A Japanese actress walks into a bar and orders a glass of Hibiki’s finest whisky, called Japanese Harmony. While the sentence is novel, the picture painted here is fully realised—assembled with intricate detail and gifted to the world with careful, loving hands. To wit: meet Hibiki’s first global ambassador, Anna Sawai.
Roughly translated as ‘resonance’, Hibiki is a shining star in The House of Suntory’s portfolio, the by-product of generations of matchless talent, skill and hard-won effort. It seems safe to say that its choice of a new figurehead is inspired.
Anna Sawai took the world by storm two years ago as Lady Toda Mariko in the historical drama series Shōgun. Her performance was as close to capturing lightning in a bottle as it gets. Underneath Lady Toda’s steely exterior, Sawai revealed, inch by bloody inch, a storm of vibrant humanity, full of vulnerable tension, self-doubt and ambition. The show was, unsurprisingly, a critical and commercial success.
Grounded and precise, Sawai is the ideal match for Hibiki. Indeed, the overlap between the craft of whisky-making and the art of performance might be larger than you think, especially within the Japanese context. The country’s artisans are committed to honouring tradition and boast a nigh-unbelievable insistence on excruciating detail. There is, perhaps, no better soil to plant the seeds of a brand’s success.
Hibiki’s latest campaign features one of Japan’s oldest-run kimono houses, Chiso, with Sawai wearing a one-of-a-kind kimono inspired by the house’s archival designs. The resulting partnership is as visually arresting as it is creatively affirming, revealed through the lens of a cinematic hero film that highlights how the crafts of kimono making and whisky blending are deeply rooted in time and precision.
To learn more about the common thread connecting whisky and performance, I sat down with Sawai to talk about the transience of life abroad, the meaning of ‘resonance’ and the timeless power of single-minded craftsmanship.
Born in New Zealand and moving to Japan as a pre-teen, you’ve been around the block. How have your experiences abroad helped shape the artist you are today?
When I moved to Japan when I was 10, I wasn’t really able to appreciate my own culture. I just wanted to go abroad. But working overseas has allowed me to become a chameleon—to adapt to change easily and understand people from a different point of view. And when I return to Japan, I’m better able to appreciate our flaws—there’s beauty in that. I’m better able to understand where we come from and why we behave a certain way, and that’s helped me become the actor I am today.
Do you feel any responsibility to be a cultural figurehead?
It’s very complicated. When I got into this industry, I wasn’t thinking of carrying Japan on my back. I was just auditioning for roles like any other actor. Those roles just happened to be Japanese, so I’d inevitably have to think about our culture and how we’re depicted. Sometimes I didn’t feel like playing things a certain way—I had concerns about how the culture was portrayed because these characters are just human beings. However, I am Japanese. It’s a core part of me that I’m so proud of.
At the same time, I’m not just Japanese. I’ve taken bits from living in the Philippines and Hong Kong and attending an international school. I have to think about carrying all those little pieces of myself that have come together from my time spent outside of Japan—all while being open to letting myself fly free.
Performance is clearly in your blood. But it’s not obvious that whisky is. So, why Hibiki? What does taking on this ambassadorship mean to you?
Since day one, I was really drawn to the brand’s values. Hibiki obviously cares about the details in their work. There’s strength in that, but they also know the value of subtlety. And this is going to sound completely out there, but I have a feeling that Hibiki in the world of spirits is like me in the world of acting. Everything they makes is from this country, but they’re also always trying to expand their vision, to blend things in ways that will be appreciated universally.
What does the relationship between whisky blending and acting look like?
I met Hibiki’s chief blender, Shinji Fukuyo, and hearing how devoted he is to the craft of whisky was truly mind-blowing. His team changes their diets just to accommodate tasting over 200 types of whisky daily—and he’s been doing it for 40 years.
It reminded me of when I’m on set acting a scene. There are so many different takes, and the people who watch the end product will only see that one final scene. There’s a lot of similarities between both crafts, with the depth and the devotion and the detail.
What’s beautiful about Hibiki is that they’re taking this cultural thing and creating something new on a global scale. The brand’s taking from history, but also adding to it in a contemporary way. Fukuyo said something beautiful about it: the whisky being put into the barrel now—what he’s tasting in the present—won’t be experienced until after he’s gone. He talked about passing the baton, and in that moment it felt like I was receiving that baton.
What does ‘resonance’ mean to you, and how has that meaning evolved over time?
When I began, I was just living in the resonance of my normal school life. I was just trying to find the art within me and seeing what it might look like in the future. Now, I’m living in the resonance of my acting career. Right now, what I’m creating hasn’t been put out in the world yet. But there’s a resonance to them that will echo years later, and people will be able to see that ripple effect eventually.
I actually really enjoy this time, because it’s when I get to focus on the quiet work. After all, when these projects come out later, the work will have already been done. Likewise, the Hibiki that people are drinking now has been in the making for years, if not decades. That’s the beauty of art, and that’s what makes it fun.
Speaking of the future: are there any upcoming projects you’re excited about?
I’m very excited for Hibiki, of course! But I’m also in a movie called How to Rob a Bank, which is coming out later this September. I play a very different character there, and it’s a very different type of film from what I’ve done before. I feel like people are going to have so much fun with it. I’m also shooting The Beatles biopic. It’s a long process, but it really is a dream role. So hopefully we’ll see the ripple effect of that in a couple of years.
