A fashion exec meets a tea ceremony heir — sparks fly, traditions clash, and Dior gets involved somehow.
Season 1 • Episode 11
LatestImai Miki plays Midori, a fashion industry executive who is dedicated to her job but beginning to wonder if she is not missing something in life. Company colleague and former lover Yoshida Eisaku suggests she needs a husband and children and appears ready to take on the assignment. But Imai insists it is a deeper, more internal question like: "Why was I born and what am I supposed to do in this life?" Little does she know she is about to meet Koichiro, the heir to a tea ceremony empire and a young man who has had all those questions answered for him since birth. The young son of a famous Japanese tea family returns to Japan after several years abroad only to deny inheritance of the family business to work at a famous clothing company called "Dior." After falling in love with a much older woman who works at the clothing company, he finds himself after trying out other lines of work.
Costume
Fashion industry setting delivers actual Dior and exquisite kimono contrast.
Acting
Miki Imai carries every midlife crisis with devastating precision.
Production
Tea ceremony sequences are genuinely transportive.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Matsumoto Kōshirō X comes from actual kabuki royalty — casting him as a tea heir burdened by dynasty is almost too on the nose.
The Dior placement wasn't just product integration; 2000s Japanese dramas frequently used luxury brands to signal female professional ambition in ways Western shows wouldn't attempt until Mad Men.
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