Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House
( 舞妓さんちのまかないさん / Maikosanchi no Makanaisan)
MyDramaList rating: 7.5/10
Hiya! Just popping in with a final March review! I decided to watch this after I saw the trailer on Netflix, and it looked so nice that I didn’t want to wait. Also, it’s directed by my favorite Japanese director, Mr. Koreeda Hirokazu, so I knew it would be worthwhile to check it out. It took me back to the serenity of Japanese culture and made me remember why I fell in love with it. Even after finishing 5 years of Japan Studies, it still taught me things I didn’t know about geisha culture. It was like I went back to this familiar place of learning about Japanese culture, so that probably added to the nostalgia. It’s a really short show with not that many events, so this probably won’t be a very lengthy review, but I still wanted to discuss it because it deserves just as much attention as any other drama series would. I’m really glad I went ahead with it, especially after finishing a couple of series that were less to my personal liking, because this drama really felt like ‘coming home’ to something. The vibe is beautifully authentic, and it felt like watching a movie with great cinematography and acting that exceeded dialogue at times. It’s been a while since I’ve felt so at ease while watching a series, and I really appreciated that feeling.
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House is a 9-episode Japanese Netflix drama, with each episode lasting about 45 minutes. The story is about two 16-year old girls and best friends Nozuki Kiyo (played by Mori Nana) and Herai Sumire (played by Deguchi Natsuki). The two of them are originally from Aomori, but after a school trip to Kyoto and meeting a beautiful geiko called Momoko (Hashimoto Ai) there, the two decide that they want to become maiko themselves as well. In the first episode, the two girls travel to Kyoto and start their adventure at the Saku House. The Saku House is one of the many houses that lodge maiko-in-training in the Gion district, which is famous for producing many maiko and geiko. The house is led by two ‘mothers’, Mother Chiyo (played by Matsuzaka Keiko) and Mother Azusa (played by Tokiwa Takako), who welcome the girls warmly. The house further lodges three maiko, Tsurukoma, Kikuno and Kotono (respectively played by Fukuchi Momoko, Wakayanagi Kotoko and Minami Kotona), and another 17-year old girl called Ryoko (played by Makita Aju), who is later revealed to be Mother Azusa’s biological daughter. She’s the only one in the house who doesn’t want to have anything to do with the maiko life. While Sumire seems to thrive in her lessons and turns out to be a natural talent, it becomes clear quite fast that Kiyo isn’t as suited for the maiko life as her friend. From the start, Kiyo seems to be more interested in helping the house’s makanai-san with her cooking preparations, and she doesn’t seem that apt to the flower arrangement or mai dancing lessons. The mai instructor informs Mother Azusa that she doesn’t think Kiyo is suited to become a maiko, and Kiyo has to decide what she wants to do – go home to Aomori and return to school there, or find something else she wants to do here. When the makanai-san sprains her back and Kiyo offers to fill in for her, everyone is astonished to find Kiyo’s incredible cooking skills. And so, at the age of 16, Kiyo ends up becoming the house’s makanai-san, meaning she is in charge of cooking for all the people in the house every day, from breakfast to dinner. This way, she and Sumire aren’t separated, and Kiyo can still continue to root for her friend while she finds her own ultimate path as The Makanai, Cooking for the Maiko House.
I looked up what the official definition of makanai was, since it doesn’t actually seem to refer to a person as much as it does to the food service itself. It stands for ‘boarding’, ‘lodging’, ‘catering’, so basically the meals that come with admission to a certain place. You could say makanai-san means something like ‘kitchen manager’, or plainly ‘person in charge of staff meals’. I find it so interesting that the Japanese language sometimes just takes an adjective, puts -san behind it, and turns it into a personification of that adjective.
