The Yamagami Brothers’ confession about their illusionary boyhood: 20 years since the birth of “Tejina-nya

Tejina-nya!”

Do you remember the boy duo who used to perform such adorable lines as “Tejina-nya” while performing such serious magic tricks as levitation?

The Yamagami Brothers, Yoshinosuke Yamagami (30) and Akinoshin Yamagami (28), are genius elementary school magicians who were certified by Guinness World Records as the “World’s Youngest Illusion Artists” in 2002, when they were in the early grades of elementary school. ‘ The DVD of magic tricks, released in 2004, is called “The Yamagami Brothers’ Hop! Step! Magic! 〜Tejina-nya Volume 1,” which was released in 2004, became his big breakthrough. Tejina-nya” was born, and 20 years have passed since then, and they are still active as magicians. Now in their twenties, the two magicians look back on their boyhood.

My brother Kanosuke: “Our father was a magician, so we came from a family where there were more magic tools than toys. I naturally became interested in magic while playing with them instead of toys. So when I made my debut, it was as if I was standing on stage or going to a TV station as an extension of my playtime.

My younger brother, Akinoshin Basic, had to work after school because his priority was his schoolwork, but I worked every day during summer and winter vacations. When I think about it now, I think I was living an amazing life.”

The elementary school student from Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, was inundated with offers, mainly for variety shows such as “Enta no Kamisama” (Nippon Television Network Corporation) and “Ohasuta” (TV Tokyo). He also appeared in commercials for more than 10 companies, including “Nomura Real Estate” and “Oriental Land. It is said that the senior members of various fields were very fond of the hard-working little junior.

Akinosuke: “Tetsuko’s Interview” (TV Asahi), Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, 91, baked a cake for us, and Yumi Katsura, 94, invited us to her bridal show. ……

Kanosuke: “Magicians often appear in specials and one-off variety shows, so we don’t work together for long periods of time like we do when filming dramas. So the performers don’t often get along with each other. Even so, Maggie Shinji (50) and the “Napoleons” have been very kind to us. They even snuck in to see our dinner show.

Although he was a successful magician, his life was not easy.

Kanosuke said, “We magicians are not paid as much as you might think. We had to pay for our own tools and costumes, so we had to spend a lot of money. We had to renew our custom-made costumes many times because we were in a period of growth. Also, magic always requires new material. Then we had to make new illusion tools. Some tools cost as much as a new car. The cost of traveling overseas for shows was also considerable. It was like running on a bicycle.

COVID-19 crisis: “Profitability was reduced to zero

Even so, “I never felt hardship,” says Akinoshin.

Akinoshin: “In fact, it was more difficult when I grew up (laughs). When I was in elementary school, my parents and the staff prepared for me, but now we have to carry in and out the huge, heavy magic equipment ourselves.’ We have been doing a solo magic show almost every year since around ’11, but it’s also hard to come up with our own unique magic.'”

Kanosuke: “I peaked when I appeared in “TRICK the Movie” in 2010, and when I entered junior high school and high school, my work gradually began to slow down. Even so, I never lost my job, but after the COVID-19 crisis, I lost it all at once.

Akinoshin: “The work and earnings that had been going on for 20 years suddenly dropped to zero. We were in the business of bringing people together and having them watch us. It was a matter of life and death, the exact opposite of the Corona disaster. Even after the coronas subsided, we had to use boards to prevent infection at shows for a while. This meant that the brothers could not perform magic together, so while one of them was doing solo magic, the other had to cover for the other with talking material.

After the painful Corona period, the brothers restarted their career with the aim of broadening their range of work from magic alone. They are also active as actors and voice actors because they want to entertain people with work other than magic.

Kanosuke said, “Sometimes people say, ‘You should just do magic,’ but I think, ‘It doesn’t matter what you do. That’s why I also act and do voice work. Recently, I supervised Tae Kimura (53) and others in the Netflix drama “The House of Ninja,” and I think not many people know that I’m in there as a supervisor. From now on, I want people to know about the Yamagami Brothers that they don’t know about.”

Akinoshin: “The other thing is not to be featured in Friday for something strange (laughs).

The “world’s youngest magician” had grown into an adult entertainer through his days as an illusionist.

From “FRIDAY” September 20, 2024 issue