Tenko Hikita I

Around 1970 there were evenings when Japanese families gathered in front of the television and held their breath, watching one man attempt to escape an extreme situation. Tenko Hikita I understood the new stage that broadcasting represented, and used it fully.

Key achievements

1. Born in Yokohama as Hikita Isao; studied under Shōkyokusai Ten'yō, from whom he inherited the character "Ten" in his stage name.
2. Made escapes from water and explosions his signature, earning the title "Japan's Escape King."
3. Between 1968 and 1975 headlined seven large-scale escape specials on Nippon Television, all drawing high ratings.
4. Was also the teacher of Tenko Hikita II, known internationally as Princess Tenko.

The character “Ten”

Tenko Hikita I was born on 3 July 1934 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, under the name Hikita Isao.

In 1953 he became a pupil of Shōkyokusai Ten’yō, and the character “Ten” in his stage name was inherited from that teacher. Ten’yō had himself been a pupil of Shōkyokusai Tenichi, which makes Tenko the third generation from the father of modern Japanese magic. The lineage holds here too.

Haruo Shimada, who won international standing with his Japanese-parasol act, came out of the same school. The two were fellow pupils.

1957, television

What is worth noticing early in his record is how early he reached television.

In 1957 he became a regular on NHK’s Mahō no Kobako, only a few years after broadcasting began in Japan. When a new medium appeared, he had the instinct to go to it.

In 1960 he left Ten’yō’s school and formed his own company, the Tokyo Magic Troupe.

1968, and the Thursday specials

What fixed his name nationally was the series of specials broadcast by Nippon Television between 1968 and 1975.

Seven large-scale escape programmes went out, mostly in the Thursday special slot, under titles very much of their period. All of them drew high ratings.

A theatre holds only so many people; broadcasting has no such limit. On a single evening, households across the country watched the same performance. No Japanese magician before him had worked at that scale.

The escape form suited the medium unusually well, because what is happening reads without explanation. He is confined. Time passes. He comes out. Anyone in front of a television understands it.

Japan’s Escape King

Half a century after Houdini in America, Japan had Tenko Hikita. The escape as a form found its audience again in another country and another era.

The conditions differed, though. Houdini’s instruments were the theatre and the newspaper; Tenko’s was television. The same art survived by changing medium.

31 December 1979

Tenko had heart disease. He was hospitalised with a myocardial infarction in 1977, and in 1979 suffered another. He died on 31 December that year, at forty-five.

In 1976, while he was ill, the performer who would become Tenko Hikita II — known internationally as Princess Tenko — began studying under him. The name was handed on once more. Tenichi to Ten’yō, Ten’yō to Tenko, and Tenko to the next.

Japanese magic is an art that passes names along.

Notable works

• Seven large-scale escape specials on Nippon Television (1968–1975), broadcast under titles such as "The Great Escape from the Coaster of Death", all drawing high ratings
• The Tokyo Magic Troupe, the company he formed in 1960
• His regular slot on NHK's Mahō no Kobako (1957)

Chronology

Only years that could be verified are listed.

1. 1934 Born Hikita Isao on 3 July in Yokohama, Kanagawa
2. 1953 Becomes a pupil of Shōkyokusai Ten'yō, from whom he inherits the character "Ten" in his stage name
3. 1957 Becomes a regular on NHK's Mahō no Kobako
4. 1960 Leaves Ten'yō's school and forms his own company, the Tokyo Magic Troupe
5. 1968 The first of his large-scale escape specials airs on Nippon Television; seven follow by 1975
6. 1979 Dies of a myocardial infarction on 31 December