Asa ga Kita

Asa ga Kita (あさが来た) was a Japanese television drama series, the 93rd Asadora (morning drama) broadcast six days a week on NHK from September 28, 2015 to April 2, 2016. It is based on the life of Asako Hirooka.^[1][2] It was followed by Toto Neechan on April 4.

Plot

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Undaunted by Repeated Setbacks (1st week - 13th week)

In 1901, Asa Shirooka gave a lecture at the freshmen ceremony of Sunrise Women's University (日の出女子大学).

Back in 1861, Asa is shown as a naughty and curious girl, being the second daughter of the Imai family, a rich merchant family in Kyoto. She was displeased with the arrangements her father made for her and her well-behaved older sister Hatsu, to marry into two merchant families in Osaka. She wanted to pursue studies in accounting and refused to be a bride. But when her fiancé Shinjirō, 11 years older than her, comes to visit and her life begins to change. Shinjirō gave her an abacus and encouraged her to act on her own will. The family agreed to let Asa learn accounting from her fiancé, and Asa became fond of Shinjirō for his gentleness.

In 1865, 15-year-old Asa is still naughty, which annoys her parents and the maids a lot. Asa's older sister Hatsu is ready to marry, but her future husband Sōbei, whom the sister had met before, is still indifferent to the talented and kind Hatsu. Hatsu's future mother-in-law Kiku is rude and mean, which makes the sisters disturbed. While Asa actively opposes her sister's marriage, Hatsu herself remains obedient. Asa herself is expecting marriage , but the death of Shinjirō's older brother delays their marriage.

After Asa is married into Shirooka family, she recalls her parents' teaching to protect her new home from time to time, willing to participate in the family business. Luckily her father-in-law Shōkichi is open-minded, and her mother-in-law Yono was not very actively opposed to her behavior, thus allowing her to study and work in the new family. The Shinsengumi came to force the family to lend some money to them one night. Asa stood out to ask them whether they would return, as the family run a business with credibility. Her innocence and bravery has persuaded the Shinsengumi to act reasonably, and this incident bought Asa the trust from the family business, also, at the night of the incident, she and her husband actually began to live as a couple.

During this time Saisuke Godai (Later Tomoatsu Godai), a samurai she has met in her childhood, comes to see her. The man has returned from his study overseas, and hints to Asa that the society is going to change rapidly. He was also attracted to Asa's unique personality, but remained reasonable, as Asa was a married woman. He would later help Asa and befriend her family throughout his life.

Asa was always worrying about her sister Hatsu, and sneaked out to see her from time to time. Although Hatsu's relationship with her husband had been slightly better, she was nearly under house arrest by her mother-in-law Kiku, who does not allow her to participate in the family business and instead forces her to focus on reproduction. This causes Hatsu to be depressed.

In 1868, after the financial crisis appeared, Asa managed to help her family survive it, by acting reliably to the creditors, and offering to extend the coal business for the family. In the same time Mayuyama family, which Hatsu married into, had gone bankrupt. The Imai family refused to aid Hatsu, for Hatsu was married out Imai family by the patrilineal marriage, and the risk was huge - Hatsu and Sōbei could not grantee to pay the money back. So the whole Mayuyama family escaped from their residence and were hiding from their creditors.

With the help of her seemingly playful and irresponsible husband Shinjirō, Asa eventually found her sister Hatsu and constantly visit Hatsu with her husband. Hatsu has adopted a life as a peasant with her family, and are quite in poverty. Later Hatsu has been pregnant, while Sōbei disappear for his depression. Hatsu gave birth to a boy, in the Shirooka's household, when she came to bring some vegetables to Asa. Yono liked the boy very much, and even come to visit Kiku to cuddle the boy, thus giving Asa some pressure to have a child. Godai later help the sisters find Sōbei in a casino, and Sōbei decided to live on optimistically, for his son Ainosuke. The sisters later bring Ainosuke to visit their dying grandfather Tadamasa, who deeply loves and trusts his granddaughter Asa throughout her childhood. They also learned that the Imai family were going to move to Tokyo, for Tokyo is becoming a promising new center of politics and economy.

