Person Details

Birthday:

Aliases: Сато Масару , Masaru Satoh , Masaru Satou , Masaru Satô

Gender: Male

Place of birth: Rumoi, Hokkaido, Japan

Homepage:

Movie Involvements: 231

TV Involvements: 3


Most Famous Work

Biography

Masaru Satō (佐藤 勝) was a Japanese composer of film scores. The youngest of six brothers, all of them music lovers, Masaru Sato decided early in life that he wanted to be a composer. His models were two other composers born, as he was, on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido: Akira Ifukube and Fumio Hayasaka. After hearing Hayasaka's score for Rashomon (1950), Sato decided Hayasaka was the only one he wanted for his teacher. He absorbed much of Hayasaka's modernist leanings, and grew to know Hayasaka's best friend Akira Kurosawa during this period. The year 1955 was a vast turning point for Sato: after scoring numerous insignificant pictures for various studios in Tokyo, Sato won the assignment for Gojira no Gyakushu (1955). Then his teacher Fumio Hayasaka died tragically young, while finishing the score for Kurosawa's Ikimono no Kiroku (1955). Sato stepped in to complete the score, uncredited. Kurosawa was sufficiently pleased with Sato to use him for all his pictures for the following ten years. Though the two had a falling-out after Akahige (1965), Sato remained one of Japan's most in-demand film composers, returning to the Gojira series several times and remaining a favorite of many other directors such as Kihachi Okamoto and June Fukuda. After scoring Dun-Huang in 1987, Sato had to call a brief halt to his career in order to tend to family interests in real estate in his native Hokkaido; but within a few years, the problems were wrapped up, and Sato was able to go back to film composing full time, at last reaching and surpassing his 300th movie score. Sato is almost unique among Japan's prolific film composers in that he has written extensively for his chosen field, but has never written for the concert stage.

Most Famous Work

Three Sisters
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0

Three Sisters

(1967) Music
Yojimbo
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8

Yojimbo

(1961) Original Music Composer
Gokenin Zankuro
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8

Gokenin Zankuro

(1995) Music
Sanjuro
Average
8

Sanjuro

(1962) Original Music Composer
High and Low
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8

High and Low

(1963) Original Music Composer
Godzilla: Final Wars
Average
7

Godzilla: Final Wars

(2004) Music
The Hidden Fortress
Average
8

The Hidden Fortress

(1958) Original Music Composer
Throne of Blood
Average
8

Throne of Blood

(1957) Original Music Composer

Acting

Year Character Movie/Tv
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Sound

Year Role Movie/Tv
2004 Music
2001 Music
2000 Original Music Composer
1997 Original Music Composer
1995 Original Music Composer
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1994 Original Music Composer
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1993 Music
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1992 Original Music Composer
1991 Original Music Composer
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1990 Original Music Composer
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1989 Songs
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1988 Original Music Composer
1987 Music
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1986 Original Music Composer
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1985 Original Music Composer
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1984 Original Music Composer
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1983 Original Music Composer
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1982 Original Music Composer
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1981 Music
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1980 Original Music Composer
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1979 Original Music Composer
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1978 Original Music Composer
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1977 Original Music Composer
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1976 Original Music Composer
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1975 Original Music Composer
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1974 Original Music Composer
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1973 Music
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1972 Original Music Composer
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1971 Music
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1970 Music
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1969 Original Music Composer
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1968 Music
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1967 Original Music Composer
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1966 Original Music Composer
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1965 Original Music Composer
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1964 Music
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1963 Original Music Composer
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1962 Music
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1961 Original Music Composer
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1960 Original Music Composer
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1959 Music
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1958 Original Music Composer
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1957 Original Music Composer
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1956 Original Music Composer
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1955 Original Music Composer
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Year Role Movie/Tv

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