Kinuyo Yamashita
| Kinuyo Yamashita | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Yamako James Banana Kinuyo Ueda |
| Born | Amagasaki, Hyōgo, Japan |
| Genres | Electronic, jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, sound producer |
| Instruments | Electronic keyboard, piano, saxophone |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Labels | Rocketeers Music |
| Associated acts | Honey Honey |
Kinuyo Yamashita (山下 絹代 Yamashita Kinuyo?) is a Japanese video game music composer and sound producer. Her best known soundtrack is Konami's Castlevania, which was also her debut work. She was credited under the pseudonym James Banana for her work on the Nintendo Entertainment System version of the game. This pseudonym was a pun of the name James Bernard, the film composer of the 1958 film Dracula. Many other names from the credits showed at the end of the game were puns of personalities related to monster/horror media as well.
Yamashita was born in Amagasaki, Hyōgo, Japan. She began playing the piano at the age of four and took piano lessons as a child. After studying electronic engineering at the two-year college Osaka Electro-Communication University, she graduated in 1986 and went to work for Konami. After leaving Konami, Yamashita established a career as an independent composer. She moved to the United States in 2010, and currently resides in Montague, New Jersey.
In 1986, Yamashita composed her first soundtrack to the video game Castlevania under strict hardware constraints. After her success in composing the Castlevania soundtrack, Yamashita composed for other games with Konami, including Esper Dream, Arumana no Kiseki, Stinger, Maze of Galious, Knightmare III: Shalom, and Parodius. She was part of the original Konami Kukeiha Club in-house band. In 1989, she left Konami to become a freelance composer.
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