Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No557

Photo from NHK:http://www.nhk.or.jp/hanako/index.html

We have talked about Gunshi Kanbei, the drama from NHK in our last newsletter. 

This time, we like to talk about `Hanako to Anne'(Hanako and Anne), the NHK morning TV serial story. The story is about Hanako Muraoka, a woman translter who translated `Anne of Greengables', the famous and bestselling novel by a Canadian author, Lucy Maud Montgomery. The novel is considered to be for children but Anne Shirley is such a charming girl with intelligence and wit. I remember reading this novel and this novel and `Daddy Long Legs' were my favorite books.

People did not know about Hanako Muraoka- it seemed many people thought Hanako as a daughter of beourgeois who has been to a girls mission school of the time, but actually, she was from a very poor tenant farmer's family. The eccentric father wanted his daughter Hana to go to school to study. He was the one who tought Hana to read and sent her to a girls' mission school in Tokyo.  She did not fit in such environment first, and teachers were puzzled also but gradually she has been known as a hardworker. She studied English so enthusiastically and became a great translater after all.

The above photo is a scene from her wedding- her husband was a son of printing company. They met each other when she was working as an editor.

Her life was not easy but she created her own future by her guts! Another theme of this drama is a friendship with her friend for life, Renko who became a famous Tanka poet Byakuren. (Byakuren literally means `white lotus'). Renkos's marriage was a political marriage for convenience of her family but she left her husband(oil magnate)and eloped with her young lover, a script writer. This lover's friend somehow contributed her Renko's letter to newspaper. Leaving husband and running away to young lover- this was the most sensational news at that time. The story has been dramatized but the basic story is not fiction. Hanako and Renko, they both had lives with such a drastic events.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/hanako/story/index.html

You can scroll down to the bottom - the beginnng and now it is 17th week. Hanako and her husband just found out Renko has eloped to her young lover by the newspaper.

As the story goes, the kimono they were wearing give us fun to watch. You can tell which is Hanako and which is Renko(Byakuren). Renko's kimono is so fancy and pretty. She does not wear meisen but Hanako and her sisters and friends all wear Meisen.

The top photo of this articel, you can see how black furisode has been worn. Hanako's family is a poor farmer, and her husband's family is quite different-sons studied abroad and they were rather dandy and fashionable type.

Like Anne Shirley, Hanako went the way as she chose, no matter how hard her background was. The story and also their kimono- we can enjoy this drama very much.

I hope you can enjoy seeing Hanako and Renko's kimono fashion.