is a
Japanese television drama
, also called , are television programs that are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, jidaigeki, thriller ...
series, the 91st
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 ...
(morning drama) broadcast daily on
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 ...
from September 29, 2014, until March 28, 2015. ''Massan'' is based on the lives of
Masataka Taketsuru
was a Japanese chemist and businessman. He is known as the founder of Japan's whisky industry and Nikka Whisky Distilling.
Born to a family that had owned a sake brewery since 1733, he traveled to Scotland in 1918 to study organic chemistry and ...
and his Scottish wife
Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowan, who he met while studying abroad. American actress
Charlotte Kate Fox
Charlotte Kate Fox (born August 14, 1985) is an American film, TV, and theatrical actress and musician. She was cast as the first non-Japanese heroine of an NHK Asadora: the series ''Massan'' broadcast on Japanese television.
Education
Fox ...
stars as Ellie Kameyama opposite Japanese actor
Tetsuji Tamayama
is a Japanese TV and film actor. He joined modeling competitions and was active in ''Checkmate'' and other fashion magazines. In 2001, Tamayama debuted in ''Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger'' as GaoSilver. He continued to star in more movies and TV dra ...
as Masaharu Kameyama in a fictionalized account of Rita's travels to Japan and Taketsuru's attempts to begin the
Nikka Whisky Distilling
The is a producer of Japanese whisky and other beverages headquartered in Tokyo. It is owned by Asahi Group Holdings.
The company operates a number of distilleries and other facilities in Japan, including two Japanese whisky distilleries, the Yo ...
company. It is the first time that NHK's Asadora series has featured a non-Japanese actor in a lead role.
Plot
Osaka chapter (1st week - 15th week)
When Masaharu Kameyama returns to his hometown
Takehara
is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on November 3, 1958.
As of 2016, the city has an estimated population of 26,035 and a population density of 220 persons per km2. The total area is 118.30 km2.
Ōkun ...
in
Hiroshima prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Hiroshima Prefecture has a population of 2,811,410 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 8,479 km² (3,274 sq mi). Hiroshima Prefecture borders Okayama ...
after spending two years in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
learning how to make
whisky
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden c ...
, he brings back with him Ellie, a woman whom he met and married there. His parents are shocked to see this blonde woman arrive as their new daughter in law. Masaharu's mother, Sanae, in particular refuses to accept the marriage. But Masashi, his father, is more forgiving, even encouraging his son to pursue his dream of making real whisky in Japan, despite the fact the family has run a
sake
Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...
brewery for generations.
Masaharu takes Ellie and returns to his job at the Sumiyoshi Brewery in
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
, but encounters another problem: even though nothing was actually verbalized, Daisaku Tanaka, the head of the brewery, paid for Masaharu to go to Scotland on the expectation that he would later marry his daughter, Yūko. She initially resents Ellie, but they eventually become friends and Yūko teaches Ellie how to cook Japanese food.
Meanwhile, Masaharu tries to put together a plan so that Sumiyoshi can begin making whisky, but that is put in danger when a nationwide scandal over poorly made
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
hurts Sumiyoshi's wine business, even though there is no problem with their product. The flamboyant president of Kamoi Trading, Kinjirō Kamoi, seems to save the day with a revolutionary
advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and conc ...
promoting wine, but that is not enough for the Sumiyoshi
board of directors
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
: not only do they cancel Masaharu's whisky plan, they also push him out of the company.
Too proud to go ask Kamoi for a job, after having once rejected an offer from him, Masaharu does odd jobs while Ellie begins teaching English and singing, earning quite a reputation in the neighborhood. When Masaharu receives a telegram from his mother saying that his father is dying, they rush back to Takehara only to find that it is a ruse: Sanae is plotting to have Masaharu give up his dreams of whisky and take over the sake business from his father. After seeing his sister giving birth, and wondering if he can support Ellie once they have a child, Masaharu proposes to stay in Hiroshima and take over the sake business, but his father insists he should follow his dreams.
After the two return to Osaka, Masaharu thinks about asking Kamoi for a job, but gets offended by what he thinks is his lack of serious dedication towards whisky. Ellie devises a number of plans to bring the two together, but in the end it is when Masaharu realizes how devoted Kamoi is to making whisky in Japan that he joins Kamoi's business. Toshio, who worked at Masashi's sake brewery, comes to help.
But even then, it seems that Kamoi and Masaharu are of two minds. Masaharu insists that only
Hokkaido
is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel.
The la ...
has the right conditions to make good whisky, but Kamoi insists on building the distillery in
Yamazaki
Yamazaki or Yamasaki (written: lit. "mountain promontory") is the 22nd most common Japanese surname. Less common variants are and . Notable people with the surname include:
*Amy Yamazaki, British actress
*Arturo Yamasaki, Peruvian-Mexican foot ...
near Osaka. Kamoi has good reasons for building it there, so after several years' construction, the distillery begins operations. It is at that time that Masaharu learns that Ellie is pregnant. He also begins boarding Eiichirō Kamoi, Kinjirō's son who resents his father for what he thinks he did to his mother. Ellie miscarries and finds out that becoming pregnant again might threaten her life. Seeing this human drama, Eiichirō reconciles with his father and decides to learn whisky making from Masaharu.
