The story is based on
the life of fashion designer Koshino Ayako, who passed away in 2006 at the age
of 92. Although she was a successful designer in Japan, she also
single-handedly raised three daughters who followed in her footsteps to become
internationally known designers, named Hiroko, Junko, and Michiko.
Title : Carnation
Genre : Historical, Family, Drama
Episodes : 151
Air
Time : 8:00pm – 8:30pm Every
Monday – Friday @ Astro Quan Jia HD Channel
(channel 308)
Story :
The story begins in 1924
when Itoko Ohara is a rambunctious and free-spirited 11-year-old girl. The
eldest daughter of Zensaku, who runs a small kimono fabric shop, and Chiyo, who
left her rich family to elope with Zensaku, Itoko loves the Danjiri Matsuri, but is upset
that girls are not allowed to participate. She finds a substitute in
dressmaking after she sees Western dresses for the first time when visiting her
grandparents in Kobe. After proceeding to girl's
middle school, she gets her first glimpse of a sewing machine and becomes
obsessed with working that device. Pressing her stern and obstinate father, who
objects to Western clothing, she finally convinces him to let her leave school
to pursue her dream. But she has to overcome many hurdles along the way, which
she does through her persistence, creativity, and indefatigable nature. She
first works at a shop that makes a form of men's underwear, but gets fired when
times get hard. She finally convinces a sewing machine saleswoman to teach her
Western dressmaking, and succeeds in designing and creating the uniforms of a Shinsaibashi department store,
but Zensaku still makes her work at a series of establishments after he complains
of her lack of business acumen. At first a tailor shop and then a fabric store,
Itoko greatly increases business through hard work and innovation. Convinced
that his daughter has grown and that kimono fabric is a dying business, Zensaku
retires and hands the business over to Itoko, who finally opens her own Western
dressmaking shop in 1934.
Masaru Kawamoto, who was
Itoko's co-worker at the tailors, proposes marriage and enters the Ohara family
as a mukoyōshi. The two have three
daughters while running a successful business making Western-style clothes for
men and women. But their world is profoundly changed by Japan's pursuit of war.
Their neighbors Taizō Yasuoka and his younger brother Kansuke are both drafted
and die in battle. Zensaku is badly burned in a fire at home and eventually
dies. Itoko's former schoolmate Natsu, who ran a high-class ryōtei, has to sell it when
business goes bad and then flees town to escape her debtors. Even Masaru is
drafted and sadly dies of an illness at the front shortly before the war ends.
After the war, Itoko is
able to rebound rather quickly and assists others in recovering as well. She
helps Yaeko, Taizō's widow, resume her hair permanent business, and when she
discovers that Natsu had become a prostitute for American servicemen, she
convinces Tamae, Taizō's mother, to save Natsu by hiring her. Itoko joins the
local fabric guild and meets a young tailor from Nagasaki named Ryūichi Suo.
Through various circumstances, the two come to work together and fall in
love—even though Suo has a wife and children. Resolving to solve the situation,
Itoko supports Suo in opening his own shop and never sees him again.
As time passes, Itoko's
three daughters begin to decide on their careers. Yūko, the eldest, initially
wants to go to an art college, but when Itoko challenges her on whether she
really wants to be an artist, she decides to attend a fashion design school in
Tokyo instead. Naoko, who always seems to be fighting with Yūko, decides to go
to the same school, much to Yūko's consternation—and then becomes the first to
be successful by winning a major award. Yūko returns to Kishiwada after
graduating to help her mother, but Naoko stays in Tokyo to open her own
boutique. When it begins to flounder due to Naoko's abrasive personality, the
gentler Yūko travels to Tokyo, despite being married and with a daughter, to
help out. Meanwhile Satoko, the youngest, who seems furthest removed from the
clothing world, gives up a promising tennis career to learn dressmaking under
her mother. Itoko, however, starts to feel her age as fashions change from Dior to Louis Vitton
to miniskirts, and contemplates
handing over the business to Yūko. But Kishiwada is too small for Yūko, who
starts her own boutique in Shinsaibashi. Even Satoko, whom Itoko thinks of
giving the shop to next, decides to go to London to try her design skills.
The years pass and
Itoko's daughters are solid successes in the fashion world. Yūko's daughter
Rika, however, had become a rebellious youth who flees her mother to stay with
Itoko. Through her grandmother's love, she finally finds herself and eventually
begins working for her mother. Itoko helps others as well. Succumbing to the
pleas of a son of an old friend, she designs some clothing for the elderly, and
is such a success she starts her own brand of clothing that makes her even more
famous. Doing a fashion show at a hospital, she runs into Natsu for the first
time in decades, and even meets the daughter of Suo. Working everyday into her
nineties, and even renovating her home, she collapses in March 2006 and dies in
the hospital at the age of 92. The many she helped gather at her home and watch
the Danjiri Festival from the window—while Yōko tells her sisters that a TV
network wants to do an asadora of
their mother's life.
Cast :
- Ono Machiko as Ohara Itoko
- Ninomoya Akari (二宮星) as Ohara Itoko (younger)
- Natsuki Mari as Ohara Itoko (older)
- Kobayashi Kaoru as Ohara Zensaku
- Aso Yumi as Ohara Chiyo
- Shoji Terue as Ohara Haru
- Takarada Akira as Matsuzaka Seizaburo
- Toake Yukiyo as Matsuzaka Sadako
- Kuriyama Chiaki as Yoshida Natsu
- Hamada Mari as Yasuoka Tamae
- Suga Takamasa as Yasuoka Taizo
- Inoue Hiroyuki as Yasuoka Kansuke
- Komoto Masahiro as Kinomoto
- Kitamura Masahide as Masuya Kokichi
Ono's character in the
drama, modeled after Koshino, is named Ohara Itoko. She plays the character from her teenage years to
her fifties. The story is set in the Kansai region, but Ono did not have problem
with the dialect since she is originally from Nara.
Well,
let us take some peek of the drama series “Carnation” at below.
The
“Carnation” is also has won few awards in the 72nd Television Drama
Academy Awards in Japan. The awards are listed as below :-
72nd Television Drama Academy Awards: Best Drama
72nd Television Drama Academy Awards: Best Actress - Ono Machiko
72nd Television Drama Academy Awards: Special Award - Natsuki Mari
Frankly speaking, my mother and I
are enjoying watching “Carnation” every night. The reasons are the story is
interesting and I also like the character of the lead actress “Itoko”. She is
the person that did not give up easily and always tries to overcome her
troubles to pursue her goals and finally she became a popular fashion designer.
I think it is a positive attitude for us to learn from her. :P
Well, if you would like to enter
the world of fashion, you may click “Carnation” to catch the drama series.
Enjoy watching!!! ^.^
