Emi wada

Born on March 18, 1937, in Kyoto prefecture, Emiko Noguchi –real name of the Japanese designer– belonged to a wealthy family. She studied Fine Arts, but at twenty she married Ben Wada, a television director, so she decided to become a costume designer for her work. Although she lavished herself working in commercials, opera and theater, Emi Wada refused commissions for the cinema, because the producers did not usually agree to spend as much on clothes as she demanded.

The American company behind Marco , a series about the relationship between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, was the first to agree to their demands, in 1971. But after that, Emi Wada did not return to work for the screen for a decade. She was rescued by Akira Kurosawa , who had never used a costume designer for his films, but who admired his work for plays by William Shakespeare , so he recruited her for Ran , a translation to feudal Japan of the plot of the British bard’s play. The film achieved four Academy Award nominations, in the categories of sets, photography, director, and costume design, which was the only one to win.

The recognition made them begin to request it in cinema, for titles such as The Princess of the Moon , by Kon Ichikawa , Gohatto , by Nagisa Oshima , and the films of the British Peter Greenaway Eight and 1/2 Women, The Books of Prospero and The Pillow book . Chinese Zhang Yimou signed her for his shows wuxia Hero and House of Flying Daggers . Akira Kurosawa trusted her again for The Dreams .

Her insistence on handcrafted details made her a meticulous designer, so she couldn’t work on many projects. Emi Wada continued to work until her death, and in fact her last collaboration for the cinema, Di yi lu xiang , by Ann Hui , opens the same week that her death was announced.