Keiji Tagawa, known as a leading expert in bead embroidery, appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi), which aired on May 14th.
Tagawa and Tetsuko hit it off after appearing on the show in 2002. Regarding "haute couture bead embroidery," she explained, "There's something called haute couture in Europe. It's a job where the designers' thoughts are expressed through embroidery. It's embroidery that uses a variety of techniques and materials to give form to the designers' thoughts."
As Tetsuko consulted with Tagawa about costumes for the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen and "Tetsuko's Room Concert," she also began to ask him to manage her costumes. When Tagawa was sorting through Tetsuko's many costumes, he discovered a kimono she had worn in a photo that often appeared in the media as a "memorable photo of her furisode from her time studying abroad in New York."
"This kimono was hard to find and finally turned up in a mysterious place about three years ago," Tagawa revealed, to which Tetsuko recalled, "I wore this when I met Chaplin and when I appeared in various events."
Tagawa, who says he "hated studying" when he was a student, was known for being a chatterbox at school. "Because I was a chatterbox, I was always forced to sit at the front of the class whenever there was a seat change from elementary school to high school," he revealed.
After graduating from Meiji University's School of Law, he got a job at an apparel manufacturer. "I think I'll work in the clothing industry for the rest of my life," he said, and then quit his job to go to a vocational school. "For the first time in my life, I wanted to study. I started to listen to what the teacher was saying, and even though I'd never taken notes before, I started to. I realized that this is what studying is all about."
When asked what inspired her to enter the world of beads, she said, "When I saw this embroidery I thought it was amazing. I don't see it much in Japan. I started this job because I wanted to introduce this embroidery to people in Japan."
