Toru Takemitsu was born in Tokyo on 8 October 1930.  After the war, resolving to become a composer, he began to study composition with Yasuji Kiyose in 1948, though he remained basically self-taught.  His composing debut came at the age of twenty with the piano piece "Lento in due movimenti".  Takemitsu showed a very clear interest in many nonmusical art forms, such as modern painting, literature (particularly poetry), theater and film. In 1951, together with other composers and artists from the most divergent disciplines, he founded the "Experimental Workshop", a mixed-media group which soon became known for its avant-garde multi-media activities.

Takemitsu first gained public recognition as a composer in the late fifties, with his Requiem for strings (1957).  His interest in different artistic fields and his self-taught status deeply influenced his avant-garde style.  He was using tape recorders to create musical collages out of "real" sounds ("musique concrète") as soon as 1950 (Water Music 1960, Kwaidan 1964).  In the early sixties two new influences established themselves in Takemitsu’s music: traditional Japanese music (e.g. November Steps, 1967, for biwa, shakuhachi and orchestra) and nature (e.g. ARC I, 1963, for orchestra, A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden, 1977, for orchestra).  On the occasion of the world exhibition EXPO 1970 in Osaka, he was musical director of a theatre project ("Space Theater of Street Pavilion").  Whereas the influence of Schönberg and Berg were noticeable in the works of his early period, the French style of composition, particularly that of Debussy, has remained the basis for his works thereafter.  Takemitsu was also very receptive towards other music (jazz, chanson, pop tunes) and, being an ardent film fan, he has also composed film music (e.g. Ran, Dodes’ka-Den).  Although at home in the electronic media and film music, his most characteristic works are perhaps for chamber ensemble and large orchestra.  Including arrangements of classic pop-melodies, the 12 Songs for Guitar (1977) are evidence of Takemitsu’s liking for so-called light music.  Takemitsu is in particular an instrumental composer and being adherent to a "musique concrète", he uses
even in his electronic pieces
solely natural sounds instead of electronic ones.

He lectured on composition at the Yale University and was also invited by universities in the USA, Canada and Australia as a lecturer or composer-in-residence.  He was awarded many honours and prizes, for example the UNESCO-IMC Music Prize in 1991 and the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1994 for Fantasma/Cantos.

Takemitsu died in Tokyo on 20 February 1996.