Background
He was born in the Hongo district of Tokyo.
橋本 國彦
He was born in the Hongo district of Tokyo.
In 1923, he entered the Tokyo Music School (presently Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music) where he studied violin and conducting.
In composition, he was largely self-taught, but later he would study that subject as a graduate student at the same school. Some of his students who would go on to become distinguished composers in their own right were Akio Yashiro, Yasushi Akutagawa, Ikuma Dan, and Toshiro Mayuzumi. Between 1934 and 1937, he visited Wien as a Japanese government scholar to study with Egon Wellesz.
During this period, he was introduced to the likes of Alban Berg, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Bruno Walter.
Before returning, he also made a sojourn to Los Angeles, where he studied with Arnold Schoenberg. He died in Kamakura in 1949, 44 years of age, from gastric cancer.