Tadashi Hattori

Honestly, the first thing that hits you with Tadashi Hattori is the sheer span of the man — born in 1908, died in 2008, a full century on this planet, and he spent most of it making music. That's not a career, that's a geological era. A Keio University-educated composer from Tokyo who quietly shaped the Japanese music scene across the Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei eras without ever seeming to run out of steam. The Purple Ribbon Medal in 1978 confirmed what the industry already knew: this was someone whose contributions the country genuinely owed a debt to. I find myself less interested in any single song or score and more just… stunned by the durability. A century of living, and he spent it doing the thing. That kind of quiet, long-game dedication is rarer than any award.

Tadashi Hattori (1908–2008) was a Japanese composer born in Tokyo who lived to the age of 100, spanning the Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei eras. He studied at Keio University and established himself as a significant figure in Japan's twentieth-century music scene. In 1978 he was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon (Shiju-hosho), a national honor recognizing distinguished contributions to arts and sciences.

Name (English)

Tadashi Hattori

Name (Japanese)

服部正

Reading

はっとり ただし

Born

March 17, 1908 – August 2, 2008

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Monkey

Origin

Tokyo, Japan

Occupation

Composer

University

Keio University

Awards & achievements

• 1978 — Medal with Purple Ribbon (Shiju-hosho)

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%8D%E9%83%A8%E6%AD%A3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3513692

Tags

• From Tokyo
• Composer

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.