Kuroyanagi Tetsuko was born on August 9th, 1933 in Tokyo. Her father was an orchestra violinist, while her mother was an essayist. Her parents were cosmopolitan. They had foreign friends and liberal ideals. Her mother dressed in modern clothes and wore Western hairstyles popular with the modern girl crowd. Still, they hoped for and were confident their unborn child was a boy and chose a male name.
They were wrong. Setting the tone for her life, Tetsuko arrived, defying expectations and leaving them scrambling for a girl’s name. Thankfully, kanji are quite flexible, and they could use the boy character they chose after all.
She talks to birds!
Surrounded by artistic and extremely understanding parents, young Tetsuko flourished until she reached school age. While her parents turned a blind eye to her rambunctious and uninhibited nature, her first-grade teacher was less forgiving.
Opening and closing her desk incessantly. Calling over random street musicians to play loudly. Having full-on conversations with the birds outside instead of doing her lessons. Kuroyanagi Tetsuko could not stay seated. She was a nuisance.
Nowadays, it would be fairly obvious that the lively child had ADHD and a learning disability. But in 1939, ADHD was unknown, and children with learning disabilities were poorly understood. Traditional Japanese schools were, and still unfortunately remain, very regimented with little understanding of differences.
Because of her constant disruptions and inability to toe the line, she was expelled from first grade. Her parents were understandably upset. However, rather than scold her, they looked for alternatives. They found the solution at Tomoe Gakuen.
Tomoe Gakuen, a different kind of school
Tomoe Gakuen was anything but a traditional school. The classroom “buildings’ were defunct train cars. Students picked which activities they wanted to do at any given time. Teachers offered guidance and answered questions individually but didn’t lecture. The approach was about letting student find their passions rather than rote memorization. Even by today’s standards, it was extremely unconventional.
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When Kuroyanagi arrived for her interview, her parents tried to coach her on appropriate behavior. But she did what she wanted. And what she wanted was to talk to the principal for four hours straight. He found her amusing and immediately admitted her to the school.
For Kuroyanagi, it was the first time an adult truly listened to her without interrupting. She realized the importance of someone wanting to hear your stories.
She spent the rest of her time at the school, enjoying the unconventional education system and learning valuable life lessons along the way. Her school had many children with both physical and mental disabilities. Many of her friends had disabilities, but she didn’t care much because the principal subtly modeled respect for differences. This early exposure to different types of people instilled in her respect for people of various backgrounds.
NHK’s first actress
While her time at Tomoe Gakuen was idyllic, the effects of the war slowly began to seep in.
Lunches became more sparse. Fire bombs became more frequent. The makeshift school in the train cars was a casualty of one of those fire bombings.
At times eating only 15 beans a day and hiding in dugouts during the bombings in Tokyo, she and her mother escaped to the calmer Aomori prefecture. It was a tough adjustment living in a more rural area with its famously distinct dialect.
After the war, Kuroyanagi attended Tokyo College of Music with hopes of becoming an opera singer. After graduation, she was bitten by the acting bug and switched career paths. In 1953 she became NHK’s first contracted actress. During this period, she did primarily radio and voice work.
She faced discrimination as a woman in a male-dominated field. When she asked questions, she was told to shut up. Male coworkers made romantic advances toward her. She struggled with her ADHD as well, often being scolded or kept off air for not following instructions.
Tetsuko’s Room
In 1975 her gift for talking and spirited personality finally found its fit when she launched her TV Asahi program “Tetsuko’s Room”. It was Japan’s first-ever talk show.
Rather than adopt a cold and serious style, Tetsuko was warm and created an open, fun, and safe atmosphere. Her distinctive look, from her hair to her makeup and her way of speaking, made her a household name.
“Totto-chan” was not without critics who felt she was undermining the image of Japanese women as “good wives and good mothers.” She ignored the criticism and kept going. Kuroyanagi effectively created the category of “tarento,” celebrities who are famous for creating personas and offering commentary. It continues to be Japan’s most recognizable and lucrative category of TV entertainer.
Over the years, Kuroyanagi has interviewed thousands of guests, ranging from local celebrities to international leaders. In September 2023, she was awarded the Guinness World Record for longest-running talk show with the same presenter. At the time, she’d recorded an astonishing 12,100 episodes.
Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
In 1981 Kuroyanagi’s star rose even higher, making her a worldwide success. She published a memoir titled Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window. A recounting of her time at Tomoe Gakuen, it’s a short but touching book of vignettes of her life up until the closing of the school.
The book was wildly successful. It has been translated into 30 languages and sold over 25 million copies. It holds the world record for the best-selling memoir in history. Many Japanese schools assign her book to elementary school students – quite the accomplishment for a student expelled in first grade.
In 2024 Kuroyanagi published a long-awaited sequel to her memoir. A continuation of her story after the school was firebombed, she avoided writing it for many years. She didn’t want to relive the painful years of the war. However, after seeing images of the war in Ukraine, she had a change of heart.
While never overtly political, she published the sequel to give readers insight into the experiences of children during wartime. She also said that as more people who experienced that era in Japan die, taking their lived history with them, she felt it was important that she share her story.
“I hope to be on TV until I’m 100”
While her television legacy is undeniably impressive, Kuroyanagi is also widely known for her philanthropy.
In 1984 she became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, the first person in Asia to be appointed to that position. She has spent time visiting war-torn countries in Africa and Europe, highlighting the suffering of children in these areas. Her own experiences with war and its devastation give her a deep understanding of their situation.
Kuroyanagi has personally pushed to have the wars in Ukraine and Gaza featured on Japanese television. She also recently quietly donated her private funds to help with humanitarian aid in Gaza.
A pioneering woman in entertainment, celebrated author, and humanitarian, her first love remains television. She has said she hopes to be on air until she is 100 to serve as an inspiration to the aging population of Japan.
If anyone can pull it off, it’s Kuroyanagi Tetsuko.
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Sources
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็ชใใใฎใใใใกใใ-https://www.amazon.co.jp/
็ชใใใฎใใใใกใใใ ใฎใในไธ็่จ้ฒใซ่ชๅฎ-https://www3.nhk.or.jp/
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