, also known by the nickname Taro, was a Japanese engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. He founded the musical instrument manufacturers Ace Tone, Roland Corporation, and Boss Corporation, and the audiovisual electronics company ATV Corporation. Kakehashi founded Ace Tone in 1960 to produce electronic organs and early drum machines. He founded Roland in 1972 and was involved in the development of various influential electronic instruments, such as the TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines and the TB-303 and Juno-60 synthesizers, in addition to Boss guitar amplifiers and effects pedals. He was also key to the development of MIDI, a technical standard that connects a wide variety of electronic instruments, in the 1980s; in 2013, Kakehashi received a Technical Grammy Award, shared with Dave Smith of Sequential, for the invention of MIDI. Kakehashi's inventions are credited with shaping popular music genres such as electronic, dance, hip hop, R&B, rock and pop music. Early life Kakehashi was born on 7 February 1930 in Osaka, Japan. His parents died of tuberculosis during his early childhood, and he was raised by his grandparents. Much of his childhood was spent studying electrical engineering and working in the Hitachi shipyards of Osaka. During World War II, with no music lessons, Kakehashi became interested in radio as a way of listening to music, and his home was destroyed by American bombing. Following the war, in 1946, he failed to get into a university on health grounds, and moved to the southern island of Kyushu. Career In 1947, aged 16, Kakehashi founded the Kakehashi Clock Store, a watch-repair shop. He soon began repairing radios. He later returned to Osaka to attend university. During a mass food shortage, he contracted tuberculosis and spent several years in a sanitarium, where he became a clinical trial test patient for an experimental medicine antibiotic drug, streptomycin, which improved his condition. In 1954, Kakehashi opened the Kakehashi Radio electrical appliance store. In his spare time, he repaired electronic organs and created prototype organs throughout the 1950s. At 28, he decided to devote himself to music and pursuit of the ideal electronic musical instrument. Kakehashi had no musical training, and wanted musical instruments to be accessible for both professionals and amateurs like himself. He also wanted them to be inexpensive, intuitive, small, and simple. He constructed his first 49-key monophonic organ in 1959, specifically designed to be playable by anyone, with no musical skill necessary. The