Kaoru Wada (和田 薫, "Wada Kaoru") (born May 5, 1962) is the composer of music for the InuYasha franchise, composing the 3 official soundtracks, the scores to all 4 movies, and InuYasha The Final Act soundtrack.
He is best known for his work on the anime series Samurai 7 and InuYasha.
His influences include Bernard Herrman, Toru Takemitsu, and Charles Ives. He studied at Tokyo College of Music.
Early life[]
Style of music in InuYasha[]
In the InuYasha soundtracks, Wada uses a blend of both western symphonic instruments, traditional Japanese instruments, including Taikodrum, Shamisen, Biwa, Koto, Nohkan, Shinobue, and especially Shakuhachi, which appears in almost half the tracks of InuYasha, and some other cultural instruments, such as Erhu and Sheng (Chinese) (Appeared in InuYasha the Movie: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass), Irish Bouzouki and OUD (Greek) (Appeared in InuYasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time).
Compositions[]
Main article: Music