Mononymic Japanese rock star and record producer Yoshiki, an accomplished classical composer best known as the co-founder and drummer of the speed metal band X Japan — they sold out Madison Square Garden in 2014, has expanded his SoCal real estate holdings with the almost $3.4 million purchase of a secluded 1.6-acre spread in the foothills above Studio City. Behind gates at the thickly wooded tail end of a long, winding private lane, the vaguely Mediterranean-style villa has five bedrooms and five bathrooms in about 4,600-square-feet over three floors. The seller was represented by Kim Wells and Daniel Preszler of Paul Kott Realtors, Inc. and the buyer was repped by “Million Dollar Listing” star Josh Flagg of Rodeo Realty.
The front door opens directly into an unusual combination foyer/dining room that adjoins a glass-walled living room under a vaulted ceiling with brick fireplace and curvilinear bar. Arranged around a huge island with six-seat snack counter, the kitchen is finished with high quality if ordinary speckled granite countertops and diamond patterned stone tile backsplashes while a beige tile floored den on the lower level has rustic wood beams across the ceiling, another curvilinear bar and a TV-surmounted raised fireplace.
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A generous guest suite offers a sitting area and private terrace while the sprawling master suite includes a separate sitting room, a private terrace and a gold-fixtured bathroom where the faucets are shaped like swans and that listing descriptions declared “Cleopatra would die for!”. Rooms at the angled rear of the residence spill out to a vast, paver-tiled terrace with a kidney-shaped swimming pool, circular spa, fire feature and through-the trees mountain view over the neon lights of Universal City.
Earlier this year the multi-faceted L.A.-based musician, who held two sold-out classical concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2017 and has his own line of Hello Kitty products called Yoshikitty, paid $1.4 million for a more than 5.5-acre vacant parcel just a few hundred yards as the crow flies from the house he just bought and in 2014 he shelled out $3.1 million for a not quite 1,900-square-foot condominium on a lower floor of full-service high-rise in the traffic and tourist thronged heart of Hollywood.