After Hatsu fell pregnant with the second son, Yono began to pressurise Shinjirō to take a concubine, for Asa was childless during many years of her marriage. Shōkichi was not supportive, for the couple get along well, and Shinjirō is also ignoring the issue. Asa could not stand the pressure, and ask her husband to take a concubine. Shinjirō insincerity agreed, which made Asa desperate - she finally confessed to Shinjirō that she wants Shinjirō only have her in his lifetime. Shinjirō accepts that.

The sisters' mother Rie bore great sympathy for Hatsu and cannot watch her elder daughter suffer. She managed to persuade her husband to give a certificate of a plot of land located at Wakayama. The Mayuyama family thus proceed to Wakayama to begin their new life as tangerine orchard owners.

While Asa was actively travelling between her home in Osaka and the coal mine in Kyushu, to monitor the workers and learn about the fact of coal mining, she fell pregnant after a decade of marriage, much to her surprise. With the escort of Shinjirō from Osaka, she returned home and gave birth to a girl, whom Shōkichi named Chiyo, and spent some time with her. A discontent worker intentionally caused an accident in coal mine during Asa's time staying with her daughter. The worker was revealed to be Shinjirō's childhood friend, who was a son of the family's old employee. After his father's failure of an independent business years ago, the Shirooka family had refused to aid his father, which made his family fall to poverty. The boy expressed his hatred to Shinjirō, which made a shade to childhood Shinjirō's heart, making him fear the power of money, thus devoted to his hobbies and give his power to his wife Asa. Shōkichi and Shinjirō managed to fix the relationship to him. Soon after that, Shōkichi passed away, still wanting to see more of Chiyo's growth upon his death.

In 1878, Godai tempted Asa to Tokyo to see the advanced development of Tokyo, and also her parents and her younger brother returned from overseas. He also introduced his friend Ōkubo Toshimichi and other notable figures to Asa. Later after Ōkubo promptly being assassinated, Asa comforted Godai, and Godai swear to her that he will finish his friend's dreams.

The Soft Heart (14th week - 26th week)

In 1879, maid servant Fuyu, who was initially Hatsu's dowry maid, later accepted by Shirooka family to provide her better life, crushed on Shinjirō, while her father, who saw Fuyu and her sisters as burdens, intended to introduce a marriage for her. After confessing love to Shinjirō and willing to be his concubine (Along with Shinjirō's shamisen teacher Miwa, she was a candidate for Shinjirō's concubine to Yono) and failed, her heart broke. As her appearance with Shinjirō was spotted by the men her father introduced, she was also not able to marry. Kisuke, a manager of Shirooka family business, who has crushed on Fuyu for a long time, and advised Shinjirō to accept Fuyu's confession, proposed to Fuyu. Fuyu was touched and accepted, the couple has gone to the coal mine to monitor the workers for Asa, and they later gave birth to a daughter Natsu.

In 1880, Shinjirō's younger brother, Eizaburō got married with Sachi, a cute girl introduced to him and met his standards. Asa was not called as "Young Madame" anymore, instead of "Madame", and Yono as "Lady Old Madame". Asa offer to revolutionize the family business as a bank, which made Eizaburō and the head manager Gansuke frustrated for Asa's gained control for the business.

Miwa began to work as an inn hostess, to provide a place for business people's social life, also starting to serve foreign food. She managed to bring Godai, Shirooka couple and herself closer. Shinjirō also began managing social affairs for Osaka business people, and became more important about the family business, to help his wife. At this time, Chiyo has gain some discontent to her workaholic mother. In 1885, Godai died of poor health due to his devotion to the development of Japan and pressure of mistrust of some factions.

Asa's nephew Ainosuke, who inherit both Mayuyama and Imai family's talent, began interested in business and begged to work in Shirooka family business and study something from it. Yono and Chiyo welcomed him and let him eat with the family. In 1891, the family's comprehensive shop for goods transaction, and their investment to textile industry had gained profit. Eizaburō also had his daughter, and his core family move to a resident independent to the family. With the business expanding, Chiyo became more displeased with her busy mother and fond of her gentle aunt Hatsu.

Later Asa decided to hire some female staffs for the bank, to give young girls chance to work, and also create an advantage to other banks. Izumi Narusawa, an educator, came to seek Asa's support, to create a women's university. Asa started to socialize around to find notable people support it.

