The Japanese composer Shiro Fukai was late in embarking on musical studies and was greatly influenced by Stravinsky and Ravel and their French contemporaries. He wrote scores for some 200 films, collaborating in particular with Kenji Mizoguchi and Tom Uchida. He makes some use of Japanese and Asian material in his work, while it retains a predominantly Ravelian context.

Orchestral Music

Fukai’s orchestral music includes a suite of five movements, Cinq Parodies, dedicated to de Falla, Stravinsky, Malipiero, Ravel and Bartók. Malipiero was later deleted, and the name Roussel was added in place of Bartók. His ballet Création was commissioned as part of the celebration of the imperial year 2600 (1940), with a scenario based on Japanese legend, and his Chantes [sic] de Java again enjoyed wartime popularity, while making direct reference to Ravel.