Totto-Chan, the Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel

The long-awaited sequel to the bestselling book in Japanese history is finally here!

Over forty years ago, Japanese pop culture icon Tetsuko Kuroyanagi ended the memoir chronicling her childhood adventures at the unconventional Tomoe Gakuen with that beloved school burning down amidst the bombs of WWII. Now, inspired by contemporary events, she has returned to continue Totto's tale! Beginning with her family's frantic effort to escape Tokyo and the worst of the war, Kuroyanagi details how that little girl persevered through starvation and suffering to become a trailblazing actress, a champion for the deaf and children the world over, and one of the most successful entertainers in Japanese history.

"Ms. Kuroyanagi is distinguished above all by her longevity, but she was also a trailblazing woman in an overwhelmingly male environment."
--The New York Times

Author: Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
Publisher: Vertical
Published: 11/18/2025
Pages: 218
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 7.65h x 5.36w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781647294571


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 11/01/2025

About the Author
TETSUKO KUROYANAGI, daughter of the celebrated violinist, was voted Japan's most popular television personality fourteen times. She studied to become an opera singer but then became an actress instead, winning a prestigious award for her work in radio and television. She spent 1972 in New York studying acting, and was critically acclaimed in Japan for her leading role in works by Albee and Shaffer and in Melchior Lengyel's "Ninotchka." Her daily television talk show, "Tetsuko's Room," is still going strong after more than twenty years. Japan's first such program, it was recently awarded television's highest prize. This and the other shows on which she regularly appears all enjoy top viewer ratings.

Devoted to welfare and conservation, Kuroyanagi is Asia's first UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador (see Totto-chan's Children and serves on the board of the Worldwide Fund for Nature. The Totto Foundation--financed with her book royalties--provides professional training to deaf actors, with whom Kuroyanagi often appears. Kuroyanagi has twice brought America's National Theater of the Deaf to Japan, acting with them in sign language. She is the author of ten books.