Coming April 7! Exploring the Roots of the "Ultra Seven" Accompaniment - Composer Toru Fuyuki Reflects on His Life as a Composer Interview to Commemorate the Release of His Autobiography "Ultra Music Techniques

Composer Toru Fuyuki is known for his work on "Ultra Seven" and other Tsuburaya Productions tokusatsu productions.

His first autobiography "Ultra Music Art" (Shueisha International Shinsho), a retrospective of his long life as a composer, will be released by Shueisha on April 7, 2022.

In this interview, Mr. Fuyuki and his co-author, Mr. Toru Aoyama, discuss the music of "Ultra Seven" and the little-known history of Mr. Fuyuki as a composer.

Toru Fuyuki (left) and Dori Aoyama

The "Ultra Seven" Era

--First of all, please tell us about your original experience with the Ultraman series.

I was born in 1960, so I was just barely of the generation that watched "Ultra Q" (1966) in real time. At the time, I didn't really understand the content, but I was completely hooked by "Ultraman" (1966). I then went on to watch Toei's "Captain Ultra" (1967), followed by "Ultra Seven" (1967), and I spent my childhood right in the middle of the first monster boom.

--Did you watch "Seven" from the very first episode?

Aoyama: Yes. I was born in October, and "Seven" also started in October. So I was immersed in "Seven" for a year when I was just 7 years old, or in other words, in the first or second grade of elementary school. Even as a child, I felt that "Seven" had a slightly different atmosphere from what I was used to, and I thought that an adult had come to show me a serious stage.

Toru Fuyuki (hereafter, Fuyuki): At the time, I had no awareness that it was a children's program. As Mr. Aoyama just mentioned, that was exactly what we were aiming for. We were not making a distinction between adult and children's programs, but were simply doing our best to make it a commonplace program. The reason is that there is no precedent for a work on such a large scale. So we had to think for ourselves. But I don't think we were so uptight about it; I think it really just came very naturally.

Aoyama: The seriousness of the music that you wrote was no exception; it had a profound, high-quality feel that I had never heard before. I felt that kind of thing watching and feeling it in real time at the time. Looking back on it now as an adult, the theme song has a charm that has not faded in the slightest, with its heavy brass ensemble and superb harmonic progression, even when I listen to it now.

Fuyuki: We were not aiming for these various elements, but they came naturally.

Aoyama: For an individual piece, the "Concerto for Flute and Piano" (M51), I thought it was Mozart or some kind of pre-existing classical music.

--It is the famous piece used in the scene where Moroboshi Dan and the Metron star are talking across the dining table in episode 8, "The Targeted City," isn't it?

Aoyama: Yes. I wanted to hear that piece properly, so I kept searching for classical music, but when I became a high school student, I was surprised to learn that it was actually an original composition by Mr. Fuyuki. I was surprised to find out in high school that it was actually an original composition by Mr. Fuyuki. That is the impression I have.

Fuyuki: Regarding the composition that Mr. Aoyama mentioned, I created the sound by adding some unusual instruments to the basic composition of an orchestra. At the time, the foreign TV drama "Thunderbirds" (1965) was very popular, and I knew that they had a great sound. Inspired by this, I remember discussing with the staff at the time that I wanted to create music that would be as good as the music in Japan. I thought I had created a dense sound while covering some ground with my compositional efforts, but I felt that I had to do something like that with this piece.

--I think the first recording of the accompaniment to the play "Seven" also used woodwind bass instruments such as the bass clarinet and contrabassoon.

Fuyuki I don't know how effective they really were with the TV speakers of the time, but in that sense, I think it was probably meant to be experimental. The setting was very varied, with the appearance of aliens and other space-inspired elements in the background, so I wanted to use sounds that you don't normally hear to express these elements. It was definitely impossible to do on a budget (laughs), but we were grateful to be allowed to do it. I am very happy that the results of our earnest efforts at the time are still being conveyed today.

Embarking on a "Journey of Remembrance

--Aoyama-san, in 2013, you published a book titled "Ultra Seven Taught Me 'Music'" (Artes Publishing, now on sale in the Shincho Bunko edition), which is based on the music of "Seven.

Aoyama: I had hoped to publish my own book someday, but seven or eight years before publication, I was writing my own blog at a time when blogs were very popular. I realized that this was what I wanted to write about, so I decided to write a book about it. I realized that this is what I wanted to write about. So, when I decided to write a book, I really wanted to talk to you about it. Of course, I had no acquaintance with him at the time, but fortunately an acquaintance at a record company connected me with him, and I was able to meet him.

Do you have any episodes from your first meeting with Mr. --?

