I came across the article, "When East Meets West; Takemitsu's Itinerant For Flute Solo," in The Flutist Quarterly. This article was written in Winter 2006 by Mary Procopio and is well worth looking up. Flutist Quarterly has great archives and it's worth joining just for previously published articles.
Mary Procopio writes, "Toru Takemitsu used influences from very different cultures to create compositions that offer the performer both technical challenges and the opportunity to delve into the characteristics of Japanese music."
Takemitsu described his compositions, "My music is very influenced by the Japanese tradition, especially the Japanese garden, in color, spacing form...When I use Japanese instruments, people say, "Oh, very Japanese!" Sometimes for me it is too heavy. Then, I like to go in another direction..."
Takemitsu was born in Japan in 1928 and died in 1996. Described as a self educated and informed composer he used visual images and music drawn from composers such as Debussy and Messiaen. Eventually, in incorporating elements of both cultures he found his own voice.
I find the most poetic element of Takemitsu's compositions is his awareness of and use of As he said in his book, "Confronting Silence" which is autobiographical in nature, "music is either sound or silence. As long as I live I shall choose sound as something to confront a silence." This reminds me of the solitary existence of the poet, Basho.
Sizukasa ya What a quiet place!
Iwa ni simiiru Penetrating into the rocks,
Semi no koe The cicada's song.
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