A vast collection of the works that Ryuichi Sakamoto left behind shows that a musician with great curiosity and a strong passion can express even his philosophy and thoughts with sounds.

Sakamoto, co-founder of the Yellow Magic Orchestra electronic music band and Oscar-winning composer for the 1987 film “The Last Emperor,” died on March 28. He was 71.

Until his final moment, Sakamoto, who was battling cancer, believed that the possibilities of sounds transcend the realm of music.

The YMO, which he formed in 1978 with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, gained in popularity with its pioneering, computer-generated sounds that combined avant-garde and pop music elements.

Sporting blazing-red Mao jackets, Sakamoto and his fellow musicians deliberately presented a “misconceived image of the East,” taking a dig at the stereotypical Orientalism popular in the United States and Europe.

From his early years, Sakamoto felt that classic Western music had been in a gridlock and gradually leaned toward electronic music and ethnic music.

A young Sakamoto was captivated by Debussy and Beethoven. Later, modern U.S. composer John Cage (1912-1992) had a deciding impact on his life.

Cage boldly left some elements of his music to chance and thought outside the box, defying widely accepted notions. His “deconstructive” approach shaped the foundations of Sakamoto’s music and thinking. 

In his later years, his interest turned to an array of sounds around him, rather than music, as his deconstructive thinking coupled with his growing awareness about the environment.

In particular, water caught his attention, just as it did with Cage. Sakamoto traveled around the world to record sounds of water, Arctic glaciers and other natural phenomena and released them as works of experimental music.

“Nature is the boss of humans and humans are part of nature,” Sakamoto said in an interview in 2020. “I came to think that I do not have to adhere to the sounds of musical instruments created by humans.”

He added: “Perhaps I am even beginning to think that I want to obstruct and destroy the artificial sounds that I, a human being, created.”

Sakamoto began to participate in the student movement when he was in high school, but he called a halt to his political activities when the series of protests against the Japan-U.S. security agreement ended in the 1970s.

“Because we put up a fight and failed on a political issue, I made it a rule, as a good loser, not to make a political statement anymore,” he once said in a magazine interview.

Still, Sakamoto started speaking out on environmental and social issues in the 1990s.

He made his stance against nuclear power generation widely known by joining a demonstration held outside the prime minister’s office in July 2012, a year after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami triggered the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

He also became an outspoken critic of the government on issues stemming from U.S. military bases concentrated in Okinawa Prefecture as well as on two controversial pieces of legislation about protecting government secrets and bolstering national security.

In a documentary he produced, Sakamoto explained why he raised his voice.

“Since the nuclear accident occurred and problems emerged in disaster-hit areas, the political and social situations in Japan have increasingly worsened,” he said. “I feel stressed if I do not voice my disagreements. I am not a person who can turn a blind eye (when problems are out there).”

Sakamoto once described himself as a “rugged individualist.”

With an aversion to a totalitarian society, as well as stereotypes and peer pressure born through such a system, he always tried to stay away from the constraints of “common sense.”

The music he created from that stance never failed to offer new ideas.

Sakamoto was gradually seen as an iconic figure in public campaigns for his stance of addressing social issues head-on without a touch of humor or help from his music.

It is unclear whether Sakamoto succeeded in winning the hearts of people on opposing sides with that style. His “knife” might have been too sharp and pointed.

His rhetoric became more fiery and desperate, taking on an even bloodcurdling tone, as if he was aware of the shortening remaining time of his life.

It is time to appreciate the weight of the words he uttered out of concerns about the Earth and human activities once again.