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.

On March 11, 2011, there was a huge earthquake in Eastern Japan.

So many people’s hearts were gravely hurt that day, and that sadness can’t be easily healed. We have to live from now on holding various fears, and in the future, more and more terrible things might happen.

But even if we’re crushed by this or things go badly for us, that’s something of that time only. Even if we don’t push ourselves to overcome something, if we just have that feeling of wanting to move forward, we’ll definitely make it to the next thing. What we need for that is to believe in ourselves, and be satisfied with ourselves. Even if we compare ourselves to others and think ‘but I’m trying so hard…’, we can’t possibly know how hard those other people are actually trying themselves, and as soon as we ‘win’ over those people we’ll lose sight of our goals. But, if we are satisfied with ourselves, even if we fail, the result of our efforts will connect us to our next step.

This is how, by believing in myself and thinking  ‘I’ll try my best just a little more’, I was able to make it to this point.

There’s something else I’ve realized recently. I don’t ‘lose heart’. I don’t think that I’m special, but I feel that my ability to ‘resist losing heart’ is strong. However, this is a skill anyone can develop if they believe in themself.

From now on, I want to keep performing onstage with this ‘power to not lose heart’ as my ally, and keep going forward while believing in myself.

Dreams are not something you see while you sleep, but something that comes true.

But even if they do not come true,

I think that the effort you put in on the road to make your dream true,

Is in itself a dream.

(From Aran Kei’s Takarazuka Revue retirement speech)