Aoyama: It is a famous story, but in the last episode of "Seven," you used Schumann's Piano Concerto (A minor, Op.54). I have always wondered why this was the Lipatti disc, and by talking to you directly, my 40-year-long question was cleared up. I wrote about it in the article "Ultra Seven Taught Me 'Music'".

Fuyuki: In that first book written by Mr. Aoyama, I felt as if my body was being dismantled down to the smallest detail (laughs).

Aoyama: No, not at all. On the day of the interview, Ms. Junko Yoshida, a member of the editorial board of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, and Mr. Toshihide Katayama, a music critic, were also there, and I was asked to talk to a professor I had never met before with two big names behind me (laughs). The music was used in the final episode of "Seven," the first half of the first movement and the second half of the second movement, and right then and there, the music started to flow more and more, and I was crying so hard that I ended up crying. ......

Fuyuki: I have a feeling that the recipients have deeper feelings about "Ultra Seven" than I do.

Aoyama I am a little embarrassed to say this, but in that sense, it was an unforgettable day.

--Now, you and Mr. Aoyama are co-authoring the book "Ultra Music Art.

Aoyama: It was around March of the year before last that I first asked Mr. Fuyuki to write a book.

Fuyuki: No, I have nothing interesting to say about my life, and I thought no one would read a book like this if I wrote one. (Laughs) I myself am a person who loves to read books, and I felt that way. I will tell you now that I was quite serious in my opposition, but in the end I was defeated by Mr. Aoyama's enthusiasm.

--How did you go about writing the book?

Fuyuki: Mr. Aoyama interviewed me, and I left the writing itself entirely to him. I myself am a clumsy person, and it was so long ago that it is difficult for me to remember details. However, he never spoke a word of impatience.

Aoyama: During the course of the study, there was a period when I had to stop due to the Corona disaster, but in the end, I went to his home about 20 times over a period of one and a half years. In his postscript, he wrote that it was a "trip of remembrance," and I was able to accompany him on that trip. I was able to learn about many episodes that even Mai-san (*Mai Okamoto, the daughter of Fuyuki Sensei and actress) did not know about. I have compiled them into five chapters: "The Source of My Music: Manchuria, Shanghai, and Hiroshima Period," "To Tokyo: Working at Radio Tokyo," "Ultra Seven," "From Retirement from TBS to the Present," and "Classical Music and Me.

Fuyuki: No, I really appreciate your efforts.

Aoyama: I hear that you yourself are often asked, "How did you write "The Music of Ultra Seven"? I heard that he himself is often asked, "How did you write 'Music of Ultra Seven'?" According to him, in order to tell the story, it is necessary to go back to his childhood, so he spent the first half of 2021 especially on the Manchuria, Shanghai, and Hiroshima period, which is reflected in Chapters 1 and 2.

Fuyuki: Mr. Aoyama helped me a lot in this regard as well. As for the details, I forgot when and where that happened. There were times when I suddenly woke up in the middle of the night and remembered something like this, but it was like a stone falling on the surface of the water and causing ripples to spread out, in my blank memory. But I had to sleep anyway because Mr. Aoyama would be there tomorrow afternoon. So I would drink a glass of whiskey and go to bed (laughs).

Aoyama: Oh, really?

Fuyuki: It was like doing homework in the middle of the night for the first time in 70 years.

Aoyama We had no records or photographs of those days, so we had to ask the teacher to recall everything. As Mai later told me, she herself drew a timeline of certain events and asked, "Was I in the first or third grade of elementary school? She also said that there was a time when she verified that it was in the first or third grade of elementary school.

Fuyuki: For me, all the events are memorable and unforgettable, but I can't put them in the book unless I can come up with a time line, which is the key. I had to ask you to summarize the story, but I had to tell a story that could not be summarized (laughs). I really think it was a tough job, Mr. Aoyama.

Aoyama: You put it that way, but when I summarize what you have told me, it takes shape in a normal way. Perhaps the flow of the story was unconsciously created in your mind, and when I reread the first chapter in particular, which had hardly been mentioned before, I feel that it is really a brilliant story. I also think it was significant that the teacher was able to tell the musical stories in each period so well.

--This book contains many episodes of Mr. Fuyuki that are not known to the public.

Aoyama: One of the episodes is that when he first stepped on Japanese soil after the war, Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" was played in the town of Kobe. He was very moved by this episode, so I wrote it in one line in Aki's bold gothic style. I was very moved by his words, so I wrote about it in one-line Aki's bold gothic style. At the time, the rector told him, "It is not enough. Music is prayer. You are still not enough," he was often told. In Europe, music originated in churches, where people prayed, and eventually developed into classical music. I was very impressed by the words of the professor, as they were the very words that led him to classical music.

