■ Supporting his ex-wife who was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer Naohiro Kazeoka, who appeared on the popular variety show “Boiling Word 10” and became known as the king of bamboo shoots, made a fresh start this year as a farmer-talent. He closed his direct sales shop in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, last summer, but reopened it in February of this year. Based in his hometown, he is now working freelance as both a bamboo shoot farmer and a farmer-talent. His manager is his ex-wife and now partner, Tomonori. However, she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer last May and is still undergoing anticancer treatment. Mr. Kazaoka is also in a position to support her.
We got married when I was 30 years old. We were blessed with a son. But our marriage lasted only about 10 years. He got fed up with my rough spending and told me he was leaving me…” Since then, he has had little contact with Tomonori. One day, however, a phone call from a teacher at her child’s elementary school alerted her to something unusual. She had developed a mental illness. My son’s homeroom teacher told me about it, and when I called her for the first time in several years, she was clearly not in good spirits. I went to see her later that day. When I saw her, she was not normal. He had a frightened look on his face. His hair was sticky, and when I asked him about it, he said he hadn’t taken a bath in over a month. I knew this was a bad idea, so I immediately had him hospitalized.
After the divorce, Yuki was busy taking care of her parents. As an only child, she had no siblings to rely on. After nursing her mother, she died. It was three months after the funeral that Yuki’s mental illness struck. For two years after she was discharged from the hospital, she was unable to work and was confined to her parents’ home. My son and I took her out for a change of pace, and her illness gradually eased. She is now in a state where she does not need to take medication.”