Ellie and Masaharu
adopt
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
a baby girl named Emma. Whisky brewing proceeds well, but unfortunately their first batches do not sell well, threatening the entire Kamoi business. Masaharu insists on only making a true scotch whisky with "smokey flavor," so Kamoi, to make him understand the problem of sales, sends him out into the countryside to sell the product.
Hokkaidō chapter (16th week - 25th week)
In
Yoichi, Hokkaido
is a town located in the Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan.
Demographics
As of September 2018, the population of Yoichi has dropped to 18,993 people, a drop of 10% over less than a decade. The density is 160 persons per km². The total a ...
, Masaharu runs into Kumatora Morino, a former
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
who made a fortune in the
herring
Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae.
Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...
fishing business, who buys all his whisky to help him out. In Yoichi, Masaharu finds the ideal location for making whisky. It is that time that Sanae dies, after telling Ellie how wonderful a daughter-in-law she is. Realizing his responsibility in raising a family, Masaharu returns to Osaka and accepts Kamoi's plan to produce lower-grade whisky more appealing to Japanese, to the protestations of Toshio and Eiichirō. He does that, but with Ellie's prompting, quits Kamoi's company and, with the help of investors, proceeds to Hokkaido to start his own brewery.
Masaharu's plan is to take advantage of Yoichi's abundant apple
orchard
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...
s to make
apple juice
Apple juice is a fruit juice made by the maceration and pressing of an apple. The resulting expelled juice may be further treated by enzymatic and centrifugal clarification to remove the starch and pectin, which holds fine particulate in suspe ...
until the whisky ages. But when people find out he is staying at Kumatora's, they all refuse to talk to him. Apparently Kumatora's business had gone bust and he was deeply in debt, earning the resentment of everyone, including his son Kazuma. Masaharu solves the situation by buying Kumatora's , who pays off his debts. Masaharu builds his own house next to the mansion and Kazuma and Hana, Kumatora's daughter, help with the new business. Toshio again arrives to help out.
The apple juice business takes a while to take hold and Emma runs into problems at school because kids tease her for having a caucasian mother. It is only then that she finds out she is adopted. Hearing of Eiichirō's untimely death, Masaharu also starts brewing whisky before his investors allow him, and when it is done, it also does not sell well. In the meantime, Toshio marries Hana. Masaharu's business is saved, as Japan heads towards war, by the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
, which wants to secure a supply of domestic whisky.
Now operating as a designated supplier of the Navy, Masaharu's finances are finally stable, but after the
bombing of Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Haw ...
, Ellie is confronted with a major decision. Catherine, the Japanese wife of a British missionary and an old friend from Osaka, urges Ellie to leave the country with her, but Ellie decides to stay. During the war, however, she is almost arrested by the
Kenpeitai
The , also known as Kempeitai, was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945 that also served as a secret police force. In addition, in Japanese-occupied territories, the Kenpeitai arrested or killed those suspecte ...
under the false charge of being a spy, and Emma is bullied at school. Emma also falls in love with Kazuma, whom Masaharu hopes to groom as his successor, but has to bear it when he is drafted and is sent off to war. She and everyone else is shocked when news arrives of his death just before the end of the war.
When the war ends, Ellie is finally able to leave the house for the first time in years, but Masaharu's whisky again does not sell, especially since third-grade whisky has taken over the market. Satoru, the second son of Masaharu's sister Chikako, arrives in Yoichi after several years of
imprisonment in Siberia. It is he who convinces Masaharu that a good third-grade whisky is just what the average Japanese needs after the war. Masaharu, using whisky made with the special strain of
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
Kazuma developed just for whisky, succeeds in making a third-grade whisky without any
additives
Additive may refer to:
Mathematics
* Additive function, a function in number theory
* Additive map, a function that preserves the addition operation
* Additive set-functionn see Sigma additivity
* Additive category, a preadditive category with fi ...
or
coloring, which sells well. Toshio then leaves for Hiroshima with Hana to help Masashi with the sake brewery. Seeing Satoru's interest in whisky making, Ellie and Masaharu decide to adopt him.
Several years later, Satoru is married with children and Emma returns from her job in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
with a young man in tow. As Ellie and Masaharu interrogate her on whether she will marry him or not, Ellie collapses. It turns out Ellie does not have long to live. Masaharu hopes to give Ellie the wedding ceremony he never gave her—and Emma promises to marry her beau Mike—but Ellie dies. Ten years later, Masaharu produces an award-winning whisky named after Ellie.
