«When I came to Italy, I immediately realized that this was a very special place.» – Hideyuki Miyakawa
How a Japanese traveler found happiness in Italy
Hideyuki Miyakawa's life story sounds like a movie. Our story begins in the Japanese city of Maebashi in the year 1960. Two young university students set out to explore the world on their motorcycles. They spend half a year traveling through India, Pakistan, and Persia before reaching Europe. They arrive in Rome just in time for the opening of the Olympic Games, but now they're running out of money, prompting the two explorers to make a longer stop than intended. The 22-year-old Hideyuki starts working as a reporter for a Japanese car magazine. When I came to Italy, I immediately realized that this was a very special place. «Everywhere I looked, I saw culture, art, and style,» he says, looking back. What he finds most fascinating is the simple elegance of Italian design. In the fall, he travels to the Salone dell'Automobile in Turin in order to report on the latest trends to car fans back home. The cheerful young Japanese reporter immediately attracts attention. Before he knows it, he's working on legendary designs for Ferrari and Fiat. HHowever, his ultimate dream was still unrealized: «I wanted to see this kind of car driving around in my home country too», says Hideyuki, «Japanese cars in those days just weren't expressive.» So he sets about bringing Italian style to the Land of the Rising Sun. And he succeeds, too – less than ten years later, all Japanese car manufacturers are using Italian bodies. Today, the Japanese designer lives at his Tuscan winery, Bulichella. He is still passionate about the idea of bringing the best and most beautiful things from Italy to the rest of the world. Today it's no longer sleek cars but elegant, authentic wines. But they have plenty of horsepower, too.