Takehisa Kosugi

was a Japanese composer, violinist and artist associated with the Fluxus movement. Early life Kosugi was born in Tokyo in 1938, and studied musicology at the Tokyo University of the Arts, graduating in 1962. Early musical influences Kosugi first became drawn to music listening to his father play harmonica and listening to violin recordings of Mischa Elman and Joseph Szigeti while as a child in post-war Japan. His later influences as a university student included the 1950s musical experimentation occurring in Europe and the US. He was also influenced by jazz, citing Charlie Parker’s “spontaneity and freedom.” Musical career Group Ongaku He started Tokyo-based seven-member ensemble Group Ongaku with his first improvisation partner Shuku Mizuno, which was active from 1958 to 1962. The group explored the limits of music by using the noises of ordinary objects and eschewing conscientiousness of the other members’ sound. Their first concert was the “Concert of Improvisational Music and Sound Object” at the Sōgetsu Art Center on September 15, 1961. Along with Natsuyuki Nakanishi and Jiro Takamatsu of Hi-Red Center and the sculptor Hiroshi Kobatake, Kosugi participated in “Kuroku fuchidora