Singer Hiroshi Miyama will appear on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi), which will be broadcast at 1:00 p.m. on February 11th.
Having achieved a 4th-level Kendama certification, he continues to take part in the Kendama Challenge at the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen at the end of the year. He originally started out as a way to have fun with his fans, but perhaps it suited his stubborn and tenacious personality, known as "Tosa no Igosso" in his hometown of Kochi, and he is now training to reach the 5th level. He will attempt a 5th-level technique in front of Kuroyanagi. Because of his personality of working hard at things, he has recently taken up playing instruments such as the guitar, drums, and piano, as well as performing rakugo.
Although he once gave up on his dream of becoming a singer, at the age of 25 he made up his mind to move to Tokyo, where he met Hiroko Matsumae, an enka singer and wife of composer Norimasa Nakamura, and her husband, and became their disciple, which changed his life dramatically. Last year marked the seventh anniversary of Nakamura's death, and he says he was very happy to have been able to do what Nakamura had told him to do, "You'll be able to do it someday."
