Reports: Oscar-winning Japanese costume designer Wada dies

Emi Wada, the Japanese costume designer who won an Oscar for her work in Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran,” has died

TOKYO -- Emi Wada, the Japanese costume designer who won an Oscar for her work in Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran,” has died, Japanese media reports said Sunday. She was 84.

Wada died Nov. 13, the reports said, citing unidentified family sources and not giving the cause of death.

Wada was catapulted to stardom by the samurai costumes she created for the 1985 “Ran,” a striking portrayal of bloody intrigue and betrayal inspired by William Shakespeare’s “King Lear.”

When accepting the award from the Academy in 1986, Wada held the man-shaped statue and said with a smile, “He doesn’t need my costuming.”