Mamoru Fujisawa (?? ? Fujisawa Mamoru?), known professionally as Joe Hisaishi (? ? ? Hisaishi Jo?

, born December 6, 1950), is a composer and musical director kno wn for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981.[1] While possessing a stylistically distinct sound, Hisaishi's music has been known to explore and incorporate different genres, including minimalist, experimental electronic, European classical, and Japanese classical. Lesser known are the ot her musical roles he plays; he is also a typesetter, author, arranger, and condu ctor. He is best known for his work with animator Hayao Miyazaki, having composed scor es for many of his films, including Nausica of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Lap uta: Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Servic e (1989), Porco Rosso (1992), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Ho wl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), and The Wind Rises (2013). He is also r ecognized for the soundtracks he has provided for filmmaker 'Beat' Takeshi Kitan o, including A Scene at the Sea (1991), Sonatine (1993), Kids Return (1996), Han a-bi (1997), Kikujiro (1999), and Dolls (2002). He was a student of legendary an ime composer Takeo Watanabe.[2][c