The supposedly deaf composer Mamoru Samuragochi, a Hiroshima native and son of atomic bomb survivors, moved many people with his music. Among them were survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, their descendants and people who suffered from the 3/11 disasters. The media christened him "a modern Beethoven."
But at a Feb. 6 news conference, composer Takashi Niigaki stepped forward to disclose that he had ghostwritten more than 20 classical music scores credited to Samuragochi for the past 18 years. The revelation has shocked not only fans of Samuragochi's music but also musicians who played his compositions before audiences. His deception is all the more serious because his music moved so many people so deeply — in part because of the perception that he was persevering against strong odds.
The deception by Samuragochi is twofold. First, he claimed that he composed pieces when they were actually written by someone else. Second, Niigaki, a lecturer at Toho Gakuen School of Music, cast doubt on Samuragochi's claim that he is deaf. At the news conference, Niigaki said that he first met Samuragochi in 1996 when the latter was 33 years old. According to Samuragochi's autobiography, he lost hearing in his left ear when he was 30 and became fully deaf when he was 35 years old. But Niiigaki said that he never felt that Samuragochi was deaf and that he carried on normal conversations with him. He explained that he often composed melody fragments based on ideas provided by Samuragochi, played them on the piano and recorded them. He then let Samuragochi listen to them and choose from among them, then he composed a bigger piece based on the chosen melodies.