Kakuregiku

Official Website
www.nhk.or.jp/pd/kakuregiku

Broadcast
From 10.00 p.m., Sundays, 4 September 2016

Station
NHK BS Premium

Story
Housewife Ueshima Michiko married Shunpei, the chef of the traditional Japanese-style restaurant ‘Hanazumi’ by Lake Hamana. His family owns the well-established restaurant which dates back to the early Showa era. But she was kept entirely away from the restaurant because her mother-in-law, Kiku, said that her duty is to protect the family. Michiko has lived an ordinary life raising her two children as a mother for 17 years. Then one day, after Kiku passed away suddenly, Michiko gets a phone call from her husband who has been staying away from home with increasing frequency for some reason. He says the CEO of a sake brewery client from Kanazawa is visiting and wants her to show the person around Hamamatsu. However, the person who greets her at their meeting place is an unexpectedly beautiful woman dressed in a kimono. Yahagi Tae calls herself Shunpei’s lover and has brought the completed divorce papers signed by Shunpei. “I’ve come to take your husband,” Tae tells her. Michiko makes Shunpei an offer, “Let me be the proprietress of Hanazumi in exchange for the divorce.” However, she does not know that the restaurant has a lot of debt and will go bankrupt. So even after her divorce, she has to borrow money from Tae and hire the husband who betrayed her to be the chef. With the help of Kasai, the president of a construction company who harbours feelings for her, Michiko brings a new Hanazumi to life. Her life battle begins, but she has to face a series of difficult challenges that lie before her.

Characters
Mizuki Arisa as Ueshima Michiko
A housewife who married into the family that owns the Japanese-style restaurant ‘Hanazumi’ by Lake Hamana in Shizuoka Prefecture. She was kept completely away from all things relating to the restaurant by her mother-in-law, Kiku, who was its proprietress. So she carried out the duties of a “devoted housewife”, raising her two children and doing household chores these 17 years. However one year after Kiku’s death, she is suddenly pressed for a divorce because of the appearance of Yahagi Tae who proclaims herself the lover of her husband, Shunpei. She revives Hanazumi and starts working as its proprietress while staying with her parents … …

Maekawa Yasuyuki as Ueshima Shunpei
Ueshima Michiko’s husband. He took over Hanazumi from his father and has been its chef. He honed his skills under his mother, Kiku, who remained the proprietress even after his father’s death. He has the spirit of a true artisan, is serious and reticent. He becomes unemployed after Hanazumi goes bankrupt and presses Michiko for a divorce together with his lover Yahagi Tae. But he becomes the chef of the new Hanazumi where Michiko presides as its proprietress.

Ogawa Tamaki as Yahagi Tae
The lover of Ueshima Michiko’s husband, Shunpei. She is the CEO of a Kanazawa sake brewery called Sasanagare Sake Brewery. She lost her father at a young age, made personal sacrifices and has been working tirelessly for the sake of the company. She met Shunpei and they fell in love with each other. They have been having an affair for six years but one year after the death of Shunpei’s mother, Kiku, she brings divorce papers with Shunpei’s signature and shows up in front of Michiko.

Tsutsui Michitaka as Kasai Shintaro
The second-generation president of Kasai Construction, a construction company based in Shizuoka Prefecture. He is a friend of Ueshima Michiko’s elder brother, Keisuke, from school days and has secretly liked her from that time. After he meets Michiko again following the death of her mother-in-law, Kiku, he becomes her supporter form behind the scenes.

Matsubara Chieko as Ueshima Kiku
Ueshima Shunpei’s mother. Michiko’s mother-in-law. She built Hanazumi into a famous restaurant that is called the best in Chubu. She is a well-known proprietress with beauty and a clear mind. She does not let Michiko work at Hanazumi and always tells her to devote herself to the work of a housewife.

Watanabe Noriko as Horiguchi Chiaki
She was the head waitress of Hanazumi, but has been serving as managing the restaurant in the year after Ueshima Kiku’s death. She even becomes the guarantor of the divorce papers that Ueshima Shunpei prepared. She ends up helping out at the new Hanazumi at Michiko’s request.

Kinoshita Houka as Maeda Hidetsugu
He was the chef of Hanazumi but was poached by a rival traditional Japanese-style restaurant “Katsnami’ after Ueshima Shunpei replaced him.

Scriptwriter
Kunii Kei

Original Work
Kakuregiku by Renjo Mikihiko

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