Haila Mompié mourns Ryu Murakami, the Japanese novelist who brought Cuban timba to Tokyo

October 27, 2026

Cuban singer Haila María Mompié said goodbye on social media to Japanese writer Ryu Murakami, calling him a dear friend and a deep lover of Cuban culture and recalling her trips to Japan and the recordings they made together. Murakami died at home on October 17, 2026, at 74; his publisher, Gentosha, announced the death on October 23 without giving a cause, according to EFE and Deadline.

Best known for "Almost Transparent Blue," which won the Akutagawa Prize in 1976, and "In the Miso Soup," Murakami had a second life as a champion of Cuban music. In the early 1990s he traveled to the island, met NG La Banda founder José Luis Cortés "El Tosco," and in November 1992 produced the band's Tokyo sessions that include "Échale limón" and "Murakami Mambo," a track the orchestra named after him.

For roughly two decades he ran the "Ryu's Cuban Night" concert series in Japan, which featured Issac Delgado, Bamboleo, Tania Pantoja and Haila herself, among others. In November 2011, at the Stellar Ball in Tokyo's Shinagawa district, Haila and Pantoja shared the bill in an edition that broadcaster WOWOW billed as a "miracle meeting" of two of Cuba's top female singers, backed by musicians including Feliciano Arango and César López.

El Tosco, the Cuban musician most closely tied to Murakami, died in April 2022.