A week after his ghost writer came forward, Mamoru Samuragochi, the composer once hailed as Japan’s Beethoven, has admitted that he did regain his hearing in recent years. He also apologized to his fans for deceiving them, but insisted that some of the claims he made about his life are true.
Last week, Samuragochi said that he did not write any of the music that had been attributed to him in the past 18 years. That includes his most famous piece, Symphony, No. 1: Hiroshima, which had been adopted as a theme for the tsunami relief efforts. While he did not admit that he could hear, Takashi Niigaki, his ghost writer, held a press conference, saying that Samuragochi could conduct a conversation with him.
The Associated Press now reports that Samuragochi, 50, has sent a new, handwritten statement to the Japanese media, admitting that he recently regained his hearing. The statement was released by his attorneys.
“(My hearing) has recovered to the level I can catch words when someone speaks close to my ear clearly and slowly, although it still sounds a bit muffled and distorted,” Samuragochi wrote.
His official biography had previously stated that he lost his hearing completely at age 35. He never explained how this happened, but he said he does have a statement confirming his disability. He suggested that he take a hearing test to update his status.
Still, Samuragochi insisted that he was born in Hiroshima and that his parents survived the atomic bomb in 1945.
Niigaki spilled the beans when he heard that Japanese figure skater Daisuke Takahashi picked a piece by Samuragoshi to skate to at the Sochi Olympics.
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