Yoshihide Otomo
Born: 1959-08-01 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Known For: Sound
Biography
Otomo Yoshihide (大友 良英, Otomo Yoshihide, born 1 August 1959) is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist known for his work in experimental music, free improvisation, and film scoring. Emerging in the 1990s as the leader of the experimental group Ground Zero, he became an influential figure in avant-garde and electroacoustic improvisation. Otomo has built an extensive career as a composer for film and television, contributing music to dozens of projects across Asia and beyond. His early film work includes The Blue Kite (1993), The Day the Sun Turned Cold (1994), and Blue (2002), with the reception of his 1994 score helping establish his reputation in cinema. His most widely recognized work is the soundtrack for the NHK television drama Amachan (2013), which became a major commercial success, reaching No. 5 on the Oricon Albums Chart and earning him the Japan Record Award. Beyond music, he is also known for founding Project FUKUSHIMA! following the 2011 earthquake, for which he received the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts in 2012.
Filmography
2026
- Street Kingdom: Make your own sound. ... (Original Music Composer)
- Rosanjin's Stove ... (Original Music Composer)
2025
- After the Quake ... (Original Music Composer)
- After the Quake ... (Original Music Composer)
- Hokusai's Daughter ... (Original Music Composer)
- BAUS: The Ship's Voyage Continues ... (Original Music Composer)
- Escape ... (Original Music Composer)
2024
- City Hunter ... (Original Music Composer)
- All Lives ... (Original Music Composer)
- Gewalt no Mori - Kare ha Waseda de shinda ... (Original Music Composer)
2023
- A Town Without Seasons ... (Original Music Composer)
- We're Broke, My Lord! ... (Original Music Composer)
- REVOLUTION+1 ... (Original Music Composer)
- Goodbye Hoyaman ... (Music)
2022
- LUPIN ZERO ... (Original Music Composer)
- Elpis ... (Original Music Composer)
- Inu-Oh ... (Original Music Composer)
- Shimobee ... (Original Music Composer)
- Noise ... (Original Music Composer)
- You've Got A Friend ... (Original Music Composer)
- The Zen Diary ... (Original Music Composer)
- The Unnameable Dance as Self
- Whereabouts of Sound as Self
2021
- We Made a Beautiful Bouquet ... (Original Music Composer)
- Backlight ... (Original Music Composer)
- Whiplash of the Dead ... (Original Music Composer)
- Olympiad Tokyo Kasumigaoka Public Apartments ... (Original Music Composer)
2020
- Keep Rolling ... (Original Music Composer)
2019
- Idaten: Tokyo Olympics Story ... (Original Music Composer)
- Magi: The Tensho Boys' Embassy ... (Original Music Composer)
- Beneath the Shadow ... (Original Music Composer)
- Taro the Fool ... (Original Music Composer)
- When My Mom Died, I Wanted to Eat Her Ashes ... (Original Music Composer)
2018
- Henkan kōshōjin: Itsuka, Okinawa o torimodosu ... (Original Music Composer)
2017
- Izakaya Fuji ... (Original Music Composer)
- Moon and Thunder ... (Original Music Composer)
- The Fall of Icarus: Narita Stories ... (Original Music Composer)
2016
- Utenai Keikan ... (Music)
- Hana-Dama: Phantom ... (Original Music Composer)
- The Actor ... (Original Music Composer)
- Artist of Fasting ... (Original Music Composer)
- Mother, I've Pretty Much Forgotten Your Face as Self
- Time to Dance ... (Music)
2015
- Orange ... (Original Music Composer)
- Journey to the Shore ... (Original Music Composer)
- Piece of Cake ... (Original Music Composer)
- Hokusotan 2015 (Action Direct) ... (Original Music Composer)
2014
- The Long Goodbye ... (Original Music Composer)
- Asunaro Sanzan Nana Byoushi ... (Original Music Composer)
- Hana-Dama ... (Original Music Composer)
- One for All, All for One ... (Original Music Composer)
- The Wages of Resistance: Narita Stories ... (Original Music Composer)
2013
- Amachan ... (Original Music Composer)
- Yellow Elephant ... (Original Music Composer)
- Suzuki Sensei ... (Original Music Composer)
- Passion ... (Original Music Composer)
- Bozo ... (Music)
2012
- OLO, the Boy from Tibet ... (Music)
- Amplified Gesture as Self
2011
- Suzuki Sensei ... (Original Music Composer)
- The Town's Children ... (Music)
- We Don't Care About Music Anyway as Self
2010
- Kaidan Horror Classics ... (Music)
- A Crowd of Three ... (Music)
- Abraxas ... (Music)
- Tokyo Island ... (Original Music Composer)
- Le revenant ... (Music)
2009
- Bare Essence of Life ... (Music)
- Oh, My Buddha! ... (Music)
- Kikoe as Self
2008
2007
- My Sister, My Love ... (Original Music Composer)
- Prisoner/Terrorist ... (Original Music Composer)
- Muhlifein as Himself
2006
- Angel's Egg ... (Music)
- AA as Self
- KOCHAB ... (Music)
- Dark Room Filled with Light ... (Sound)
2005
- Rampo Noir ... (Original Music Composer)
- Canary ... (Music)
- Heart, Beating in the Dark ... (Music)
2004
- Déracine ... (Original Music Composer)
- Mind and Body ... (Original Music Composer)
- Nor Noise as Self
2003
- Blue ... (Music)
- Iden & Tity ... (Original Music Composer)
- Jump ... (Music)
- Recitation Travelogue - Masterpieces of Japan: Matasaburo the Wind Imp ... (Music)
2001
- Kaza-hana ... (Original Music Composer)
- To the Backstreet: The Films Kenji Nakagami Left Out ... (Music)
- Scanning of Modulations ... (Music)
1999
- Tokyo Elegy ... (Music)
- Dead Beat ... (Original Music Composer)
1998
- Wait and See ... (Music)
- Soft Skin ... (Original Music Composer)
1997
- Kitchen ... (Original Music Composer)
- pierce LOVE&HATE ... (Original Music Composer)
- TRANSIT ANARCHY ... (Music)
1996
- The Stunt Woman ... (Original Music Composer)
- Hu-Du-Men ... (Original Music Composer)
- The Sun Has Ears ... (Music)
1995
- Summer Snow ... (Original Music Composer)
- Postman ... (Original Music Composer)
- Revolutionary Pekinese Opera, Tokyo 1995: Unofficial Live Video
1994
- The Blue Kite ... (Music)
- Evil Dream ... (Original Music Composer)
- The Day the Sun Turned Cold ... (Original Music Composer)
1990
- EXIT-B9 ... (Music)