Written on June 30, 2019.
While listening to a piano recital by Fuzjko Hemming on WOWOW, the author stopped watching NHK’s taiga drama Idaten midway and reflected on his enduring love for his hometown of Yuriage, the suffering caused by his family environment and exceptional gifts, and the way classical music sustained him in his youth.
The essay also praises Rika Kihira as a genuine genius surpassing even Russia’s figure-skating training machine and strongly calls for a careful plan to lead her to Olympic gold in Beijing.

2019-06-30
The moment I heard the narration say that the protagonist, Tabata Masaji, had joined the Asahi Shimbun, I stopped watching Part Two and found myself looking for a Giants game.

I am writing now while watching Fuzjko Hemming’s piano recital on WOWOW.
I hardly ever watch NHK’s taiga dramas, and I scarcely watched the previous one, “Segodon,” at all.
The one before that, “Onna Naotora,” was an exception, and I watched every episode.
That was because I was astonished by the genius-level acting of the little girl who appeared at the beginning.
I had also thought that Nakamura Kankurō’s acting in the current Idaten was quite good, and so I had watched almost every episode, and I had been looking forward, a little, to the second part beginning today, but the moment I heard the narration say that the protagonist, Tabata Masaji, had entered the Asahi Shimbun, I stopped watching Part Two and found myself looking for a Giants game.
I will not be watching that second part any more.
That was rather a blessing.
For right now, around my desk, there are piled up books and monthly magazines that I must read, things I must write to the world, things I must make known, and in truth I do not have time to be watching NHK dramas.
A friend of mine is a fan of the lady mentioned at the beginning and used to keep her CD in the car.
She is now playing Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.”
Having grown up in Yuriage and Sendai, I made Osaka the stage of my life.
God gave me Yuriage, a truly wonderful hometown.
As my friends, my former teachers at Yuriage Junior High School, and my classmates all know, I shall love Yuriage forever.
But God did not give me peace within the family.
In every matter, heaven does not grant two gifts, and I may well be a typical example of that.
I was given a truly wonderful hometown, but I was not given a wonderful family.
Even if, after becoming an adult, one can think that such things were not such serious problems, even if they were family troubles common enough anywhere,
for a person who, by the fifth grade of elementary school, had already been told by the principal that he possessed the ability of a second-year high school student, and who had also been given extraordinarily acute sensitivities, they became fatal problems, just as those who endured similar suffering have left written behind.
Especially when I was in high school, I escaped from that suffering by continuing every day to listen to classical music on NHK-FM.
With the little money I had, I even bought the complete LP set of Tebaldi’s La Bohème.
At that time, I even thought that one advantage of living in Osaka was that whenever a world-class pianist came, there would always be a concert held there, and so whenever great performers and maestros came to Japan, I never failed to go.
As soon as this piece began to play, Rika Kihira’s short program at once came to my mind.
So to speak, the figure-skating world had been swept by what might be called Russia’s “Tiger’s Den”…
Just to be safe, I searched that phrase and ended up laughing…
Because it turned out to mean the training institution for professional wrestlers in the manga Tiger Mask…
A genuine genius who surpassed the Russian skaters produced by that figure-skater training apparatus appeared in Japan…
And the fact that Russia itself was the most shocked of all is precisely what proved how extraordinary her genius was.
The Japanese figure-skating world must marshal all its strength and create a roadmap to make her the gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics.
For that purpose, it must create a roadmap by cutting unnecessary competitions and keeping participation in needless exhibitions to the absolute minimum!
For not only the people of Japan but figure-skating fans all over the world are eagerly awaiting her descent upon Beijing as a gold medalist.