As I already mentioned briefly in my introduction, it’s a short series with not many spectacular events. The main storyline is about Kiyo continuing to produce meals for the Saku House lodgers, and her increasing respect towards the food and her new workplace, and on the other hand we see Sumire develop in her path to become a maiko. The series is filled with scenes from within the house, the interactions between the maiko girls and the Mothers, alternated with scenes of the girls’ lessons, both in performing and the lessons they learn from their senior geiko.
I found out that geiko and geisha are pretty much the same thing, but geiko is the Kyoto dialect word for it. To respect the setting of the show, I will therefore keep using the word geiko in this review. Maiko is the term used for young girls who are training to become a geiko. Just thought I’d clear that up before moving on.
This show reminded me a lot of “Memoirs of a Geisha“, only without any rivalisation or scheming. I liked how the atmosphere between all the Saku House girls and women, even the ones who already graduated, was consistently warm and friendly. Everyone got along well, everyone rooted for each other, and that made it very comforting to watch. Even the people who see or saw each other as ‘rivals’ don’t actually go head to head, it never becomes tense. Sumire goes in training under the geiko she and Kiyo met on that school trip, Momoko. Momoko graduated from Saku House before and she is the number one popular geiko in their district, so the ultimate rolemodel for Sumire and the other girls. Even though Momoko is very stoic, she never becomes nasty in any way. Even when confronted with her former peer Yoshino (played by Matsuoka Mayu), even though they’re polar opposites and perfect rival material, their relationship never actually grows sour. Even though there may have been some rivalry between several people, it never leads to any real tension and everyone respects each other in their own way. That was nice to see.
One of the things I liked about this series’ concept, and here I will refer to a comment I read on My DramaList, is that the image of geisha has become such an iconic representation of traditional Japan. It has become an object of the external eye, something we look at and admire from afar. The lovely thing about this show is that it focusses on the ‘behind the scenes’ of this representation, the domesticity of the household, the interactions between the women when they’re not out as their maiko/geiko personas. For example, it was so nice to see Tsurukoma, Kikuno and Kotono bicker over trivial things, complain about maintaining their hair and laugh about everyday jokes. I thought it was so nice that this story showed the girls and women both ways, as themselves and as their personas. It just made every character so real. Even though not every character is explored in terms of backstory or reason why they ended up at Saku House, you can just tell everyone is there for their own reason, and it’s also possible to leave as soon as they decide it’s not what they want after all. The same goes for the Mothers, always portrayed wearing kimono and looking elegant, but at the same time Mother Azusa is getting it on with a school teacher and Mother Chiyo has an affinity with popular Korean actors – how hard I LOL’ed when she revealed her little Hyun Bin altar, I absolutely loved that. It was such a nice thing to give every single character some kind of quirk, like how Mother Azusa was such a ditz sometimes, how Tsurukoma loved doing impressions and how Kotono developed a crush on the delivery guy. Seeing maiko and geiko from a distance, you always wonder what kind of person could be behind that get-up, and this series really made me realize how they really are all just regular people. It really puts the geiko life in a new perspective for me, I liked that.
Because this story was very character-based, I would like to go through my analysis in the same way: character-by-character. I think diving into the characters alone will probably enable me to get all the points across that I wish to make about this show.
First of all, our girl Kiyo, the title character. I found it interesting how the title of the series focusses on Kiyo, while you could say that Kiyo was the ultimate supporting character. She was the person who stood in the background, preparing the meals while her peers went into the world as maiko. Kiyo’s role in the Saku House household became vital in its simple supportiveness, and I think that makes her a very interesting character to dissect.
