The long-running variety show "Shinkonsan Irasshai!" (ABC TV/TV Asahi, Sunday 12:55 PM) hosted by Takashi Fujii and Sakura Inoue, features a 70-year-old Japanese pattern designer who had given up on love, but after a night in Kyoto with a beautiful kimono-clad woman, they end up getting married. The couple will appear in the studio now at 70 and 59 years old.
The husband has also worked on packaging for popular chocolates, and has published 10 books on Japanese patterns, with cumulative sales of over 600,000 copies, making him known as a "specialist in Japanese patterns." He has designed over 2,000 kimonos, including a yukata designed for his wife. He learned how to use a computer from scratch at the age of 40, and now uses software to create his own designs. Meanwhile, his wife uses her experience running a boutique since her 20s to support her husband's work.
Both had been divorced and were on their second marriages. They met after a long period of singlehood. The wife, who had no children, had been hoping for about 10 years that "it would be nice if someone would start a family with me when I was about 60." Meanwhile, the husband had deliberately found enjoyment in being alone, so he hadn't felt lonely, but "when I met her, I realized that I was actually lonely," he recalls.
The wife closed the boutique she was running and entered the world of kimono, wanting to wear kimono. Her husband was the one she followed on social media, thinking, "She's the kind of person who posts great things." One day, the wife saw a post about a kimono party being held, and attended a gathering of about 100 people at a temple in Kyoto. She was impressed by her husband's silver hair and his aged look. When the husband saw his wife come to greet him, he was impressed, saying, "I like her face."
At a party, the person sitting next to her invited her to a tea and kyogen performance where her teacher (the husband) would also be attending, and they met again. Sensing it was fate, the husband invited his wife out to dinner on his way home.
They were having dinner alone at a dining bar in Kyoto. The conversation was getting lively, and before they knew it, six and a half hours had passed and it was almost midnight. The wife, who was living in Osaka at the time, had already missed the last train home. The husband asked, "Would you like to stay the night with us?" Not able to consider taking a taxi home, the wife decided that her only options in Kyoto in January were to sleep outdoors or stay overnight, and the two of them headed to a hotel. "I feel bad for making him sleep on the sofa because of me," the wife said, reluctantly sharing the bed with him.
However, when her husband touched her thigh, she screamed in panic. Her husband said, "No, no means that you like me," but she realized that this was not the case and responded like a gentleman, saying, "I won't do anything, so go to sleep in peace."
After that, their relationship continued as more than friends but less than lovers. However, the husband had made up his mind that "she is the only one I could have as my wife," and six months later he invited his wife to join him on a job in Tokyo. However, on the way home, they got stuck in a terrible traffic jam, and the husband suggested they play Shiritori (a word chain game). "I've never seen a 70-year-old have so much fun playing Shiritori!" she thought with a smile, but after about three hours, the wife developed a fever. Osaka was still a long way off, so they got off at her husband's house. He devotedly cared for her and she sensually realized, "His casual kindness made my body even hotter." They married in November 2025.
He says that his newlywed life is "happy in every way." He says that he enjoys going to all kinds of places in kimonos, which they both love, and meeting all kinds of people through kimonos. However, the kimono his wife is wearing in this recording is actually...?
