Deaf composer Mamoru Samuragochi (Resident Evil) paid someone else to write music for him, but still took credit

After losing his hearing in the last 90s and being hailed as the “Japanese Beethoven”, it turns out that composer Mamoru Samuragochi didn’t actually directly compose a good chunk of the songs he’s most famous for, including the soundtrack to 2001’s Onimushu: Warlords and the critically acclaimed “Hiroshima Symphony No. 1”, a piece dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombings of 1945. Instead, Samuragochi-san paid someone else to do the actually writing process while he fed them vague musical ideas.

It’s not quite clear how involved or disassociated he was with the actual writing, but the details we have do make it seem as though he primarily gave a vague interpretation of what he wanted and let the other person do most of the raw composition work. A statement from Samuragochi-san’s solicitor read as follows: “He knows he could not possibly make any excuse for what he has done. He is mentally distressed and not in a condition to properly express his own thoughts.”

Japan Times via EuroGamer