Season 1 • Episode 156
LatestIn 1924, a time when both steam engine trains and early Showa Era's first train stations are just beginning. In the waiting room of Asumoe Station, a small country station, a passenger finds an abandoned baby and rushes to tell the station master, Tokiwa Jiro. The news quickly spreads and soon friends of Tokiwa's along with other townsfolk are saying that this baby must be a gift, it is Tokiwa's recently departed beloved wife reborn as a baby.
Acting
Chieko Baisho's lifetime-spanning performance is devastating.
Production
Meticulous 1920s rural Japan reconstruction, lived-in and loving.
Writing
Asadora format: decades of story, zero wasted breath.
Chieko Baisho
Moe Tokiwa / Moe Hidaka
Rumi Hiiragi
Young Moe Tokiwa
Isao Hashizume
Jiro Tokiwa
Hisako Manda
Yukiko Nakamura
Saburo Ishikura
Matsuyoshi Nakamura
Tsuyoshi Ujiki
Yasuo Yokota
Koyo Maeda
Masanori Hidaka
Mariya Yamada
Shino Ikeda / Shino Nakamura
Hiroko Nakajima
Tamiko Tomitaka
Yorie Yamashita
Chiyo Yamaoka
Chieko Matsubara
Kiyoko
Tamao Nakamura
Toshi Kawamura
Isao Natsuyagi
Ryuzo Tachibana
Mitsuko Baisho
Fuki Kawamoto
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Asadora format: NHK's morning dramas designed for working women, historically 15-min daily episodes spanning 6 months. Suzuran helped cement the genre's emotional dominance.
Rumi Hiiragi, young Moe, later voiced Chihiro in Spirited Away — Miyazaki obviously noticed her heartbreaking precocity here.
JP