Fuyuki: Looking back, my father was against me doing music. He said, "You idiot, you can't feed your family with that! He was furious. One day, however, he brought me an application for admission to Elizabeth University. I have included that story in this book, and I truly believe that thanks to my father, I have been able to live for 86 years.

Aoyama: During the chaotic postwar period, you returned to Japan from Manchuria, where you were born and raised, via Shanghai, and were barely able to attend school. Even so, he studied from books left behind by repatriates and his father's books. Music was likewise self-taught, and you learned to play the piano even though you hardly learned from anyone. At the entrance exam for Elisabet, in the composition exam, when you started writing notes on a staff to write a piano piece, you ended up with a three-beat mazurka (*a traditional Polish dance, or dance form). The teacher was very humble and actually told me that he wanted to delete that crap, but I let him keep it, saying, "No, no, it's outrageous.

--So there was a lot of back-and-forth before the manuscript was completed.

Aoyama: Yes. As a reader, I really wanted to keep that part of the manuscript, and it is amazing that it was completed when I realized it. There were many other things as well (laughs).

Fuyuki I offered to cut it out because I was embarrassed (laughs). No, you can't see anything of yourself from yourself.

The Essence of Classical Music

--Aoyama: Was there any part of the book that you were particular about?

Aoyama: You studied at two music schools, Elisabeth University and Kunitachi College of Music, and taught for more than 30 years at Toho Gakuen School of Music (composition theory department), but you rarely had a chance to talk about classical music, which is the most important part of your work. So, we devoted a chapter to talk about his favorite classical music, such as Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung" and Beethoven's Symphony No. 8.

Fuyuki: We talked while playing records, and that was about a year and a half ago.

Aoyama: Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 was conducted by Mengelberg, wasn't it? He shook the tempo like a street performer, a performance that is hard to hear nowadays.

Fuyuki: I think that was the most recent performance at that time. The work itself is also new in the stream of Romanticism (Romanticism), and listening to it with Mr. Aoyama, I once again felt that Mengelgeluk was an amazing conductor. Actually, I was actually going to give you another piece, but guess what?

Aoyama Eh, Schubert's "The Great" (treated in this book)?　Sibelius' Violin Concerto?

Fuyuki: It is Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring.

Aoyama: No, I had never heard of it before.

Fuyuki: I love "The Rite of Spring. But I have no way to explain it (laughs). That's why it didn't become a manuscript.

Aoyama As I happened to write in this book, the humming of the Pole aliens in "Seven" reminds me of "Rite of Spring" somehow, and I feel that way every time I listen to this song. By the way, do you have a favorite performance of "Rite of Spring"?

Fuyuki: Markevich. It's a very nice and clear performance.

Aoyama: I see. That is also a valuable testimony.

Fuyuki: As I told Mr. Aoyama during the interview for the book, unlike painting, "liking" music changes from time to time. On the contrary, sometimes I dislike it, and sometimes I like it. I think that is the charm of music. It really is a mysterious thing.

--I think that when you listen to the music of Mr. Aoyama, who is well versed in classical music, you may be able to read various influences in his music.

Aoyama: Yes, that's right. One example is the M38A (*M68 is also almost identical) of "Seven. He had various musical experiences, which naturally manifested themselves in the accompaniment, and he did not intentionally compose it that way. I must say that this piece reminds me of Shostakovich. The overall tone of the piece is similar to the phrase that appears at the end of the first movement of the Fifth Symphony. Moreover, in the play, there are many scenes in which Seven is forced to fight against King Joe in Kobe Port in Episode 15 "Ultra Guard Westward Part 2", the scene in Episode 39 "Seven Assassination Plot Part 1" where the tanks of the Earth Defense Force are destroyed one after another by the disk of Guts aliens, and also the scene in Episode 38 "Crazy Gon", where the overwhelming and irrational force overpowers the Seven. The "Seven Assassination Plans: The First Part" scene in episode 39, where the Earth Defense Forces tanks are destroyed by the Guts aliens' disks one after another.

--Oh, I see. Shostakovich was a composer of "oppression" who was forced to write works in line with the social realism demanded by the Soviet Union, so we can read such an intention from the tone and music selection.

Aoyama: That's right. This is just my own interpretation, but if you rewatch "Seven" after listening to classical music, you will be able to read it in depth in many ways, and I think this will broaden your understanding and create new enjoyment.

--In his book, Mr. Aoyama mentioned earlier that Mr. Toshihide Katayama was taught the charms of Mozart by the music of "Seven.

