Shōgun Soundtrack: Gagaku and Taro Ishida’s Arrangements

The score for the first season of Shōgun was composed by Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross, and Nick Chuba. Working from Japan, Taro Ishida arranged and coordinated the recording of Japanese traditional music for their score, bringing together gagaku instruments, other Japanese instruments, and Buddhist chant.

This account follows the collaboration from Chuba’s first message to the recording sessions and conversations about how an instrument might be heard. It also introduces the musicians and recording team who helped shape these sounds.

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Who composed the Shōgun soundtrack?

Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross, and Nick Chuba composed the original score. Ishida’s role connected their musical sketches with Japanese performers: choosing and arranging instrumental parts, proposing sounds, and coordinating recording sessions in Japan. These contributions developed through an exchange between the composers and the musicians.

How Taro Ishida joined the project

The collaboration began when Nick Chuba contacted Ishida through Instagram about recording gagaku. Ishida had previously composed with gagaku instruments for projects including an exhibition at Tokyo University of the Arts and work for the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. His practice also included music for film and spaces.

Recording session for the Shōgun soundtrack

Recording Japanese instruments and Buddhist chant

An exchange between Los Angeles and Japan

The composers worked in Los Angeles while Ishida gathered performers in Japan. They sent sketches and more developed tracks for particular scenes. Sometimes the conversation concerned replacing a part with a Japanese instrument. At other times, they asked which sounds Ishida would add. His suggestions became arrangements and recording sessions, feeding back into the score.

From gagaku to a wider range of sounds

The recordings began with gagaku, the Japanese court music tradition. Instruments included the hichiriki, shō, ryūteki, and gakubiwa. The project later expanded to instruments such as shamisen, shakuhachi, kokyū, and conch shell. Monks also recorded Buddhist chant at a temple in Kashiwa.

These instruments and voices belong to several musical traditions. Gagaku was an important part of the collaboration, alongside other forms of Japanese music.

A conversation about the sound of the hichiriki

During production, the composers asked Ishida about a hichiriki passage in a solemn scene. Someone on the team had found its sound unexpectedly comic. The composers did not share that response and wanted to know what Ishida thought. He heard nothing inappropriate, and the sound remained in the score.

When Ishida later mentioned this to hichiriki player Hitomi Nakamura, she recalled that children sometimes laugh when they hear the instrument at a concert. The episode offered a small glimpse of how differently listeners can encounter the same sound.

The video below offers an introduction to the sound and playing techniques of the hichiriki.

Reaching new listeners through Shōgun

For Ishida and Drifter, the collaboration opened a way for Japanese performers and their music to reach people who might never otherwise encounter them. The composers’ openness and the performers’ experience gave rise to sounds that could not have been predicted at the start.