Emi Wada

Emi Wada (和田 惠美, Wada Emi, 18 March 1937 – 13 November 2021) was a Japanese costume designer who worked extensively in stage, screen, and ballet productions. She won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for her work on Akira Kurosawa's film Ran (1985).

Emi Wada
Born
Emiko Noguchi

(1937-03-18)18 March 1937
Kyoto, Japan
Died13 November 2021(2021-11-13) (aged 84)
SpouseBen Wada (1957–2011)
AwardsBest Costume Design
1985 Ran
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Variety or Music Program
1993 Oedipus Rex

Life and career

Wada was born in Kyoto Prefecture. At 20, she married Ben Wada, a television director. Wada had initially gone to school to become a painter, but this tie to her husband led to designing the stage effects and costumes for plays he was involved with. Wada has continued designing for the stage since.[1]

She created costumes for the Akira Kurosawa film Ran, which earned her an Academy Award for costume design, the Peter Greenaway film Prospero's Books, and the Zhang Yimou films, Hero and House of Flying Daggers. She designed costumes for operas, including the 2006 premiere performance of Tan Dun's The First Emperor[2] and for ballets, including The Peony Pavilion by Fei Bo (National Ballet of China, 2008).

Her work for the 2015 production of The Peony Pavilion was described by The Washington Post as "some of the loveliest ballet creations in memory" with the newspaper further noting that: "Skirt hems flickered like flames as the dancers moved, and the leading ballerina’s sheer overdress floated around her like an afterglow."[3]

Wada also designed the costumes for the 2018 Chinese adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear.

She released multiple books of her works, including My Costumes, EMI WADA WORKS, and My Life in the Making, the latter of which was created on pieces of textiles with pictures of her work inside.

Wada died on 13 November 2021, at the age of 84.[4]

Recent works

Notes
  1. "Embassy of Japan in the UK".
  2. Emi Wada IMDB entry; accessed 18 February 2015.
  3. Kaufman, Sarah. "‘The Peony Pavilion’: Underpowered beauty". Washington, D.C." The Washington Post, 15 July 2015.
  4. "Oscar-winning costume designer Emi Wada dies aged 84 -reports". Reuters. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
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