Remembering Akira Ifukube, Nine Years After His Passing

Today, in 2006, we lost Akira Ifukube, score composer for numerous Toho science fiction films (including 11 (12 if one includes Godzilla vs Gigan) Godzilla films between 1954 and 1995), and the man who gave Godzilla his iconic roar, who passed away at age 91.

He was the last of Godzilla’s four Founding Fathers to pass away, outliving Tomoyuki Tanaka, Ishiro Honda, and Eiji Tsuburaya.

In total, Ifukube scored 24 Toho monster films, as well as Daiei’s Daimajin Trilogy. He also scored Akira Kurosawa’s The Quiet Duel, among many other films, and became revered as one of Japan’s leading classical composers.

Ifukube’s work is so important to so many of us… his beautiful music was every bit as much a character in his films as the kaiju he wrote for, and it is impossible to think of Godzilla and his movies without Ifukube and his music coming to mind. It is hard to believe Ifukube-San has been gone for 9 years now.

I was privileged enough to donate to and attend the remarkable Ifukube 100: A Legacy of Monster Music concert this past July at G-FEST, and it truly was a life changing event. Ifukube created music that, more than any other music ever written, has become part of my DNA… and, of course, his roar for Godzilla is, in my humble opinion, the single greatest sound effect ever created for motion pictures. 

For creating such memorable music for such memorable characters and movies, for contributing such an incredible body of work to the collective dreamscape of motion pictures, and for affecting my life and love of music in such a monumental way, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Mr. Ifukube. You are missed.