Sonic seasons: musical representation of nature in Tōru Takemitsu’s film music

Japanese seasonal culture, rooted in natural environment and artistic traditions, perme-ates daily life and art forms, including the film music of Tōru Takemitsu (1930–1996). A nature enthusiast, Takemitsu themed nearly half of his works—including his nearly 100 film scores—around seasonal imagery. Seasonal elements in his film music extend beyond titles and scenes to metaphoric narrative functions. This paper analyseshow seasonal culture shapes Takemitsu’s compositional techniques (texture, harmony, timbre, orchestration) and his use of music to depict seasons on screen. Focusing on four films—A Song of Early Spring(1969), Dear Summer Sister(1972), Glowing Autumn(1973), and Winter(1972)—it applies film music theory and Japanese seasonal aesthetics, with detailed analysis of “Dear Summer Sister”. The study reveals Takemitsu’sunique integration of seasonal symbolism into cinematic storytelling.