Born in Tokyo. Under a cultural environment where his father was a Western art historian, he began studying composition at age 10 with Saburo Moroi and at age 14 with Kunihiko Hashimoto. At the Tokyo Academy of Music (now Tokyo University of the Arts), alongside his classmate Toshiro Mayuzumi, he studied under Tomojiro Ikenouchi and Akira Ifukube. Subsequently, from 1951, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris as a French government scholarship student, learning from Olivier Messiaen and others. After acquiring the "unified, perfect style and meticulous finish" characteristic of the Conservatoire, he returned to Japan in 1956. While also involved in documentary films and theater, he taught at Tokyo University of the Arts, fostering talented composers such as Teruyuki Noda, Shin-ichiro Ikebe, and Michio Kitazume. He passed away suddenly in 1976 in his mid-40s. Preferring classical music over avant-garde, his compositional approach, which thoroughly pursued the perfection of each individual piece, resulted in a small but long-loved body of works. His works include:

• Piano Sonata (1961)
• Piano Concerto (1967)

Akio Yashiro acquired elaborate compositional techniques of French music and left behind works of very high quality.

Early Life and Education

Yashiro was born in Tokyo on September 10 in 1929. His father, Yukio, was noted as a fine art critic and his mother was a pupil of the pianist, Kikuji Tanaka. Akio Yashiro began to study the piano at the age of about 5 and he started to learn composition at the age of 8. He studied under Saburō Moroi from 1939, when he was at the age of 10, and four years later he began being taught composition by Kunihiko Hashimoto.

In 1945, which was in the middle of the Pacific War, Yashiro entered Tokyo Ongaku Gakkō (Tokyo Academy of Music, now the Faculty of Music at Tokyo University of the Arts). He studied composition with Tomojirō Ikenouchi and Akira Ifukube, and the piano with Kiyo Kawakami, Noboru Toyomasu and L. Kreuzer. Yashiro composed piano music one after another in the 1940s and completed “Sonatine for Piano”, “24 Preludes” and “Nocturn for Piano”. He graduated in 1949 and finished “Piano Trio” and subsequently entered the graduate school. Compositions such as “Sonata for Viola and Piano”, “Kōkyō-teki Sakuhin (Symphonic Piece)”, “Violin to Piano no tame no Mittsu no Shōhin (3 small Pieces for Violin and Piano)”, and the stage music “Yoshidagoten (Yoshida palace)” were composed around 1950.

Studies in France

From 1951, he was sent to France by the Japanese government and studied at the Conservatoire in Paris. He learned the way of composition and orchestration from T. Aubin and O. Messiaen. “String Quartet”, composed as a work that compiles the years of studying abroad and testifies to the acquirement of his ‘métier’, was recognized by H. Barraud and F. Schmitt and played on the first public stage by Parrenin Quartet and broadcasted in RTF in 1956.

Major Works and Achievements

Yashiro returned to Japan in 1956. “String Quartet” was played in Japan and Yashiro received the Mainichi Music Award. In 1958, one of his most important works, “Symphony” was performed for the first time. Yashiro’s “Cello Concerto” won the Otaka Award in 1961, and “Piano Concerto” received the Otaka Award again in 1968 as well as the Encouragement Prize of an art festival. Yashiro also composed music for various media:

• Documentary films: “Hōryūji (Hōryūji Temple)” and “Kodai no Bi (the ancient Beauty)”
• Stage music: “Kurotokage (Black Lizard)” and “Tosca”
• Commissioned work: “Hakugin no Saiten (Festival in Silver-white)” for the Sapporo Olympic
• Television: Cooperation with NHK television for the piece “Minna no Uta (Everyone’s Songs)”

Yashiro moreover acted as the music director of the Mie National Athletic Meeting.

Later Career and Legacy

Yashiro became professor at the Faculty of Music at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1974 and trained not only Shinichirō Ikebe but also many other composers at the university. On April 6 in 1976, Yashiro passed away when he was only 46 years old. His publications include:

• The essay collection “Orfeo no Shi (The Death of Orpheus)” (published from Shinya Sōsho-sha, first anniversary of his death)
• Yashiro’s complete writings (published by Ongaku No Tomo Sha the following year)
• The coauthored book “Bach Heikinritsu no Kenkyū (A Study of equal Temperament of Bach)” with Jin Kobayashi (published by Musicanova in 1981)

For Yashiro, both the aspects of an instrumental performer and a composer were immanent in his musical character. His works are not many, but his music proper can be seen as substantiated polished ‘ecriture’.

He began studying composition under Saburo Moroi from the 4th grade of elementary school. Through Moroi's introduction, he became a pupil of Kunihiko Hashimoto (then chief professor at the Tokyo Music School) at the age of 14. Subsequently, while enrolled at the Tokyo Music School, he studied under Tomojiro Ikenouchi and orchestration under Akira Ifukube. From 1951 to 1956, he studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris as a French government scholarship student, where he studied under Nadia Boulanger, Jacques de la Presle, Olivier Messiaen, among others. Afterward, he served as a professor in the composition department at Tokyo University of the Arts and as a lecturer at Toho Gakuen School of Music. He passed away suddenly in 1976.