We don’t find out much about Kiyo’s family. All we see is that she has been living with her grandmother (Shiraishi Kayoko) who probably had a hand in teaching her how to cook. Looking at her personality, it could very well be that she was influenced by Sumire’s drive to become a maiko more than that she actually wanted that for herself. From her very first entry into Saku House, Kiyo immediately has difficulty switching to the Kyoto-dialect maiko-style speech. She can’t seem to keep her flower arrangements upright and her body doesn’t adapt to the mai dance movements. On the other hand, she keeps noticing what people are eating, she keeps thinking about what there will be for dinner and what she’ll be able to help the makanai-san with when she’ll come by. It’s a classic case of ‘if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a wall…’, Kiyo was never meant to become a maiko, and to her it feels like a fateful experience that she encounters the work of being the makanai at the house. While everyone continously keeps asking her if she’s really happy doing this work all by herself, if she’s not having a hard time, if she’s really happy staying in the background while her friends spread their wings as maiko, she always replies with a big smile on her face that she feels like she was meant to come to Saku House to become the makanai. She ends up being the character who feels like she’s in the right place the most, while we see several maiko and geiko around her debate their choices. In a way, she becomes an inspiration for many people around her, and it ultimately even results in one of the maiko leaving the house as she realizes it’s not her true passion after all. Seeing someone be so happy and passionate about what they’re doing can result in confirming your own passion, but it can also result in a confrontation with the fact that you do not feel like that. I guess Kiyo became a sort of mirror for the people around her while she was doing her own thing, and that’s kind of amazing. I think it was very refreshing to have a title character who isn’t necessarily the center of attention, or even the main character in her own life. She’s happy doing her own thing in the background, not drawing too much attention to herself while letting her peers take the spotlight, you don’t often see that.
It wasn’t just about cooking for Kiyo, it was so much more than that. I found it very interesting and respectable to see how she was filled with this pure respect for the utensils and ingredients she worked with. They way she would watch the food so closely while she was preparing it, the little smiles it got out of her when she saw how an ingredient would react to a certain way of cooking or boiling, the genuine interest she had in learning about how each season influenced the manner of preparation. I’ve never seen a character so smitten with an occupation before, the excitement just spat off her face while she was cooking, and it was wonderful.
I guess you could say that Sumire struggled more with Kiyo’s change of plans than Kiyo herself. When she heard that Kiyo wasn’t to continue her maiko training, she seemed to be very distraught, especially since they both held such emotional value to their promise of becoming maiko together. Even when the plan was still for Kiyo to leave the house, I wondered whether Sumire would truly be able to keep going with Kiyo gone. After Kiyo became the makanai, Sumire kept worrying whether Kiyo was okay with that, especially when she rapidly made her way up to becoming a maiko herself. Kiyo would assure her time and time again that she was happy where she was, and seeing her friend smile so sincerely always managed to cheer Sumire up, but even so I often wondered what Sumire was really thinking, since it still seemed to bother her in some way.
As it happens, Sumire is truly one of the best maiko-in-training of her batch, and she’s given the chance to become a maiko sooner than anyone expected. As she’s training under Momoko, her maiko name will take one character from her senior’s name, and she eventually becomes Momohana, written with the meaning of ‘peach’ and ‘flower’. I think the name really suits her innocent beauty.
While Kiyo only had her grandmother, Sumire gets a little more family backstory, mostly in the sense that her father initially disapproves of her going to Kyoto to become a maiko. Sumire’s father visits the Saku House in one episode, where everyone eventually manages to convince him that Sumire is in good hands there and that she’s doing very well. He even shows up when Sumire, or Momohana I should say, is officially introduced as maiko and goes around the town to pay her respects. Sumire also doesn’t seem to have a lot holding her back in terms of homesickness or anything, and she initially dislikes her father for disagreeing with her choice, but she does make her peace with him in the end.
Other than that, Kiyo and Sumire have one other childhood friend back in Aomori, Nakawatari Kenta (played by Jo Kairi), a boy who’s very skilled in baseball. It initially seems like Sumire has a little bit of a crush on him, but she never vocalizes this and in the end I wondered if it was actually true. Something did seem to bother her in terms of a one-sided crush, anyways.
