Mayumi Asaka's past appearance on "Tetsuko's Room" (April 10th broadcast) with Kinichi Hagimoto

Actress Mayumi Asaka appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on April 10th. She talked about her memories with Kinichi Hagimoto and the reactions to her appearance in the NHK Asadora drama "Bakebake."

At the age of 18, she co-starred with Kinichi Hagimoto as an assistant on "All-Star Family Singing Contest." She was nervous because she "didn't know anything and Mr. Hagimoto himself was really strict," and she couldn't do well. It became a trauma for her, and she would freeze up whenever she met Kin-chan.

During the three or four years we worked together, he told me this once. "If you try to incorporate everything you know beforehand and do it exactly as planned, it just doesn't work out if you make a mistake," he said. "Apparently, (Kin-chan) memorized everything and did skits and stuff, but it didn't work out at all. So, it's better to just stick to the essentials and pick up on what you feel at the time, and don't try to do it perfectly," he taught me, but I recall thinking, "I couldn't do that."

Thirty years later, Hagimoto happened to run into Kin-chan at an airport somewhere. Without even exchanging greetings, Hagimoto shouted "All-stars!" to which Kin-chan spontaneously replied "Family competition!" and the two of them simultaneously said "Singing contest!" It was the catchphrase they used to use at the beginning of every episode of the show.

"I wondered why I had said something like that," she said, but then added with deep emotion, "I felt like he had finally acknowledged me," and "I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders." Thirty years ago, she felt sorry for Hagimoto because things hadn't gone well, but at the airport he told her, "You're doing well." She had been thinking, "I wanted to see him, but I didn't want to be rude, or it would be rude to speak to him," but she breathed a sigh of relief.

She made her debut at the age of 17 and played the heroine in "Ultraman Taro" (1973-74). She appeared in the Asadora"Bakebake," which aired until last month. "It was fun. Even as a viewer, it was a very enjoyable and heartwarming show. I'm very happy that I was able to participate in it," she said, and with a smile, added, "I was told a lot that I was cute. I was also told congratulations. Because I get proposed to (in the drama)."

He turned 70 last year. His first stage appearance was when he was 67. "I forgot my lines. But I somehow managed to remember them and perform," he said.