming in 2018 for the Studio Ghibli Museum short Boro the Caterpillar. In the west, Hisaishi is sometimes referred to as the ‘ John Williams of Japan’ due to his long-running partnership with Hayao Miyazaki. The name ‘Joe Hisaishi’ was inspired by revered African-American producer Quincy Jones, whose name becomes ‘Kuishi’ Jones ,or ‘Hisaishi’ Jones, when translated into Japanese kanji lettering. Joe Hisaishi is actually the stage name of one Mamoru Fujisawa, who decided early on in his career to adopt a moniker that would be more easily recognisable to international audiences. but he’s also known as the ‘Japanese Quincy Jones’.

HE’S KNOWN AS THE ‘JOHN WILLIAMS OF JAPAN’ Inform your imminent re-watch of Studio Ghibli’s glorious catalogue by wising up one of the talents that makes that universe so special. It’s Hisaishi that conjures up that feeling of being suspended in time, in a peaceful, magical place. It’s pieces like these, often drawing on the dynamic, orchestral flow of Impressionist composers like Claude Debussy, that supply some of the lingering emotions that Studio Ghibli is famed for.

Try to imagine Spirited Away without the twinkling piano melodies of “ One Summer’s Day”, or Princess Mononoke without the swooping strings and swelling brass of “ The Legend of Ashitaka”. He’s the master behind the magical sounds in all but one of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films (his debut feature, 1979’s The Castle of Cagliostro, which predated Studio Ghibli by six years), and his work is so influential to the overall picture that the studio requests early compositions during pre-production to help to shape the direction and writing.

But before you grab a blanket and dive deep into one of the greatest collections of animated cinema in the world, ask yourself: what is it that makes films like My Neighbour Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle so special?Âįor all the beautiful animation, heartwarming stories and captivating characters, there is another facet of the Studio Ghibli machine that has been just as consistently spectacular: the music of Joe Hisaishi. Netflix will be adding 21 Studio Ghibli films to their platform from next month, and with the weather getting steadily colder, the timing couldn’t be better.