Authority control databases
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| National | |
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Mamoru Samuragochi 佐村河内 守 | |
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| Born | 21 September 1963 Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan |
| Labels | Nippon Columbia |
Mamoru Samuragochi (佐村河内 守, Samuragōchi Mamoru, born 21 September 1963) is a Japanese composer from Hiroshima Prefecture who falsely stated that he was totally deaf.[1] He said throughout his career that he was deaf which led to foreign media dubbing him a "digital-age Beethoven".[2] He was also the name credited for the video games Resident Evil: Dual Shock Ver. (1998) and Onimusha: Warlords (2001).[3][4] In February 2014, it was revealed that most of the work attributed to him over the previous 18 years had been written by Takashi Niigaki.[5]
Samuragochi was born on 21 September 1963[6] in Hiroshima Prefecture to parents who were both hibakusha (irradiated in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima).[7] He started playing the piano at the age of four.[7] He started having migraines while in high school, and said that, by the time he was 35, he had completely lost his hearing.[8][9] After graduating from high school, Samuragochi did not attend university or music school, due to his dislike of modern composition methods, and he instead taught himself how to compose.[7]
On 31 March 2013, Samuragochi was the subject of a 50-minute Japanese TV documentary titled Melody of the Soul: The Composer Who Lost His Hearing (魂の旋律 ～音を失った作曲家～, Tamashii no Senritsu: Oto o Ushinatta Sakkyokuka) and broadcast by NHK.[10] The documentary followed him as he met survivors of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan.[11]
In June 2013, a reporter from the magazine Aera interviewed Samuragochi at his apartment in Yokohama, but noticed a number of inconsistencies in Samuragochi's deafness statements, including his ability to respond to questions before the sign-language interpreter had finished, and standing up to answer a doorbell when it rang.[12] The interview was ultimately not published by the magazine due to doubts about Samuragochi's statements.[12]
When Samuragochi's first symphony was performed on tour by a full orchestra, the composer Takeo Noguchi noticed that it was an adaptation of little-known works from earlier composers like Gustav Mahler, and doubted Samuragochi's story, which was sourced entirely to his record label.[13] Noguchi's article was turned down by musical publications, as Samuragochi's record label was one of their advertising sponsors,[14] and instead was published in the November 2013 issue of the newsweekly Shincho 45, as "The deaf genius composer" - Is Mamoru Samuragochi genuine? (「全聾の天才作曲家」佐村河内守は本物か).[13] After the ghostwriting was revealed, Noguchi's article was awarded the Editors' Choice Magazine Journalism Award.
On 5 February 2014, it was publicly revealed that music attributed to Samuragochi since 1996 had actually been ghostwritten by Takashi Niigaki, a musician, composer, and part-time lecturer at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo.[15][16] Niigaki also said Samuragochi was not deaf and states that Samuragochi has normal hearing and was posing as a deaf man to generate a mystique around his image as a composer.[2] Niigaki also said that Samuragochi did not need to use his cane, and that most of his biography printed in album liner notes was fiction.[2][11] Niigaki went to the press because one of Samuragochi's "compositions" would be used by Japanese figure skater Daisuke Takahashi, at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.[11] On 12 February 2014, Samuragochi released a handwritten statement in which he revealed that he had a Grade 2 physical disability certificate after losing his hearing and to have partially regained his hearing three years previously.[17] He also added that he was "deeply ashamed of living a lie."[17]
Following the revelation, the city of Hiroshima announced that it would be revoking the Hiroshima Citizens' Award it presented to Samuragochi in 2008.[18] On 7 March 2014, he gave a press conference in Tokyo, appearing in public for the first time since the ghostwriting allegations arose.[19] He admitted that while his hearing was impaired, it did not meet the legal requirements for deafness, and that he had returned his disability certificate.[19]
The works below were formerly credited to Samuragochi, but were later identified as having been composed by Niigaki.
Completed in 2003, "Hiroshima" was first played at a concert held to commemorate the meeting of the Group of Eight leaders in Hiroshima in 2008.[8] It was released on CD in 2011 as part of the Nippon Columbia record label's 100th anniversary celebrations.[8]
