Karen Kirishima, a 60-year-old model, appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) broadcast on July 10. She talked about how she met her husband, photographer Yoshihiko Ueda, and their lifestyle.
Regarding how they met, Kirishima revealed, "I wonder if you could call it a workplace romance, or a workplace marriage. I was a model and my husband was a photographer, and we met while shooting a commercial." After about 10 dates, they decided to get married. They didn't have a wedding ceremony or a wedding ring, but they felt they had to tell their mother, Yoko Kirishima. On the day before the wedding, they called her out for dinner and introduced her for the first time, saying, "I'm getting married to this person tomorrow." Her mother responded, "Oh, that's great." At that time, Ueda told her mother, "I want to keep taking pictures of Karen for the rest of my life."
After that, her husband continued to take photos of the family. Although her husband is not good at planning birthday parties, anniversaries, and family trips, Kirishima is good at it, so she made all the hotel and restaurant reservations. "My husband just follows me around without knowing where we're going. He's very grateful, so we share the tasks that we're each good at," she said.
She says that in the past, they used to fight a little. "I would complain, saying things like, I wish he'd do this more," she said, but, "my husband has never told me what he wants me to do. He accepts me as I am (even though we've been married for 32 years). So I feel like he's one step ahead of me, or maybe he's just more mature, and I'm very grateful and thankful."
Previously, her husband had six assistants, and there was a time when she cooked dinner for a total of 12 people, including the six family members, every day. Now, on weekends, she and her husband sometimes spend time together. "When it's just the two of us, tofu, dried fish, and a few other small things are enough. It sometimes feels a little lonely, but I've recently come to feel that this kind of relaxed life as a couple is what awaits me from now on," she said. A video message was also shown of her husband, who was working on the Ganges River in India, saying, "A long time ago, after taking a photo, he would say to Karen, "You're my bodhisattva. He always said that."
