Entertainer Hideyuki Nakayama appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi), which aired on November 20th. He talked about calligraphy and his memories of Akiko Matsumoto.
He started calligraphy in his first year of elementary school. A year later, in his second year, he won the Gunma Calligraphy Association Award. He left calligraphy after his debut, but for the past 10 years he has been creating works under his teacher. Last year, he held his first solo exhibition to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the municipal government of his hometown, Fujioka City, Gunma Prefecture, where he exhibited around 30 pieces. 32,000 people attended. He had always dreamed of doing this someday, so he says, "My first solo exhibition was very moving."
Forty years ago, a friend who stayed at his house for about a year as an apprentice broadcast writer had become a leading digital finger painter, creating works on his mobile phone. This old friend contacted him for the first time in 40 years and invited him to "do something together sometime." He then suggested "do it at Cannes," and that they would exhibit at the Cannes Film Festival. "I thought it was a scam," he recalls.
With his hotel in Cannes booked and his air tickets received, he headed there, confident that there would be no surprises. He sent his four works, "Undefeated," "Mushin," "Zen," and "Shomon," ahead of time, to Paris, where they were framed and exhibited in Cannes. He was accompanied to Cannes by his wife of 27 years, Ayaka Shiraki, who was a female lead in the Takarazuka Revue, and his fourth son, who is fluent in English and joined him from the UK where he was studying, as interpreters.
She also shared memories of her senior at the agency, talent Akiko Matsumoto. Matsumoto excelled at the piano and had perfect pitch. She would give lessons when she brought sheet music. "She had a difficult time selling well. She made her debut, but she didn't give up and continued to teach us," she recalled. While dorm life is usually around a year, Matsumoto lived there for seven years until the dorm was demolished. "In the end, the only thing left was Matsumoto and her dog, Ron," she said. A few years later, she made her breakthrough with the huge hit "DAISUKI!", a show she appeared on with Matsumoto and Naoko Iijima.
