Morishige Takei

was a Japanese composer and court official during the reign of Emperor Showa. Biography He studied Italian at Tokyo College of Language. After studying in Italy and discovering the mandolin and guitar, he returned to Japan and in 1915 established what would become the Sinfonia Mandolini Orchestra, a mandolin orchestra. The orchestra would continue (with breaks) through 1949, when he died. He became a composer, with 114 compositions for mandolin and guitar. World War II affected music in Japan, through the National Mobilization Law of 1938. One of the effects of the law was to allow the government to assert control of music, banning western music and instruments, including the electric guitar, banjo and ukulele. In spite of this, Takei was able to maintain his mandolin-guitar orchestra until 1943. His orchestra, named the Orchestra Sinfonica Takei in 1923, was temporarily renamed Takei-Gakudan (shedding non-Japanese words in its name), December 1941. After the war, he rose higher in the imperial court. He continued the work of promoting the mandolin and guitar, giving a concert with his orchestra November 6, 1949. He fell ill at a rehearsal, however, on December 12 and died two days