I found Sumire a very interesting character because she exuded nothing but pureness and innocence, but I sometimes found it really hard to gauge what she was thinking. It seemed like she had a lot on her mind at times, but she would never ‘bother’ Kiyo with it, and Kiyo always automatically managed to cheer her up. I would’ve liked to get a more detailed peak inside Sumire’s head at times, because now she remained a little mysterious, in a way. Which also added to the charm of her character, because despite her young and pure appearance, there definitely seemed to be something profound within her. I wish I could put my finger on it.
The friendship between Kiyo and Sumire is the main theme of the show. The relentless trust and comfort the two find with each other, how, despite the fact that they each go their own paths during the day, they always can’t wait to come home to each other at the end of it. How Kiyo always thinks about making something special for Sumire, how Kiyo is the first person Sumire runs to when she hears she is to become a maiko. The fact that Sumire refuses to eat mini sandwiches because she’s only going to eat the ones Kiyo has promised to make for her maiko debut. The simple comfort of having that one person who’s just always there for you, who you can always rely on. Sometimes a soulmate isn’t a romantic partner. These girls really proved that for me. I really loved how matter-of-fact that was, especially for Kiyo. When the other maiko commented on the fact that she saved a portion for Sumire or when she’s making something specifically for her, Kiyo would just smile and go like ‘You got me!’. I just found their friendship so healing, because it was so natural and genuine. The two girls had their own lives and their own daily tasks, but they always found that moment where they could catch up over a hot bowl of soup that Kiyo made at the end of the day. I just became so happy for them that they could remain friends while staying at the same house with different ambitions. It’s really one of the most pure depictions of friendship that I’ve seen in an Asian drama so far.
Momoko was another story entirely. I kept getting reminded of the character Hatsumomo from Memoirs of a Geisha, but I really loved that Momoko had an edge to her personality while it never made her an unpleasant character. As the most successful recent graduate of Saku House, Momoko is seen as the ultimate rolemodel for the current maiko and definitely for Sumire. While maintaining a certain stoicness in her geiko persona, she definitely has a mischievous and quirky streak to her in real life. We learn that she has an affinity with horror movies, for example. She takes her friend to the movies one time and teases him because he’s too scared to watch it, she’s also seen playing games at home with him later on. Something that I found interesting about her is that, while she was on top of the world in terms of her geiko career, we still see her debate whether or not to follow her heart. This friend I just mentioned, Iwai Masaru (played by Morisaki Win, or Win Kyaw Htoo) tells her he has to go to Tokyo for work and it’s clear that he means to ask her to come with him. He knows her as herself (I believe he calls her Mao-chan) and he makes her think twice about whether she really wants to continue being a geiko rather than, for example, marrying him. Although I kept finding it hard to determine what exactly she was thinking, Momoko decides to keep being a geiko, as she feels like she was born for it.
I liked how her sense of ‘rivalry’ towards Kiyo sprung from Sumire, how she was supposed to be Sumire’s trainer but Kiyo would always hold such a big space in Sumire’s heart that even Momoko felt like she was competing with her. It was nice how Kiyo managed to inspire her with the ichi-go ichi-e, the ‘once in a lifetime encounter’ idea. Kiyo told her that she would greet and thank her ingredients and utensils every single day before she started using them, because no matter the routine of her work, every single ingredient was different based on the day. That’s what made it so enjoyable for her, even if she used some ingredients multiple times, it always felt to her like she was ‘meeting’ them for the first time. I really loved that particular explanation, because it again emphasized how sincere Kiyo was about her work and how seriously she took it. She never got bored of it because she found something new and exciting about it by herself every single day, and this is what ultimately also inspired Momoko when she felt like she was in a bit of a slump (maybe, again, I’m not entirely sure what she was feeling at that point). But I thought it was really cool how Momoko used that exact quote from Kiyo later on in an interview, how she would greet every new day as if she was meeting it for the first time.
