Renowned Japanese musician and composer ryuichi sakamoto He died on March 28 at the age of 71 as a result of colorectal cancer that he had suffered since 2020, his agency confirmed this Sunday.

“While undergoing treatment for cancer discovered in June 2020, Sakamoto continued to create jobs whenever his health allowed. He lived with the music until the end“his agency, commmons, said in a statement.

According to the agency and in accordance with the artist’s wishes, the funeral service would have been held with his close relatives, although he did not provide further details and asked that the family’s privacy be respected.

“Ars longa, vita brevis. Art is long, life is short“, highlighted the text of commmons as one of the composer’s favorite phrases.

The pianist, who suffered throat cancer in 2014 from which he managed to recover, confirmed in early 2021 that he had colorectal cancer, which spread to other organs in the form of metastases.

Awarded an Oscar for Best Original Score for the film “The Last Emperor” (“The Last Emperor”)Sakamoto underwent six surgeries last year, including a 20-hour one to try to remove a primary tumor in the rectum and others that occurred from metastases.

Sakamoto was one of the most international Japanese creators of his time, with a complex body of work that has been made up of several stages, from his first successful group, the experimental Yellow Magic Orchestrato the creation of soundtracks.

In this section he received numerous awards and wrote the music for well-known titles such as “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (“Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence”, 1983)in which he also acted as the commander of a Japanese prisoner camp during the Pacific War, “The Last Emperor” (“The Last Emperor”, 1987) or “The Revenant” (“The Revenant”, 2015).

His last concert was last December 11in “online” format so that his fans from different time zones could listen to him, and when his cancer was already in stage IV, so many of his followers thought it could be the last.