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Roland Founder Ikutaro Kakehashi Passes Away

Published

7 years ago

April 7, 2017

Screen Printing Screen Printing April 2017 Issue

ATV has announced the passing of company founder Ikutaro Kakehashi at age 87 on its website. Kakehashi, who founded the company in 2013, was a pioneer in the electronic music industry who opened his first enterprise Kakehashi Clock Shop at the age of 16. He went on to found a number of companies, including Roland in 1972.

Kakehashi ran Roland for 40 years, including the subsidiary Roland DG which originally specialized in computerized music peripherals after its establishment in 1981. The company released its first pen plotter, the DXY-100, in 1982 and the PNC-1000 cutting plotter in 1988, which launched Roland DG “permanently into the sign market,” according to the company website.

Kakehashi received recognition from the Japan Media Arts Festival, the Recording Academy, the Hollywood RockWalk, multiple universities, and more. A family-only funeral was held earlier this week, and the "Ikutaro Kakehashi Celebration of Life” is scheduled for June 11 in Hamamatsu, Japan.

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