A pupil in Tokyo of Hashimoto, Shimofusa and Ifukube, Yasushi Akutagawa later established friendly relations with Russian composers, including Shostakovich, Khachaturian and Kabalevsky, and was influenced in style by Prokofiev. Thus he played an important part in the musical exchange between Japan and Soviet Russia.

Opera

Akutagawa’s compositions include the operas Dark Mirror and Orpheus in Hiroshima.

Orchestral Music

Orchestral music by Akutagawa includes his Ellora Symphony, a Cello Concerto, and some hundred examples of music for the cinema. Music for Symphony Orchestra was first performed in 1950 and given wide publicity in the United States, leading to immediate worldwide recognition for the work itself and for its composer.