Born in Tokyo, 11 August 1915. Graduating in law from Tokyo University in 1938, he entered the Japanese Foreign Ministry and, after a short attendance in the harmony class of Prof.Poppen of Heidelberg University, served in Japanese embassies in Berlin and Moscow where he absorbed influences of Russian music. Coming back home in 1939, he made, with symphonic works he comopsed while in Moscow (1938〜'41), his first public debut as composer in 1943/'44, meanwhile studying anew primarily counterpoint and composition with Prof.Saburo Moroi. At the end of the World War II he was stationed in French Indochina, where he was retained for three years after the war in the Saigon camp. It happened, however, that he came across during this retainee's life with Leibowitz's Schoenberg et son ecole and made probably the first essay in twelve-tone technique by a Japanese. On his repatriation in 1943, the book of Leibowitz caused rise of dodecaphonic school in Japan heralded above all by Yoshiro Irino. But he himself was rather slow in adopting serialism: his first opera "Akemi" (1956) is only partly dodecaphonic; Violin Sonata (1957), "Message"for soprano and harp (1961) and "Concerto grosso for six instruments and orchestra (1968) are examples of reconciling serial technique with classical moulds, and Oratorio-Mystery play in the form of Noh "San Paolo" (1973) or song cycle like "Sette Canti dall'Antologia Mannyosyu (1966) and "Ghost prayers"(1975) the same with prosody of Japanese language. Opera in 3 Acts "Kyara Monogatari (History of City Kyara)" (1973) is again mixture of certain kinds of tonal and serial techniques, used respectively to characterize different figures in the drama. In his later works such as "Anna la bonne"(1978), "Takase-bune"(1979),"Kesa and Morito"(1980) or "O'Shichi, the prisoner"(1981) he seems to persue, leaving the exigency of serialism and in freer styles, the problem of Japanese prosody in more or less various dramtic situations and of finding instrumental and harmonic textures suitable to it, usually redacting the text himself. "Song of Lute"(1982), and "Song of River"(1989) can be understood in the same vein. With the Government's Permanent Delegate for UNESCO (1959〜'64) as his last official post he resigned from the Ministry to devote himself entirely to music and education. He was successively professor in the Toho Gakuen School of Music (1964〜'76) and professor and director of the music faculty of the Senzoku Gakuen College (1977〜'88), and thereafter was lecturer of the former and guest-professor of the latter. He served repeatedly in jury of the NHK - Mainichi Press Music Contest (1964〜'76), and also ISCM jury held in Paris (1975). With Irino he was the organizer of the "Amis de la Musique du 20eme Siecle" concert series (1967〜'72). He served as Board members of the Japanese society for Contemporary Music and of the Japanese Federation of Composers for many years and served as Secretary-General of the Japanese national committee of the International Music Council (of UNESCO) for many years (1965〜'94). He is also writer and translator of many books and articles on music.