[2][3] Her life suddenly changed when Sicilian sculptor Vincenzo Ragusa, for whom she had modeled when she was just 17, after spending six years in Japan as a sculpture professor, decided to go home in 1882 taking with him Kiyohara Einosuke, Kiyohara's wife and 21-year-old Tayo.

[2] In Palermo, Ragusa opened the Scuola Superiore d'Arte Applicata, employing Kiyohara and his wife as instructors to introduce Japanese lacquer techniques to Italy, but difficulties in obtaining the necessary raw materials caused the school's closure, and Kiyohara and his wife returned to Japan after six years in Palermo.

[3] The school, called Museo Artistico Industriale, Scuole Officine, opened in 1884 with public funds in Palazzo Belvedere (Casa Benzo).

[4] In Italy, Tama was admired for her works in watercolor, including still-lives with flowers, but also figures and landscapes.

Tama features in the 2018 novel The Death of Noah Glass by Australian author Gail Jones, in which the eponymous character is accused of being involved in the theft and smuggling of a sculpture of Eleonora by Vincenzo Ragusa.