Princess Tenko

Princess Tenko is the stage name of Mariko Itakura (板倉 満里子, Itakura Mariko^?) (born June 29, 1959 in Arai, Niigata), a pop singer turned magician specialising in grand illusions. Besides being an illusionist, she is also known as a singer, stage director, movie director, video photographer and painter.

Mariko Itakura was already well known as a singer under a stage name, Mari Asakaze (朝風まり). Since 1976, she was the apprentice to the first Tenko Hikita () (引田 天功), a male Japanese magician who was managed by the same person as Mariko. The older Tenko passed his mantle to her before he died at the age of 45 by heart disease. Though he had several apprentices, his sponsors chose Mariko as the 2nd Tenko. The sponsors believed that she would clear older Tenko's huge debt, a speculation which was successful.

In 1987, she guess starred as herself in episode 24 of the Metal Hero Series, Choujinki Metalder. She debuted in North America at the Radio City Music Hall in 1994, and subsequently achieved worldwide fame. She was famous to the extent that Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic, an American magical girl-inspired cartoon series based on her character, was created and Mattel produced a line of fashion dolls named after her. In 1996, she became an honorary goodwill ambassador of the African Wild Animal Conservation Fund.

She was the subject of controversy after making a visit to North Korea in April 1998. It was reported that she met the former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il but she reportedly denied this in interviews. She has stated that the purpose of her visit was to perform at the Friendship Art Festival held in Pyongyang and to meet Korean artists. She again visited North Korea in 2000 and performed for Kim Jong Il. She was asked to stay in North Korea but refused.

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