Fuyuki: I have met several such people in the past. Mr. Aoyama is one of them.

Aoyama: I was guided by listening to his music, and eventually I even made it my profession.

Fuyuki: No, I feel responsible for that (laughs).

--Aoyama: The book will be released soon, how do you each feel about it?

Aoyama: The release of the book marks the end of my work with the professor, so in that sense, I feel a little sad.

Fuyuki: To be honest, I have that feeling too. Through the interviews, there were many times when I had to remind myself, "When was that? As I researched them, I gradually began to feel nostalgic, and now I feel that I want to research more and more.

Aoyama: I would love to have another opportunity to go through it further.

Fuyuki It just seems like it would be nice to be done with this ....... But if the next story comes along, that would be a problem for me (laughs). In any case, it was a rare experience indeed.

Aoyama That's me too.

Fuyuki: I really couldn't have had this job without you.

Aoyama: Your work has a wide range, so even in the context of special effects and theatrical accompaniment, for example, there may be many other works that should be handled more, but I think we were able to get to the essence of what you do.

--I think the story of "Seven" is also very valuable because there are few people who can talk about it nowadays. Especially for "Seven," he was not finished composing the music, but was also involved in the selection of each song, so I felt such dense days through this book.

Fuyuki: Looking back, however, that was not the case from the beginning. In those days, the TV world was very full of studio work, and every staff member was searching for new ideas and putting in a lot of effort. The same was true at Tsuburaya Productions, where specialists in each part of the work, such as cinematography, lighting, art, sound effects, and so on, naturally worked in a way that transcended the boundaries between them while fulfilling their respective roles and sharing their knowledge and wisdom with each other. I think this was inevitable while working in the television medium. Looking back on it now, I strongly feel that way.

--In this book, you also talk about your episodes with the directors of "Seven," including the late Hajime Tsuburaya, Akio Jissoji, and Toshihiro Iijima.

Fuyuki: This is something I thought about even while working on this project, but when it is actually published, I expect that Hajime Tsuburaya will say to me, "Hey, Fuyuki, come here a minute! You wrote this! I'm sure he would say, "Hey, Fuyuki, come here! No, I think he would be very picky (laughs).

(laughs) -- Now, the last question. What do you hope to convey through this book?

Aoyama: You are always humble and say, "I was just guided," but behind that, there is constant study and effort, as well as Christian teachings, I hope that through this book, you will get a sense of his musical journey and his outlook on life.

Fuyuki: Looking back, I am truly ashamed of all the things I have done (laugh), so I hope you will take this book as a reflection of my life.

Aoyama: In the postscript, I wrote that, but in fact, I initially wrote that I hoped it would be a reference for your life. I think this is also an expression of your humble attitude. I don't know if I should talk about that here and now (laughs).

Fuyuki I will leave that to you now (laughs).

Aoyama: I think that's why he is in denial, but from our point of view, it really seems to be a life lesson. What he talks about in this book is also a life of doing what you love and what you are good at, and I am sure that those of us who are approaching retirement age, as well as young people with various possibilities, will find something to guide us in our lives.

Fuyuki: I was born in Manchuria, and after the war, I came to Japan via the continent. Looking back, I am reminded of that especially strongly in light of the current world situation. After I returned to Japan, I studied music, joined TBS, eventually became an independent composer, and even began teaching at a music college, but there were no bad people I met, including during my time in Manchuria. I would be happy if readers can understand that, even if only a little.

(Text: Tomohisa Toyota)

(Profile)

Toru Fuyuki: Real name is Shoho Makita. Born in Changchun, China in 1935. Born in Changchun, China in 1935, he graduated from the Elisabeth College of Music with a degree in composition and a major in religious music. He worked for Radio Tokyo (now TBS), where he was in charge of effects and composition. Worked at Toho Gakuen School of Music. Composed "Kurama Tengu", "Ultra Seven", NHK TV serial "Hatoko no Umi", and many religious pieces under the name of Naoho Makita.

Toru Aoyama: Author and editor under his real name, Yasushi Aono, was born in Tokyo in 1960. Graduated from Waseda University. After working for Ongaku-no-tomo-sha as an editor of "Weekly FM," books, etc., and several other companies, he became a freelance writer. Interested in music areas ranging from classical music to keyakizaka 46. Author of "Ultra Seven Taught Me 'Music'" (Shinchosha) and other books.

Book information

■International Shinsho: Ultra Music Art

April 7, 2022 on sale

Price: 924 yen (tax included)

Author: Toru Fuyuki, Dori Aoyama

Publisher: Shueisha