Miyavi
Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer and actor
Takamasa Ishihara (石原 崇雅, Ishihara Takamasa; born September 14, 1981), better known by his stage name MIYAVI (雅, Miyabi, stylized in all caps), is a Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor known for his finger-slapping style of playing a guitar.
He has been active since 1999, first as guitarist for the visual kei rock band Dué le Quartz and then as a solo artist starting in 2002. In 2007, he became a member of the rock supergroup S.K.I.N. and in 2009 founded his own company, J-glam. He toured worldwide several times. From 2022 to 2024, he was a member of the supergroup The Last Rockstars.
In 2014, Miyavi appeared in the motion picture Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie, and went on to undertake smaller roles in American productions such as Kong: Skull Island and Stray. Since 2013, Miyavi has been a volunteer at UNHCR, visiting refugee camps around the world. In November 2017, he was appointed an official Goodwill Ambassador.
Early life
Miyavi was born in the Nishikujō district in Konohana-ku ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, to a Japanese mother and a Korean father. After the first grade, he moved to Kawanishi.
The public source identifies “Miyavi” as japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Miyavi, Japanese and guitarist.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Miyavi”, the useful work is to connect “japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer and actor” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q311181. VIAF identifies the subject as 171205026. The Library of Congress control number is no2015051845. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981, 1999, 2002 and 2007.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Miyavi”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Miyavi primary sources, Miyavi archive and Miyavi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Miyavi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.