Among the leading Japanese composers of the first half of the 20th century, Qunihico Hashimoto studied with Egon Wellesz in Vienna and associated with Alois Hába and Ernst Křenek before meeting Schoenberg in America. In his music he often draws on Japanese sources, together with other European influences. His wartime music is patriotic in tone, followed by a post-war change of values.

Orchestral Music

Hashimoto’s Symphony No. 1 was written to celebrate the 2,600th imperial year in 1940, an occasion to which five foreign composers also contributed (including Britten with his Sinfonia da Requiem, which proved unsuitable for the occasion). Before going to Europe, Hashimoto had written a number of dance scores for a dancer of traditional Nihon Buyo. Heavenly Maiden and Fisherman, the subject also of a Noh play, was first staged in 1932, to be followed by a concert suite the following year.