Masahiro Andoh (安藤正容) is the guitarist who founded The Square, later T-Square, led it from 1976 until 2021, and wrote "Moon Over the Castle," the theme of the Gran Turismo racing games. He was born on September 16, 1954, in Chikusa Ward, Nagoya. His name is romanised both Andoh and Ando, and written two ways in Japanese: his records credit him as 安藤まさひろ from Rockoon (1980) through 33 (2007), and as 安藤正容 from Wonderful Days (2008).

He started on classical guitar in elementary school and drifted away from it; by his own later account he learned the F chord only in his third year of junior high. His first band was called NASSI. In Nagoya he spent time at the jazz café MusicClub COCO, where a guitarist named Nao Wada (和田直) became his mentor. He went on to Meiji University in Tokyo, graduating in 1977, and played in its modern jazz club, the Melancholy Cats. Japanese Wikipedia says he studied there under the guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi and credits Miles Davis records for turning him toward jazz.

In November 1976, still a student, he formed The Square with the drummer Shunichi Harada, the pianist Jun Hakamatsuka and the bassist Yuji Nakamura, with whom he had played since 1973. The band's first album, Lucky Summer Lady, came out on CBS/Sony in 1978. The line-up most associated with its peak was built around Andoh's guitar, Takeshi Itoh on saxophone and Lyricon, Hirotaka Izumi on keyboards, Mitsuru Sutoh on bass and Hiroyuki Noritake on drums. That group made Adventures (1984), R-E-S-O-R-T (1985), S-P-O-R-T-S (1986) and Truth (1987), on which Discogs credits Andoh with guitar and programming and which gave the band its signature piece. The title track was the theme of Fuji Television's Formula One coverage. By 1989 the records were appearing under the name T-Square.

His own name went on records alongside the band's. Melody Book (CBS/Sony, 1986) was a solo album arranged with the keyboardist Masanori Sasaji. In 1988 he joined the guitarists Hirokuni Korekata and Issei Noro, of Casiopea, in the three-guitar group Ottottrio, which released the live albums Super Guitar Session: Red Live and Hot Live the same year, with Noritake on drums. Melody Go Round (CBS/Sony, 1990), which he produced and arranged, used a horn section with Masato Honda on saxophone and Hidefumi Toki taking the tenor solo on "Mystery." Honda took over the saxophone chair in T-Square in 1991, and Andoh's guitar is on the band's Megalith (1992). Japanese Wikipedia also records that he wrote songs for pop singers including Seiko Matsuda, Hiromi Go and Yu Hayami.

From 1995 a second career ran alongside the first. He composed the music for the Arc the Lad role-playing games, for the second of which (1996) Izumi was co-composer and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played. His solo album Andy's (Sony, 1996) was recorded with American session players including the guitarist Michael Landau, Gregg and Matt Bissonette on drums and bass and the saxophonist Steve Tavaglione, with Tadashi Namba on keyboards, and it became the core of the first Gran Turismo soundtrack in 1998. He kept writing for the series with Isamu Ohira and others through Gran Turismo 2, 3 A-spec and 4, and the series credits run to Gran Turismo 7 in 2022. In 2018 Gameworks re-recorded his game themes with the saxophonist Gerald Albright and the Royal Philharmonic. A quieter strand is the acoustic guitar duo with Yuji Mikuriya, heard on Water Colors (1997) and in the duo's later albums, including Pop'n Beat (2014).

Winter Songs, issued in 2010, is a seasonal programme with Keizoh Kawano on piano, Shingo Tanaka on bass, Michael Kawai on drums and Jake Shimabukuro guesting on ukulele; Discogs files it under Jazz, with Smooth Jazz, Contemporary Jazz and Fusion styles.

On February 1, 2021, he announced that he would leave T-Square after one more album and tour. Fly! Fly! Fly!, released in April 2021 as the band's 48th studio album, was his last with the group, and a farewell tour followed that summer. Izumi, who passed away that April, had been due to appear at the farewell concerts. In 2022 Andoh formed Akasaka Trio with Noritake and Sutoh, two former bandmates, and the trio released Akasaka Trio First Edition Live in 2023. He turned 72 in September 2026.

Andoh is a guitarist-composer more than a blowing soloist. The Square and T-Square records are built on tunes first: bright, riff-and-melody fusion with a studio gloss, written largely by members including Andoh and Izumi, and played with a sax or Lyricon lead above the guitar. Discogs files the band's albums under Jazz with a Fusion style, and the American edition of Megalith under Smooth Jazz, Contemporary Jazz and Fusion. That is accessible fusion rather than free or hard-driving improvisation.

The jazz roots he names are specific. Japanese Wikipedia lists Takayanagi and Nao Wada as his teachers and Miles Davis records as the spark, and the jazz café and university jazz club are the places he learned the idiom. His own solo records lean on two settings: American session players on Andy's, a Los Angeles orchestral and band session for Gran Turismo 4, and a small Tokyo rhythm section on Winter Songs. Japanese Wikipedia and the equipment histories it cites trace his rigs from a Gibson Les Paul Standard and Marshall amplification in the early years to Fractal Audio's Axe-Fx from late 2014 and a Kemper from 2020, and note Michael Landau as the model for his compact amplifier setup.

Two things keep him on the edge of a strict jazz definition: a great deal of his output is game and commercial music, and the band he led played pop-leaning instrumental fusion for a mass audience. What places him in this scene is the work itself: a founding fusion band, the three-guitar Ottottrio live albums, and the albums above filed under Jazz.