Rentaro Taki ( Taki Rentaro?, August 24, 1879¨CJune 29, 1903) was a pianist and one of the best-known composers of Japan.
Taki was born in Tokyo, but moved to many places during his childhood owing to his father's job. He graduated from the Tokyo Music School in 1901. One of his famous pieces is K¨j¨ no Tsuki, which was included in the songbook for junior high school students, along with the Hakone-Hachiri (Ïä¸ù°ËÀï). Hana (»¨, lit. "Flower") is a well-known song, too.
In the same year, Taki went to the Leipzig Conservatory, Germany to study music further, but fell seriously ill with tuberculosis of the lungs and came back to Japan. He lived quietly in the country afterwards, but soon died at the age of 23. His posthumous work is a solo piano piece called Urami (º¶), which he wrote four months before he died. It is said that he laid the meaning of 'regret' in the title of his last piece.
German rock band Scorpions did a cover of K¨j¨ no Tsuki on the 1978 album Tokyo Tapes.