<figure id="attachment_210984" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-210984" style="width: 1177px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="64dad6a5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/10/DSC_9547rr.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-210984" class="wp-caption-text">Photo: Koichi Kikuchi</figcaption></figure>
 Nanao Tsukioka, who was a male star for 11 years until 2006, was admitted to Takarazuka Music School after surpassing the highest ratio of 48.7 in its history. He was one of the elite of the elite who made his CD debut and even appeared in a commercial in his first year at the school.
 However, last year she divorced her husband, whom she married soon after leaving the group, and soon after that her father passed away. Behind her dazzling smile, Ms. Tsukioka spoke candidly about her struggles with her family and her determination for her &#8220;third career.
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<h3> On the day of the exam, she did an imitation of Yuki Amami.</h3>
 &#8220;I think there is a strong image that people who enter Takarazuka Music School come from privileged families. But the truth is that my father and I didn&#8217;t get along very well. I was very close to my younger sister and brother who were born after my mother remarried, but I wanted to leave home as soon as possible.
 Born in Kumamoto, Kyushu. She was born in Kumamoto, Kyushu, and her mother divorced, so she lived with her mother for a while, but when she was eight years old, her mother got remarried on an arranged marriage and moved to Osaka. The man she married was my father, who passed away last year. In other words, I am not related to him by blood, but he is the father I grew up with.
 Until he moved to Osaka, he was a quiet child who never spoke at all. It was an encounter with a friend who was a big fan of Takarazuka that changed his personality 180 degrees. On the way home from a playdate, the friend forced the upper and lower volumes of &#8220;The Rose of Versailles&#8221; by Ms. Riyoko Ikeda into the basket of Ms. Tsukioka&#8217;s bicycle.
 &#8220;I hadn&#8217;t read a lot of shoujo manga and wasn&#8217;t keen on it, but when I tried it, I was immediately hooked and cried my eyes out &#8230;&#8230; completely. After that, I rented a DVD of the Takarazuka version of &#8220;The Rose of Versailles,&#8221; which my friend recommended, and watched it. When I saw Yuki Amami on the stage, I knew I wanted to be on the same stage as her and join Takarazuka.
 When she told her parents that she wanted to become a Takarazuka, they were fiercely opposed. When she told her parents that she wanted to become a Takarazuka, they were fiercely opposed to the idea. She found an advertisement for a school for entrance exams in the magazine &#8220;Revue,&#8221; which featured her favorite actress Amami on the cover, and decided to attend. She refused to pay the monthly fee to her parents, who were against it, and paid for it herself with a part-time job.
 I didn&#8217;t take ballet or voice lessons, which everyone does from an early age, and my parents told me, &#8220;There&#8217;s no way you can pass the exam like that. On the day of the exam, I was overwhelmed by the huge crowd of people, but I thought, &#8220;I have to make a mark as a Kansai person! I thought, &#8220;I have to make a mark as a Kansai person! I suddenly said, &#8220;I&#8217;ll do an imitation!&#8221; and did an imitation of Yuki Amami.
 I said, &#8220;I&#8217;ll do an impersonation!&#8221; and did an impersonation of Yuki Amami. The judges laughed at me because I didn&#8217;t look anything like her, and said, &#8220;Okay, I understand&#8221; (laughs). (laughs) I didn&#8217;t think I would be accepted, but I passed the first time. But I don&#8217;t know why I did that imitation &#8230;&#8230; (laughs).&#8221;
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<h3> Puzzled by the light shining on her</h3>
 When Ms. Tsukioka was in school, the school rules were quite strict. The school rules were quite strict when Ms. Tsukioka was in school. She had limited time for bathing and cleaning, but she was not allowed to leave a single drop of water or hair. There were times when he had to give up bathing and wash his hair with fresh water because the upperclassmen would get angry with him and cut into his sleeping time. The rules were so strict that some of her classmates quit because it became too hard for them, but Ms. Tsukioka did not want to quit. But Ms. Tsukioka didn&#8217;t want to quit because she wanted to be on the same stage as Mr. Amami, no matter how strict the rules were.
 She recalls that even from her first year as a research student (after joining the troupe, she was in her first year of study), she had no private life. She spent her days writing thank-you notes to the people who came to see the performances and watching movies based on the plays.
 &#8220;When I was in my first year, I was selected from the 82nd students of each group to form a group called t.a.p (Takarazuka Angel Project). They sang a CF song for Lion and released a CD.
 I was invited to join the newly established troupe. My parents were happy to see me in the commercial, but it was complicated because I had always wanted to perform on stage.
 The first production that Ms. Tsukioka saw at the theater before joining Takarazuka was &#8220;PACK,&#8221; in which Ms. Amami appeared. It was written by Shuichiro Koike, a playwright and director known for Takarazuka&#8217;s version of &#8220;Elisabeth. For Ms. Tsukioka, Koike&#8217;s work marked a milestone in her life as a Takarazuka actress.
 Her most memorable work is &#8220;Elisabeth&#8221;. I was chosen for the role of the Black Angel. I was chosen to play the role of the Black Angel. Even though I bluffed my way into the role, I was chosen for &#8230;&#8230; (laughs). Both myself and the people around me were surprised at why I was chosen. There were many people who wanted to play that role, and I felt very pressured.
 She is a person with a &#8220;flamboyance&#8221; that makes her shine. That&#8217;s why she was given many chances, but she also had to fight the pain of not being able to show her struggles.
