Episodes: 297 x 15-minute episodes
Sub-genre: Human drama
Summary:
Duration: 00:15:13
Bit rate: 651kbps
Video Format: RMVB
Size: 512x384
Bit rate: 585kbps
Frame rate: 24.00fps
Audio Format: cook
Subtitles: Chinese
Synopsis:
The story starts off in present time 1983. Instead of attending the opening festivities for the 17th store, Shin Tanokura decided to instead take a train trip. Her family is in a frenzy, not knowing where she might be. Oshin's grandson, Kei, remembers the story of the kokeshi doll she once told. Based on a hunch from the story, he goes on a trip of his own and catches up with Oshin. From there, the two of them begin a journey back, traveling through various parts of Japan where she once lived years earlier, and started remembering the difficult times she faced in her life.
In 1907, Oshin, at seven years, is sent off by her father to work as a babysitter, in order to support her family. With the physical and verbal abuse by her employer, Oshin insisted on sticking it through for the sake of her family. However, when she is accused of stealing money, she runs away and for days suffers through snow blizzards as she walks back home to be with her mother. But the blizzard is so rough on her, she nearly freezes to death. She is rescued by a man called Shunsaku, a Japanese Imperial army soldier turned deserter, a self described "hunter". She stays with him during the long winter until the snow melts. Once the blizzard subsides, they are found by an army unit and Shunsaku is shot and killed.
She is then esorted by the soldiers to her village and asked alone by a soldier in a small hut with other soldiers guarding the hut from the outside if any other persons were with them. Oshin recalls tells him that no one else was with them. A senior soldier then comes into the hut, and the soldier reports his findings then walks out. The senior says the unit will esort her home, but she declines the offer mentioning she knows the way and walks home on her own.
Upon her return to her home, Oshin is once again sent back out this time to Kaga-ya in Sayaka to work as a babysitter. She makes good friends with the daughter, who is the same age as Oshin, and stays at the Kaga-ya until she turns 16. But even after returning home once again, her father wants her to once again go back out and work as a bar maid. Realizing that the bar maid job is a cover for prostitution, Oshin runs off to Tokyo to follow her older sister Haru's dream of becoming a hair stylist.
While as a hairstylist, she met her husband Ryuzo and they were married. While they survived the Great Earthquake of 1923, their house and business was destroyed and they had to return to her in-laws house. As the marriage was not approved by her mother-in-law Kiyo, Oshin suffered great hardship while living with them. She broke her arm while attempting to escape and even lost her soon-to-be-born baby because of the hard labor she had to endure working in the fields. She finally left her in-laws with her child but without her husband and attempted to rebuild her life.
Subsequently, she found out she could no longer be a hair stylist because of her broken arm. She found jobs as the owner of a small bar-restaurant, pastry chef and even a peddler of fresh fish. Her business boomed and with her husband's help, Oshin established a small but bustling raw seafood shop.
The story continues right up to present 1983, and follows Oshin's adult life as she becomes a wife, raises children of her own, and experiences real-life events - including earthquakes and World War II.
**** Special thanks to the original ripper ****