Horiuchi Keizo was a Japanese composer, lyricist, translator, and music critic born in Kaji, Kanda, Tokyo, Japan. He also used the pen name Yasutani Shizuo (安谷鎮雄).

He was the third son of Horiuchi Iataro, the owner of "Asada Ame". However, he abandoned his inheritance rights to Asada Ame at the age of 34, when he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, Nihon University.

He graduated from Tokyo Higher Normal School Attached Elementary School and then from Tokyo Higher Normal School Attached Middle School in 1915. Throughout elementary and middle school, he studied music under Tamura Torakura. During his time at the school, around 1912, he was influenced musically by his relative Futami Kohei, a student at Tokyo Imperial University.

When he failed the entrance exam for the Second Higher School and was leading a life as a ronin, in 1916, he founded the first music criticism magazine in Japan, "Ongaku to Bungei." Although he had aspirations to pursue a career in music at the time, he did not receive support from his family to study music. In 1917, he went to the United States, where he majored in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan to study automotive engineering, which was related to his love for steam locomotives. He also studied composition under Earl Vincent Moore and music history under Albert Augustus Stanley at the University's School of Music and participated in the choir.

In 1921, he entered the Master's program in applied mechanics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he majored in applied mechanics. In 1922, he traveled to Europe from June to September, visiting London, Berlin, Paris, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy.

In 1923, he graduated from the Master's program in applied mechanics at MIT and obtained a master's degree in mechanical engineering, returning to Japan to find that his belongings had been destroyed in a warehouse fire in Yokohama due to the Great Kanto Earthquake. His family home in Kanda was also destroyed by fire. As a result, he had to give up his dream of returning to the United States to become a researcher. He became the representative director of an automobile repair shop established by his father as a joint venture, but he was passionate about music and engaged in translation, composition, lyrics, broadcasting, and music education. In 1926, he was allowed by his father to pursue a career in music after the hit "Young Blood," which he composed and wrote lyrics for, and he became the chief of Western music at NHK.

From 1935, he served as the head of the music department at the Shochiku Kamata Studio and concurrently as a professor at Nihon University.

In 1936, he became the publisher of "Gekkan Gakufu." In February 1938, he became the chief editor of "Ongaku Sekai." On September 28 of the same year, he resigned as a professor at Nihon University. On October 31 of the same year, he resigned as the head of the music department at the Shochiku Ofuna Studio. In November 1941, he merged "Gekkan Gakufu," "Ongaku Sekai," and "Ongaku Kurabu" to create "Ongaku no Tomo" and established Nihon Ongaku Zasshi Kabushiki Kaisha, becoming its director and president.

In 1947, he became the first chairman of the Japan Music Writers Association (now the All-Japan Music Writers Association).

He passed away on October 12, 1983, at the age of 85 due to pneumonia.

(Source: Japanese = Wikipedia || Translation = kisskh) Edit Biography