Bottega Veneta today announces Japanese actress Rie Miyazawa as Brand Ambassador.
Born in Tokyo in 1973, Miyazawa began her career as a model at the age of eleven before moving into acting in her teens. She made her film debut aged sixteen in Seven Days’ War, for which she received the Japan Academy Award for Newcomer of the Year. She went on to establish herself as one of Japan’s most respected dramatic actresses, acclaimed for her nuance and emotional depth on both stage and screen.
Resilience, poise, and quiet strength characterize many of Miyazawa’s roles. Among her most internationally recognized performances is in the 2002 historical drama The Twilight Samurai,directed by Yoji Yamada, in which she plays the character of Tomoe Iinuma. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and winning an unprecedented 11 Japanese Academy Awards, The Twilight Samurai saw Miyazawa reach new levels of global recognition.
Miyazawa’s filmography also includes Pale Moon, Her Love Boils Bathwater, The Moon, and Tony Tikatani, an adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami, widely recognized as a minimalist masterpiece. More recently, she has reached international streaming audiences through the Netflix drama Asura, a tale of sisterhood directed by Palme d’Or-winning Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda.
On stage, Miyazawa has appeared in numerous acclaimed productions, including works directed by Yukio Ninagawa and a production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, for which she won the Yomiuri Theater Award.
Miyazawa appeared in the house’s “Craft is our Language” campaign, celebrating 50 years of the iconic Intrecciato weave. Recognized for her refined, character-driven performances across film and theatre, she remains a defining presence in Japanese culture.