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<figure id="attachment_210983" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-210983" style="width: 1766px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4453bc0f"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/10/DSC_9518rr.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-210983" class="wp-caption-text"> Photo: Koichi Kikuchi</figcaption></figure>
<h3> A Love Marriage After Leaving the Company</h3>
 Ms. Tsukioka had been with the company for 11 years, but around her fifth year, she began to think about leaving. At that time, when someone was leaving the company, she would listen to them carefully, as if she was trying to figure out her own moment.
 He said, &#8220;Everyone had different reasons for leaving, such as what they wanted to do next, but when they left, their faces were so clear. Seeing their faces, I thought that I would probably regret quitting now. I wanted to leave with a smile on my face and the blessings of the people around me.
 Ms. Tsukioka decided that she would quit the company after the next performance of Mr. Koike&#8217;s work, and left in July 2006 with &#8220;NEVER SAY GOODBYE&#8221;. It took her five years to think about leaving, but it must have been long enough for her to sort out her feelings.
 She said, &#8220;Takarazuka is a place where once you leave, you can never come back. But when I decided to retire after this production, I was also thinking about getting married to my long-distance partner, so I wasn&#8217;t particularly worried.
<h3> I didn&#8217;t have any worries.&#8221; &#8220;Will it end like this?</h3>
 She got married soon after leaving the company and became a full-time housewife in Nagoya. I was busy at a dizzying pace, but staying at home all the time felt like a pain. She got into a fight with her husband when she said she wanted to work, but soon after, she started working as a salesperson. Her performance was unexpectedly good and she was needed by the company.
 Ms. Tsukioka and her ex-husband do not have any children. She once tried to get pregnant as a matter of course because she was married, but one day she realized that she didn&#8217;t want children that badly, so she and her husband discussed it and decided to quit trying and get a dog. However, they were unable to resolve the gap that they had gradually felt since their marriage, and at the end of last year, they put an end to their 13-year marriage.
 &#8220;It had been so long since we met that we felt more like siblings than man and woman. I began to feel as if it would end like this&#8230;. I also found a job that I wanted to do, and many other things came together to make my decision. I am currently working for a foreign-affiliated membership service company, and this summer I performed on stage for the first time in 13 years. It was fun to have people from my company come to see the show and get to know a new side of me, and in this day and age, the more you can do, the stronger you are. I would like to try more new things in the future.
 She is always thinking carefully and making decisions that she is satisfied with, which is why she has no hesitation. However, there is one thing that is not so clear to her. That is the death of her father. He had always hated his father, but the loss of his father has left a big hole in his heart.
 He said, &#8220;I was not blessed with a good family environment, but Takarazuka was a place where I was able to build invaluable relationships. It&#8217;s my treasure. If it weren&#8217;t for my father, I wouldn&#8217;t have found Takarazuka, and my beloved younger sisters and brothers wouldn&#8217;t have been born, so I can only be grateful. My mother is also sick a lot, but I would like to be more filial to her.
 At first glance, Ms. Tsukioka appears to be a strong woman. At first glance, Ms. Tsukioka appears to be a strong woman, and one would think that she would continue to enjoy her life alone, but that is not the case. She says she would like to find a partner with whom she can keep a good distance.
 &#8220;I&#8217;m not a strong person. I&#8217;m not a strong person, and I don&#8217;t think I can be alone all the time. I&#8217;m going to find a partner that I can call in the middle of the night when I&#8217;m not feeling well. An oil tycoon would be ideal, but where can I find one? (laughs)&#8221;
 Ms. Tsukioka lives a positive life with a sense of humor, no matter how tough the situation. Even as she enters the phase of her second and third careers, she will probably continue to move forward with the resilience she cultivated during her time in Takarazuka.
<figure id="attachment_210985" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-210985" style="width: 6240px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e712113a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/10/83c6af495b06ed7927205a9b2f44954f.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-210985" class="wp-caption-text"> In August, she appeared in the synchronized swimming play &#8220;Kirameki&#8221; (photo by Vanilla Model Management).</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_210986" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-210986" style="width: 1766px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="aa989979"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/10/DSC_9760rr.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-210986" class="wp-caption-text"> Photo by Koichi Kikuchi</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_210987" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-210987" style="width: 1766px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3950ba1f"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/10/DSC_9694rr.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-210987" class="wp-caption-text"> Photo by Koichi Kikuchi</figcaption></figure>

 Katsutoshi Kamigami

 Koichi Kikuchi

 Ms. Nanao Tsukioka made her CD debut and appeared in commercials in her first year at Takarazuka Music School, which has been in existence for more than 100 years. She married immediately after leaving the group, but divorced last year. She has been troubled by the gap between the way others see her and her own thoughts.

A former Takarazuka actress who surpassed the highest ratio of applicants in history: the struggles of family and divorce

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