Many years ago, a Tokyo woman had a house to let in Sengawa. She used to laugh ruefully at the peculiarities of some of her short-term tenants. Then she had a pair who were the best, who she hoped would stay a long time, whom she spoke of affectionately as "a lovely young couple." They were Rosanna Zambon, a singer from Italy, and her husband, a Japanese entertainer who had taken for himself the name of Hide Demon.
"I was 17 when I came here for the first time, in 1967," Rosanna said. Her family home was in a small place between Milan and Verona in the north of Italy. She agrees that her region deserves its reputation for ancient beauty, richness in medieval and Renaissance cathedrals and palaces, and proximity to mountains and lagoons. For her in her girlhood, singing was what mattered more than anything else.
"I attended a music school, and used to sing with a band," she said. "One of my uncles came to Tokyo for the Olympic Games in 1964. He was a pianist. Later, his brother who was a singer joined him. The two worked in clubs and hotels and different centers. Then they decided they needed a female singer, and sent for me."