"You have a dragon on your back"
And then, Horiemon was arrested.
I was actually watching that broadcast. I still remember the scene where Kazuko Hosoki looked at Takafumi Horie, known as Horiemon, and told him that. Regarding Livedoor's stock price, she also said, "It will easily go up about five times."
The studio was completely filled with the atmosphere of "This man is going to take over the world."
Back then, Mr. Horie wore T-shirts, spoke quickly, was confident, and laughed at the rules of old adults. Whether you liked him or not, he was someone who changed the air of the room just by appearing on TV.
To that Mr. Horie, Ms. Hosoki declared, "A dragon is possessed by you."
That was less a fortune-telling and more a coronation of a successful man. But that crown rolled off on the news screen within the same month.
Was the dragon said to be on his back a guardian deity? Or was it a demon meant to lift Horiemon high before dropping him?
I wasn't counting the exact number of days at the time. But the feeling as a viewer was this: A successful man carrying a dragon on New Year's Day. By the end of that month, an arrest on the news.
Does television really carry someone on a palanquin so quickly and drop them so fast? When lifting them up, it's gold folding screens; when dropping them, it's a tabloid show. It's too busy. It treats a person's life like an event venue.
A person who was being lifted up in a bright variety studio with "a dragon is possessed" is now reported as "arrested" in the stiff voice of the news. It's not a matter of whether the fortune-telling was right or wrong.
I was shown that a person's life can change from rose-colored to pitch black so easily.
| The era when "You're going to hell" was aired normally
Speaking of Kazuko Hosoki, it's definitely those words.
"You're going to hell."
Nowadays, this single phrase would cause a huge uproar. It would be clipped, go viral with criticism, lead to apologies, and make sponsors nervous. In the Reiwa era, it would be a full course: apology letters, program comments, internet articles—a mountain of trouble.
But back then, it was a signature attraction.
Ms. Hosoki was not just a fortune teller. She was someone who barged into people's lives and made black-and-white judgments on marriage, work, family, etiquette, and lifestyle.
Scary.
Harsh.
She was dismantling people's lives on television.
And yet, we watched.
This is the most human part. If you don't like it, you can just change the channel. Yet, the hand holding the remote stops. Even though it's a celebrity being scolded, tension runs through the viewer as well.
The studio is laughing. The performers are laughing. But there is tension behind the laughter. No one knows who will be told what next. It's like walking through a minefield, yet it functions as a program. No, it was interesting because they were walking through a minefield. It's in bad taste, but still.
I want to see it.
But I don't want to be the one told.
It's terrible, but I get it. That feeling existed in front of the TV.
| Cleaning instructions would be flagged as harassment today
Another thing I remember is the scene where she was teaching young women how to clean.
Rather than teaching, she was monitoring. The movement of the hands, the way of wiping, posture, and response. If even a little bit was different, Ms. Hosoki's eyes would stop. At that moment, even the viewer braces themselves, thinking, "Oh, she's going to get scolded for that."
Why am I, just watching TV at home, so tense? It's strange.
The young girls were laughing. But that was a cramped laugh. At worst, tears in the corners of their eyes. A social smile to avoid being scolded. A smile to avoid breaking the atmosphere. A smile where only the corners of the mouth are raised to prevent the air from getting any worse.
You know this kind of face.
A superior speaks strongly, and the young person replies "Yes." The people around turn it into a laugh. Because the person themselves is laughing, it appears to work on the surface. But the person's heart is being gouged out.
The viewers also realize it somewhere but let it slide with "Well, it's TV." A convenient phrase. It's TV. It's work. It was like that in the old days. Yes, the three-piece set of excuses.
Nowadays, it would probably be called "power harassment." No, it would be said a lot. Pressure rather than guidance. Dominance rather than education. A public lecture under the name of discipline.
But at the time, there was an atmosphere of accepting it as "strict but with love."
Being able to clean.
Knowing etiquette.
Not defying elders.
Behaving femininely.
Those were the conditions for being a "proper person."
Looking at it now, it's suffocating.
What's scary isn't just Ms. Hosoki alone. The atmosphere of the era that watched it normally is also quite scary.
| Kazuko Hosoki's abnormality was a bug in distance
Ms. Hosoki's scariness wasn't that she had a foul mouth. The sense of distance with which she stepped into people's lives was not normal.
Normally, people have places they don't want touched.
Marriage,
Parent-child relationships,
Money,
Work,
Femininity,
Masculinity.
Those are not places where others should barge in in front of the TV. But Ms. Hosoki entered them without hesitation.
Rather than taking off her shoes at the entrance, she was the kind of person who would walk into the back room with her shoes on, open the closet, and say on national broadcast, "You, this place is dirty."
Even when praising people, it wasn't normal. Instead of "That's great," it was "A dragon is possessed by you." The words of praise were already mythological. Rather than certification as a success, it was treatment as a semi-legendary creature.
Conversely, when scolding, it wasn't normal either. Instead of "That's not good," it was "You're going to hell." Not a warning, but almost a terminal sentence.
The range was too large.
Even with a single way of cleaning, it didn't end with just cleaning. No etiquette. What about you as a woman? Your way of life is no good. Small daily actions led to a judgment of that person's character.
Thinking about it now, it wasn't discipline, but a spectacle that robbed people of an escape route in public.
But we were watching it. This is the nastiest part.
People hate having their own lives judged, yet they turn their eyes to scenes where others' lives are judged. Someone is scolded, someone is seen through, someone loses their escape route. We watch that moment from a safe place.
Kazuko Hosoki barged into people's lives with her shoes on.
But we in front of the TV were peering into those footprints.
It's not just Ms. Hosoki who is scary.
People only want to see others' wounds when they are in a place where they won't get hurt.
Perhaps what that program was showing wasn't fortune-telling. Wasn't it the rather ill-natured curiosity within humans?
| We are watching the same thing on our smartphones now
Nowadays, we rarely see such strong words on TV. But they haven't disappeared. Only the location has changed.
Now it's on SNS.
"People who don't know this are losing out."
"With that way of thinking, you will never change for a lifetime."
"All successful people are doing this."
"Please stop right now."
The old "You're going to hell" might have just changed to the current "Your life will be over."
TV became smartphones. Fortune tellers became influencers. The laughter in the studio became likes and reposts.
However, the structure of grabbing people's anxiety with strong words hasn't changed much. Even in the Reiwa era, the contents of humans haven't been updated that much. Only the smartphones get newer, while we remain the same as before. It's painful.
Having lived a long time, I think.
People tend to lean toward strong words rather than kind words especially when they are truly lost. But strong words can be signposts or chains.
After telling Horiemon "A dragon is possessed by you" and saying the stock price would "easily go up about five times," reality brought completely different news. No matter how famous a person is in predicting the future, a person's life does not proceed according to those words.
What's scary isn't whether the fortune-telling hits or misses.
What's truly scary is entrusting your own life to someone's strong words when you become anxious.
I will continue to write about human nature and the atmosphere of old TV, so please follow me if you like.
Layla 66
@layla_biz
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