Actor Tsuyoshi Ihara appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) broadcast on July 7th. He talked about his memories of his mother who passed away at the age of 63, and three challenges he has taken on since turning 60.
Ihara-san left home when he was in his first year of high school, so he had forgotten the taste of his mother's cooking. He visited Kokura, Fukuoka earlier this year to film a Philippine movie, and went to a yakitori restaurant with his co-star Eiji Okuda. There, he thought, "Huh? This tastes like what my mother used to make." The dish was made with various fishes marinated in miso paste. When he asked the chef, he was told it was a local dish from Kitakyushu. His mother was from Kitakyushu.
Before the release of the movie "Letters from Iwo Jima" (2006), in which he starred, his mother died of cancer after battling the disease for about five years. She was 63 years old. "My goal for now is to surpass my mother's age. I think I'm already going to do that," he said. He is more like his mother. His mother was a woman who tried many different things. "She does flowers, calligraphy, and loves cooking. I also do a little bit of flower arranging, and I like to try everything," he said. Before she passed away, his mother joined a matchmaking club and had two boyfriends. When asked if that one was his type, he said, "That one was just an assistant. The other one was the real thing," and she advised him to "go for a (cancer) check-up every year."
In the past, I thought of 60 as a grandfather, but I feel that when I reach that age, I'm at an age where I can bring out the things I've accumulated and experienced up until now, such as the experiences I've gained from my work as an actor, and I believe that "if I try, I can really do it, and my dreams can come true."
Now that he has finished raising his three sons, he says of his current state of mind, "I feel like my focus has shifted to myself, and I feel like I want to enjoy the rest of my life to the fullest, just for myself, and continue working as an actor." Since turning 60, he has taken on three challenges. The first was to learn French in order to star in a film entirely in French. The second was playing the piano. Until then, he had never even touched a piano, but he was able to learn how to play in six months for the film he was starring in. The third was forming a comedy duo called "Naniwa Shisa's" with Kabira Jiei in December last year. "If the timing is right, I'd like to try my hand at M-1," he said enthusiastically.
