Princess Tenko, The Greatest Female Magician Ever

How cool is Princess Tenko?

Much, much cooler than the average Japanese woman. She is:

- the only female and only non-white person to win the Magician of the Year Award, previously won by the likes of David Copperfield and Siegfried & Roy.
- under contract with toymaker Mattel to literally look forever 24.
- the only Japanese person loved and revered by Kim Jong Il. He has invited her to North Korea twice, and even made a theater named after her in Pyongyang.
- the owner of a white tiger, a mountain lion, a raccoon, two white lions, eight horses, an African wild cat, and a dozen dogs.
- constantly getting offered bars of gold, fields of oil, and hands in marriage from gazillionaires all over the world.
- tough as hell. She's done more than one performance at Radio City Music Hall in NYC with a rack of broken ribs after a freak accident during an earlier show.
- bound by her entertainment contract with TV company Saban Entertainment to only marry a US Citizen.
- rumored to have been Jean Claude Van Damme's lover in the late 90s.
- still veiled in mystery. Nobody knows where she's from or what's going through her head, never mind how she floats in mid-air in front of millions of spectators.

Comments

[Jayna]

Please find an episode of Domoto Kyodai airred on July 25, 2004. She appeared as a guest and you will learn a great deal about her, including:
- when her "magic" to escape from explosion on a boat failed, she got a serious injury and had to "refill" most of her blood (and she claims to have a different personality ever since);
- she has a big a$$ mansion in Japan with a garden where she raises wild animals and dinosaur robots;
- she built a real-size spaceship in her house to have afternoon teatime;
- one day, she wanted to take a vacation, so she went to the SPACE with help from the Russian government and a few million bucks and took a picture of the earth with her cannon digital camera (remember this is back in 2003-04 before much effort to commercialize space trip); and
- among the gifts she's received over the years include a ring with an eyeball size of dimond, oil field somewhere in middle east (from which she's still collecting $$$), yachts, buildings and an island.

[Nyanko]

Tee hee. I have an action figure of her from when I was a kid :)

I thought she was so cool back then :)

[jaswong]

Her real name is Mariko Itakura and she had a cartoon and mattel doll named after her.
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/princess-tenko-japans-female-magician/