武滿徹出生於東京，成長於深受西化影響的日本社會，創作初期展現出認同西方音樂風格的傾向，加以對日本參與二戰的不滿，壓抑對自身傳統文化的興趣。直至1960年代，受到美國作曲家約翰‧凱吉音樂的衝擊，武滿徹才開始肯定長期不被重視的日本傳統文化，並嘗試在作品中結合東西方截然不同的音樂理念。其1967年於美國紐約首演的《十一月的腳步》，由日本傳統樂器尺八與琵琶擔任主奏，與美國紐約交響樂團一同擔綱演出，是作曲家第一首企求跨越東西文化界線的作品。
然而，日本樂器與西方樂團分屬兩種不同的音樂傳統，如何讓這兩種不同的音樂主體既能展現各自的特性，又能在曲中相互融合，是一件困難的任務。本文探討的焦點即在於，武滿徹如何將「音色」作為一個重要的聯結橋樑，透過西方當代音樂喜用音堆與日本傳統音樂強調單音的同質性，找出溝通兩種音樂世界的途徑。該音色包含了兩個概念，即日本傳統美學中所謂的「間」（ma）與「觸」（sawari）。「間」指兩音之間的空間，即一般音樂中的休止，但在日本音樂美學中，這個「無聲」段落包含了無數存在於自然的聲音，其地位甚至高於演奏出來的樂音。「觸」意指噪音，是日本傳統聲樂或器樂所追求的一種不純淨、無確定音高的最高境界。二者密不可分，為大自然整體的一部分。此處亦可見凱吉與武滿徹之相似性，凱吉於1952年發表《四分三十三秒》，在此三樂章的作品中，凱吉讓樂譜空白，宗旨卻不在於四分三十三秒長純粹無聲的表達，而正巧相反，凱吉刻意讓聽眾在此時間內，傾聽周遭所有的聲音。凱吉將周遭環境的一切聲音皆視為音樂，而武滿徹進一步賦予這些自然聲音一個音樂上的實質意義。

Born in Tokyo, Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) grew up in a Japanese society heavily influenced by Western culture. In his early career, Takemitsu demonstrated a tendency to submit to Western musical styles, suppressing the interest of his own traditional culture, and more, protesting Japanese participation in World War II. It was not until the 1960s that Takemitsu, affected by the American composer John Cage (1912-1992), began to affirm the essence of Japanese traditions and tried to combine the different music philosophies of East and West in his works. His composition November Steps, premiered in New York in 1967 and performed with the Japanese traditional instruments shakuhachi and biwa as solo instruments, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic, is Takemitsu's first work to attempt crossing over the cultural boundaries of East and West.
However, Japanese solo instruments and Western orchestra belong to two different musical traditions. It is a difficult task to display the characteristics of the two traditions respectively, and also merge them together. The purpose of this essay is to examine how Takemitsu found the possibilities to communicate these two music worlds by using "timbres" as important link bridges, i.e., through affinity of clusters of western contemporary music and single tone, traditional Japanese music. The timbre contains two concepts, namely the traditional Japanese aesthetics of ma and sawari. Ma means the space between two tones, like the musical rest. But in Japanese music aesthetics, this silent moment contains numerous natural sounds, which are even more important than the tones themselves. Sawari means noise, with the non-pure and non-precise tones. It is the highest level of traditional Japanese vocal or instrumental music. Inseparable, these two aspects are also an integral part of nature. Here we can see similarity between Cage and Takemitsu. Cage created 4'33' in 1952. In this three-movement musical composition, the score was made empty. It is not for the audience to hear pure silences, but rather, Cage deliberately let the audience listen to all the sounds around them for the entire duration. Cage considered all sounds of the surrounding environment are music; Takemitsu further gave a real musical meaning to these natural sounds.