(to be added)

Characters

Cast

Shirooka family

• Haru as Asa
  • Rio Suzuki as childhood Asa
• Hiroshi Tamaki as Shinjirō, Asa's husband
• Masaomi Kondō as Shōkichi, Shinjirō's father
• Jun Fubuki as Yono, Shinjirō's mother
• Fuka Koshiba as Chiyo, Asa's daughter
  • Rio Suzuki as childhood Chiyo
• Yoshikazu Kiuchi as Shōtarō, Shinjirō's older brother
• Akito Kiriyama as Eizaburō, Shinjirō's younger brother
• Miyu Yagyū as Sachi, Eizaburō's wife
• Asuka Kudō as Keisuke, Chiyo's husband

Shirooka family's employees

• Takaya Yamauchi as Gansuke
• Hiroki Miyake as Kisuke
• Tomochika as Ume, Asa's dowry maid
• Kaya Kiyohara as Fuyu, Hatsu's dowry maid and her daughter Natsu
• Shigeo Tsujimoto as Heijūrō Yamazaki, the elite employee of the company

Mayuyama family

• Aoi Miyazaki as Hatsu, Asa's older sister
  • Manase Moridono as young Hatsu
• Tasuku Emoto as Sōbei, Hatsu's husband
• Takurō Tatsumi as Eitatsu, Sōbei's father
• Hisako Manda as Kiku, Sōbei's mother
• Daichi Morishita as Ainosuke, Hatsu's elder son
• Daigo Nishihata as Yōnosuke, Hatsu's younger son
• Reemi Terashimo as Setsu, Yōnosuke's wife

Imai family

• Shinobu Terajima as Rie, Asa's mother
• Takeshi Masu as Tadaoki, Asa's father
• Yoichi Hayashi as Tadamasa, Asa's paternal grandfather
• Shōtarō Okitsu as Kyūtarō/Tadatsugu, Asa's younger brother
• Tokiko Satō as Towa, Tadatsugu's wife

Coal miners

• Ginnojō Yamazaki as Jirosaku
• Yasuko Tomita as Kazu, Jirosaku's wife
• Zen Kajiwara as Genkichi Miyabe, coal mine manager
• Keishi Nagatsuka as Satoshi/Matsuzō, Shinjirō's childhood friend

Real persons

• Dean Fujioka as Tomoatsu Godai
• Shuji Kashiwabara as Toshimichi Ōkubo, one of the three great nobles
• Koji Yamamoto as Toshizō Hijikata, deputy leader of the Shinsengumi
• Tetsuya Takeda as Yukichi Fukuzawa, the founder of Keio University
• Yūji Miyake as Eiichi Shibusawa, the "father of Japanese capitalism"
• Hideki Takahashi as Shigenobu Ōkuma, the founder of Waseda University
• Keiko Matsuzaka as Ayako Ōkuma, Shigenobu's wife
• Yuko Oshima as Raicho Hiratsuka, feminist

Others

• Shōfukutei Tsurube II as Tomonobu Tamari
• Yoshino Kimura as Soe Kushida
• Kōji Seto as Izumi Narusawa
• Sumika Nono as Miwa, Shinjirō's shamisen teacher and inn keeper
• Shōzō Uesugi as Hikosaburo Hino, Fuyu's father
• Riho Yoshioka as Nobu Tamura, Chiyo's school friend
• Yumiko Takahashi as Funa Tamura, Nobu's mother
• LaSalle Ishii as Yozaemon Yorozuya
• Ikkei Watanabe as Dr. Kensaku Ōtsuka
• Seiji Miyane as Nobuo Furuta
• Sadatomo Matsudaira as Iwao Tominaga
• Tomomitsu Yamaguchi as Kazutomi Ishikawa

Family Tree

Note: Those who don't have a surname displayed in tree means he/she change his/her surname upon marrying someone. Characters without name were mentioned but did not appear in the drama.

Role Models

Spin-off drama "Warenabe ni Tojibuta"

The main character is Kisuke. It was broadcast on April 23, 2016.

Cast

• Hiroki Miyake as Kisuke
• Rie Tomosaka as Satsuki
• Takaya Yamauchi as Gansuke
• Tomochika as Ume
• Akito Kiriyama as Eizaburō
• Sumika Nono as Miwa
• Kaya Kiyohara as Fuyu
• Shōzō Uesugi as Hikosaburo Hino
• Jun Fubuki as Yono
• Hiroshi Tamaki as Shinjirō
• Haru as Asa

Awards

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Asa ga Kita at the Internet Movie Database