This book is a memoir of Aran Kei’s time as a member of Takarazuka, as well as her post-Takarazuka career and memories of her childhood. It was published in 2010 to commemorate the 20th year of her stage career. It also features messages from Takarazuka classmates and other colleagues and theatre artists she has worked with.

Some paragraph breaks have been added for ease of reading in English. I have also collected many archival images from various sources to illustrate the book.

Visiting my “other hometown”

Korea, to me, is my other homeland. I wasn’t raised there, and I haven’t actually been there that often, but, as I was raised with Korean food and Korean daily customs, it’s a place that feels very close to me. This time, I journeyed through Korea in order to follow my roots. The weather forecast for Korea during my trip was all rainstorms. Apparently, right before I arrived, the Hangang (the large river flowing through Seoul) had overflowed its banks from the rain. I was prepared for bad weather during the whole trip, but strangely enough, the rain stopped during my photoshoot. This might just be me thinking about it in the way that works best for me, but I felt a connection even from that.

While I’d been to Seoul many times before, I visited my place of origin, South Gyeongsang Province, for the first time during this trip. This was where my grandfather was raised. Well, though that’s true, I didn’t know the address, so we ended up visiting the village my travel coordinator said was most likely the right one. Even if it wasn’t the actual place my grandfather lived, I would be satisfied just to feel the same atmosphere; that’s what I thought as I set off on the trip.

We reached our destination after about an hour by car starting from the Gimhae International Airport in Busan. It was my first time seeing my grandfather’s hometown, but despite my expectations of being surprised to see what kind of place it was, I felt instead an odd sense of ‘nostalgia’. There were narrow streets with chickens wandering around, houses with low eaves, gardens full of greenery, crops growing up against the edges of the houses… It was just like the hometown in Shiga Prefecture where I spent my childhood. It was a strange feeling, and I couldn’t think of it like a place I had come to for the first time at all. I thought that perhaps my grandfather had looked for a place in Japan that resembled the scenery of his hometown.

We spent about an hour walking around peeking in places like old houses where we were told nobody lived any more and the village meeting hall. Then, we encountered two old ladies resting under a tree. When we greeted them they smiled and talked to us. I only understand basic Korean, so the coordinator explained why I had come, those two old ladies went and brought someone who had the same family name as my grandfather. Next thing I knew, there were so many people!

Since it’s a little village I think everyone is very closely connected. That aspect also resembles my home town in Shiga. It turned out that among the people gathered, the former principal of the local elementary school knew a person who might be my relative. The ‘person who might be my relative’ wasn’t in on that day, but the next day, the ex-principal contacted us and said that person knew about my grandfather and my father. In Korea, there are many people with the last names, so confusion over identity is common, but they knew birth dates and even the names of my father’s siblings, so there was no mistake. The village I visited was definitely the village where my grandfather was raised.

My grandfather left Korea in his 20s for some reason and came to Japan. By the time I was born, my grandfather had already passed on, so I was never able to know the reason, but my grandfather certainly faced many hardships after leaving that village to go to a country he had never seen. Though I can’t hear from him in person, I want to take the time to learn about the journey he went on, even if it’s just a little at a time.

Since my trip there coincided with the Korean performances of Antony and Cleopatra, I was interviewed by the Korean media. Naturally I was asked a lot about my nationality, but normally, it’s not as if I spent my life being very conscious of the fact I am Korean. Koreans and Japanese are both humans all the same. As a stage performer, I think that I am happy if I can move people, regardless of their nationality.

Knowing my roots means returning to my foundations. When I am lost somehow or confused, there are many things I can see by returning to my foundations. In that way, this trip will have a lot of meaning for me in the rest of my life.