Cast
*:
Tetsuji Tamayama
is a Japanese TV and film actor. He joined modeling competitions and was active in ''Checkmate'' and other fashion magazines. In 2001, Tamayama debuted in ''Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger'' as GaoSilver. He continued to star in more movies and TV dra ...
*:
Charlotte Kate Fox
Charlotte Kate Fox (born August 14, 1985) is an American film, TV, and theatrical actress and musician. She was cast as the first non-Japanese heroine of an NHK Asadora: the series ''Massan'' broadcast on Japanese television.
Education
Fox ...
*:
Mio Yūki
, whose real name is , is a Japanese actress, model and tarento from Fukushima Prefecture.
Career
Yūki's acting career began in 2012 when she won the 37th Horipro talent scout caravan. She was chosen from 29,521 applicants. On November 14, 2012, ...
(ages 15–18);
Haruka Kinami
is a Japanese actress who is affiliated with Horipro.
Biography
In 2001, Kinami was chosen to be the Japanese High School Baseball Championship PR schoolgirl during high school. In the same year, she won the Grand Prix at the Horipro New Star A ...
(adult)
*:
Pinko Izumi
is a Japanese actress and singer. Her legal name is , and she originally performed under the name .
Filmography
Television
* '' Onna Taikoki'' (NHK, 1981) as Asahi no kata
* ''Oshin'' as Fuji (NHK, 1983)
* '' Sanga Moyu'' (NHK, 1984)
* ''Inoc ...
*:
Gin Maeda
(born February 21, 1944) is a Japanese actor. He had a regular role in the ''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' films, beginning with the first in the series (1969), as Sakura's husband.
Filmography Film
*''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' series (1969–2019), Hiroshi S ...
*:
Naomi Nishida
is an actress. She won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2001 Yokohama Film Festival and at the 25th Hochi Film Award for her performance in ''Nabbie's Love''.
Personal life
She married a Japanese shoe designer in 2005, and gave birth to ...
*:
Yūki Izumisawa
*:
Akari Hayami
*:
Norito Yashima is a Japanese actor, TV personality, narrator, voice actor and presenter. He is currently employed by ComeCome Miniki-Na Theater Company and SIS company. He landed his first hosting job on the Fuji TV series '' Hey! Spring of Trivia'', a show he co ...
*:
Gentarō Takahashi
*:
Kiyoshi Nishikawa
*:
Saki Aibu
is a Japanese actress. She is represented by Box Corporation.
Personal life
Aibu was born in Hyōgo prefecture. On May 3, 2016, she announced her marriage through her office.
Filmography
Drama
*'' Water Boys'' (Fuji TV, 2003) as Atsumi Haya ...
*:
Yōko Natsuki
is an actress, born 24 October 1952 in Ise, Mie Prefecture, Japan. She started her career in the 1977 movie Karate for Life. One of her television roles was as Osono, a ninja in the jidaigeki series ''Yoshimune Hyōbanki: Abarenbō Shōgun.'' ...
*:
Akira Shirai
*:
Noriko Eguchi
*:
Mari Hamada
is a Japanese heavy metal and pop rock singer. Since her debut in 1983, Hamada has been known as the "Heavy Metal Queen" of Japan. Throughout her career, she has released 25 singles and 23 studio albums.
Biography Early history
Mari Hama ...
*:
Izō Oikawa
*:
Shinichi Tsutsumi
is a Japanese stage and screen actor. Internationally, he is best known for his roles as Koichi Takagi in the ''Monday'' films, Tetsuya Ishigami in the ''Suspect X'' films, and Jo Sawashiro in '' Yakuza: Like a Dragon.'' In Japan, he is best kno ...
*:
Kodai Asaka
*:
Akihiro Kimura
*:
Morio Kazama
is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 2nd Yokohama Film Festival for ''Shiki Natsuko'' and ''Yūgure made'' and at the 6th and 7th Japan Academy Prizes.
Filmography Films
* ''Wanpaku Ōji no Orochi Taiji'' (1963 ...
*:
Eiko Koike
is a Japanese actress.
Biography
Koike starred in Kunitoshi Manda's film '' The Kiss''. She appeared in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2012 television drama ''Penance,'' and co-starred in Junji Sakamoto's ''A Chorus of Angels'' with Sayuri Yoshinaga. She ...
*:
Arata Horita
*:
Yukijirō Hotaru
is a Japanese actor. He is best known for the role of Gonza Kurahashi in the ''Garo'' television franchise.
Filmography
Films
*'' Sexy Battle Girls'' (1986)
*'' Time Adventure: Zeccho 5-byo Mae'' (1986)
*''Itoshino Half Moon'' (1987)
*''Ogenki ...
*Wullie, Scottish distillery foreman (ローレンス マックラウド・マドックス):
Laurence McLeod Maddox
*Mr. Smith, Scottish distiller visiting Japan (ヘンリー ファウラー):
Henry Fowler
References
External links
*
{{Asadora
2014 Japanese television series debuts
Asadora
2015 Japanese television series endings