"Rumba Rhapsody" was completed in 1948 while he was a student at the Tokyo Conservatory of Music (now Tokyo University of the Arts). He had planned to use this piece for his orchestral debut and had entrusted it to his teacher, Akira Ifukube, but he lost the opportunity to perform it because he used the main material in the second part of Symphonic Mood. The world premiere was recorded in 2004 by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Takuo Yuasa (NAXOS 8.557693). Influenced by exotic South American Latin music, jazz, and oriental gamelan, this is a tour de force in his youth, and it is a work that develops from a mysterious beginning to a passion with a powerful and characteristic rumba rhythm. This is the first time in the world that an original score has been published in the composer's own handwriting. The performance time is about eight and a half minutes. The part score is a whole note rental.