''Hanekonma'' (はね駒) is a 1986 Japanese television serial, the 36th

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

asadora , colloquially known as , is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode, Japanese television drama program series broadcast in the mornings by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white , starring Take ...

'' drama. Written by Koharu Terauchi, it was inspired by the life of Haruko Isomura (1877-1918), a pioneer female newspaper reporter of the Meiji and Taishō eras. Like its predecessor, ''

Oshin is a Japanese serialized morning television drama (''asadora''), which originally aired on NHK from 4 April 1983 to 31 March 1984; it is the 31st ''asadora'' overall to be produced. The 297 15-minute episodes follow the life of during the Me ...

'', an English- subtitled version of the serial, described as a "high-class soapie", was broadcast in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

on SBS, under the title ''Rin'', in 1988.

Plot

Tachibana Rin, nicknamed "Hanekonma" ( filly), grows up in

Sōma, Fukushima is a city located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 34,631, and a population density of 180 persons per km2 in 14,358 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Sōma is located in northeaste ...

. Together she and her mother scrape up enough money for her to attend a Christian girls' school in

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

Miyagi Miyagi may refer to: Places * Miyagi Prefecture, one of the 47 major divisions of Japan * Miyagi, Gunma, a village in Japan, merged into Maebashi in 2004 *Miyagi District, Miyagi, a district in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan Other uses * Miyagi (surna ...

. Though disowned by her father, she studies English and, after some early struggles, becomes a teacher. Later she marries and moves to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. After her husband's business fails, and while juggling raising a family, she succeeds in becoming Japan's first female newspaper reporter.

Development

Like a previous ''

'' early morning drama ''

'' (1983), and a subsequent ''

taiga Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruce ...

'' evening drama ''Inochi'' (1988), ''Hanekonma'' reflected women’s history and was developed by

to appeal to female audiences.

Cast

* Yuki Saito as Tachibana Rin *

Kirin Kiki (15 January 1943 – 15 September 2018) was a Japanese actress for Japanese cinema and television. Biography Kiki was born on January 15, 1943, in Kanda, Tokyo. Her father was a master of the ''biwa'' lute and a former police officer. Her moth ...

as Tachibana Yae (Rin's mother) *

Nenji Kobayashi is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 23rd Japan Academy Prize for ''Poppoya''. Kobayashi signed with Toei in 1961 and started his acting career with small roles. Filmography Film * '' Soshiki Bōryoku'' (1967 ...

as Tachibana Kojirō (Rin's father) *

Ken Watanabe is a Japanese actor. To English-speaking audiences, he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in '' Letters from Iwo Jima'' and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in ''The Last Samurai'', for which he was nomi ...

as Onodera Genzō (Rin's husband)

References

1986 Japanese television series debuts 1986 Japanese television series endings Asadora Japanese drama television series Television series set in the 19th century Television series set in the 20th century {{Japan-tv-prog-stub