Hisato Osawa (1906 - 1953) is a composer and conductor who built his musical career in Pre-World War II United States and Europe, and in post-World War II Japan. Despite his distinguished career acknowledged by music circles in the United States and Europe, Osawa had been forgotten for more than half a century for the following reasons: he had suddenly passed away in the midst of Japan’s reconstruction from the war, his career had been based mainly on radio broadcasting, and he had graduated from a private school in Kansai area.

In 1999, Morihide Katayama, a music critic, and Kenichi Fujimoto, a journalist from Kobe Shimbun, made public the original scores kept by the Osawa family. Re-performance and release of Piano Concerto No. 3 in A-flat major ‘Kamikaze’ (1938) in 2003 owing to the efforts of Takuo Ikeda, a journalist from Nihon Keizai Shimbun, have brought Osawa’s innovative style of composition to light. ‘Revival in the Heisei era’ has thus begun. Japanese Western music history is about to be rewritten through drastic revaluation of Osawa’s contribution.

Osawa was born in Kobe City on August 1, 1906 as the eldest of six children, two boys and four girls, to parents from Ehime Prefecture. His father Jutaro was an engineer at Kobe Steel Ltd. since its foundation, and his mother Tomi was a devout Christian. Osawa attended Sunday school with his siblings since he was a young boy. His first encounter with music was through organ and hymns.

Osawa enrolled at Kwansei Gakuin Middle School in 1920. He belonged to a glee club and became a junior of Kosaku Yamada. Osawa participated in orchestra and served as an organist during his college days. He thus grew up in the environment in which music and Christianity were closely tied. He studied under Alexadre Rutin and Pedro Villaverde, respectively Russian and Spanish pianists who lived in Kobe. Osawa founded Kobe Oratorio Association and served as a conductor. He became to be known as a star student of the music circle in Kansai. The turning point came to Osawa in 1925 when the French pianist Henri Gil-Marchex came to Japan and toured in Kobe. Listening to Gil-Marchex’s recital which was held at the central auditorium of Kwansei Gakuin made a strong impression on Osawa, and he decided to pursue a composing career.

Osawa left for the United States after graduating from Kwansei Gakuin College of Commerce in 1930. It was the year before the regular course of composition at Tokyo Music School (present Tokyo University of the Arts) was established, and many students going abroad aimed to study in Europe. Osawa enrolled at Boston University School of Music however. He was the first Japanese student to major in composition and started studying it from the beginning. At that time, Boston was a world-leading city in music with the Boston Symphony Orchestra celebrating its 50th anniversary. Osawa subscribed to regular concerts and was exposed to an enormous amount of contemporary music. In the meanwhile, he instantly distinguished himself in the field of composition, and his piano solo called Variations of Doll Song was broadcasted from a radio station in the United States during his second year.

Osawa enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music in September, 1932. His musical talent bloomed at a breath after he started studying under Frederick Converse. Osawa plunged into his ‘creative period,’ writing more than 300 sheets of scores in half a year including Cello Sonata which used quarter tones, one of the latest compositional technique. On June 12, 1933, the night of graduation from Boston University, Osawa conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra in performing his Little Symphony. He was the first Japanese ever to conduct this Orchestra. Piano Concerto in A-Minor is one of the oldest piano concerto in Japan.

In 1934 Osawa completed epics in succession under influence of Arnorld Schönberg who had moved to the United States and other avant-garde American composers. Double Bass Concerto, dedicated to Serge Koussevitzky, a resident conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was an innovative piece exhibiting his true ability as a genius, and Symphony No. 1, dedicated to Frederick Converse and the critic Alfred Meyer, was a largest symphony written by a prewar Japanese composer. Osawa grew into ‘an ultra-modernist with Japanese spirit’ whom the Boston music circle and the avant-garde Roger Sessions regarded as a promising composer and conductor. After completing about 35 pieces which amounted to about 1000 sheets of full scores including unfinished works in four years in Boston, Osawa left for Europe.

After World Wars II, Osawa had a strong vision for ‘reconstruction through music’ and aimed to spread ‘middle class music' which was approachable and yet high in quality. He composed jazzy Pegasus Rhapsody (1949) and Trumpet Concerto (1950,) and they were broadcasted through BK’s music program ‘Silver Time.’ Osawa established three pops groups such as ‘Japan Symphonet Orchestra’ and became their resident conductor. His activities expanded widely through collaborations with poets, artists, dancers and film directors. In the meanwhile, Osawa kept improving his orchestration techniques acknowledged in Europe and the United States and built the world of arrangement comparable to that of composition. Arranging Begin the Begin (1950) written for the Takarazuka star Fubuki Koshiji was an example.

1951 was the year in which commercial broadcasting started following NHK. Osawa took part in the opening of ABC Asahi Broadcasting System in November from its preparation. He directed two regular programs, ‘ABC Home Song’ and ‘ABC Symphonet Hour,’ every week since September 1952. He took all the work on his own shoulders including planning, composing, arranging and conducting. Osawa continuously exhibited superhuman activities without reducing his work load. In October, Osawa composed Festive Music Celebrating One Thousand Two Hundredth Year of the Great Budha associated with memorial services of Todaiji Temple, in which he won double prize, Music Award of the Ministry of Education Arts Festival and Music Award of the National Association of Commercial Broadcasting. Osawa created Hallelujah for Radio Waves for the first anniversary of ABC.
In August 1953, Osawa conducted at ‘Twilight Concert’ which attracted over 20 thousand audience in the Nishinomiya Stadium. In September, Osawa premiered an opera Telephone composed by Gian Carlo Menotti by translating, arranging and conducting. Osawa presented Handan, a radio opera, under his total management including script-writing, composing and conducting. The hero of the times with a brilliant career was extremely busy at the center of Kansai cultures.

Osawa left almost 1000 composed and arranged pieces. He composed a wide variety of genres ranging from ultra-modern concert pieces created abroad, to music for films and radio programs written during and after the war.

The genius dashed across the dawn of Japanese composition and the confusion after the war. His life of 47 years sparkles like a shooting star, and his works have vitality which inspires us even today.