Akira Kikukawa; Founder of Japanese Philharmonic in L.A.

Akira Kikukawa, founder and music director of the 29-year-old Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra of Los Angeles, has died, family members said Friday. He was 57. The cause of death was not immediately known.

The 85-member orchestra, which Kikukawa founded in 1961, presents standard symphonic works as well as more recent compositions by Asian composers writing in the Western style. The orchestra often uses Japanese music and instruments and about half of its members are of Japanese descent.

“I think Kikukawa was the first one in history . . . to create this kind of community orchestra for Japanese people, to create this kind of organization outside of Japan,” said Masatoshi Mitsumoto, founder and director of Los Angeles’ Concordia Orchestra, who was Kikukawa’s principal cellist intermittently for nearly 20 years.

“He is responsible for introducing many, many Japanese works and artists to the Los Angeles audience and made people aware of Japanese musical contributions to the world,” Mitsumoto said.

Members of Kikukawa’s family would not comment on the cause of death, which occurred Thursday at Gardena Memorial Hospital. But Mitsumoto said the late conductor had been fighting a kidney ailment and had been using a dialysis machine for more than 10 years.

Born in Osaka, Japan, Kikukawa was a cellist in Japan before he came to the United States to study with cellist Gabor Rejto and conducting instructor Ingolf Dahl at USC, he told The Times in a 1988 interview.

Future plans for the orchestra, which presents about six concerts annually, were not immediately known.

Kikukawa was to have led the Gardena-based group in a program with the Roger Wagner Chorale at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa on Sunday. The concert will go ahead as scheduled, but a guest conductor will take Kikukawa’s place and the program will be altered slightly.