In contrast to Momoko, Yoshino really is that breath of fresh air that completely breaks the standard of geiko always having to be elegant and reserved. It was so nice to see an actual jester mingle with all those conservative-looking girls. Yoshino is such an entertainer, and it just made me so curious to how she may have looked as a geiko in full make-up performing a mai, for example. Yoshino is a former graduate who unexpectedly returns to Saku House to make herself right at home and not give anyone an actual explanation of why she’d come back. We find out eventually, when her husband comes to take her back, that she just decided she wanted a divorce since she couldn’t stand her mother-in-law anymore and so she came back to the place she felt most comfortable at. She is a former geiko who tells everyone that she has always been Momoko’s biggest rival while they were training together, while we can probably all take that with a grain of salt. Her behavior is much more exaggerated than the others girls’ and she misbehaves sometimes but it’s all forgiven because she is Yoshino, after all. I always like characters like her because there’s clearly something deeper underneath the carnival mask and that’s exactly what I felt with Yoshino too. The few times she has a sincere conversation with someone it becomes clear she is undeniably a good person. I liked the dynamic between her and Momoko a lot, also how she could crack through Momoko’s stoicness sometimes, you could tell they were actually on good terms with each other. It was also nice to see how Momoko saw Yoshino as her equal, despite her own first-ranking position as geiko. Despite the friendly bickering there is an undeniable sense of respect between the two of them, and that made their relationship very interesting to watch as well.
Mother Chiyo is the older already nearing 70, I believe) ‘mother’ of Saku House, a very serene but easygoing lady with, as I mentioned before, a hidden affinity for Korean actors. Maybe with actors in general, because it’s also revealed her first love was a famous kabuki actor named Bando Yajuro (who made a guest appearance as himself). I kept wondering how she came to host at Saku House, but I guess it happened after she graduated from being a geiko herself. As far as I understand she never got married or had children, so I would’ve liked to get some more information on her life and past as a former geiko. I did like the little story and catch-up session she got with the kabuki actor, and how they established that while they may have had a crush on each other, they never went along with it and that’s the reason why they could still meet up and talk like this after 60 years had passed.
Mother Azusa was one of my favorite characters because of her quirkiness. When Kiyo and Sumire first enter Saku House, they are warned by Ryoko that Mother Azusa isn’t as nice as she seems and that they should run away while they still can, but Mother Azusa is actually super kind! Maybe it was just Ryoko trying to scare the newbies away and simultaneously expressing some disdain for her own mother. Anyways, Mother Azusa was appropriately strict at the right moments, but I don’t think there was even a moment where she got genuinely angry, she always seemed very concerned for the girls’ futures. Whether she had to tell Kiyo about her unsuitability to become a maiko or tell Sumire about her rapidly nearing maiko graduation, she always took the person in question apart to have a sincere talk with them. When she saw one of the maiko sitting by herself, clearly contemplating something, she would always ask if anything was wrong, she was always there to support in whatever way and that made her a really likeable character. I really liked that scene where she sat Sumire down to tell her about her fast-nearing promotion to maiko and went ‘I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?’ and the bad news was just that she’d eaten Sumire’s snack from the fridge, lol.
Mother Azusa clearly had been through her own share of experiences, both good and bad. If I understand correctly she had to quit being a geiko after giving birth to Ryoko but still decided to remain within the same world to support future maiko, even though this made her relationship with Ryoko quite awkward as she now acted like a ‘mother’ to her maiko ‘daughters’ more than she could act like a mother to her real daughter. It’s only towards the end that Ryoko finally calls her ‘mom’ one time instead of ‘Azusa’ and we see how happy this makes her. In the meantime, Mother Azusa is clearly forming a bond with this neighborhood teacher, Mr. Tanabe (played by Iura Arata). They’re often seen taking strolls together and it’s clear that they’re both fond of each other. Mr. Tanabe also admits that he’s planning on eventually proposing to Mother Azusa. It was nice how Ryoko, in her own way, gave her blessing to him.
I thought Ryoko was an interesting character because she stood in such stark contrast to the rest of Saku House’s lodgers. She’s kind of scruffy-looking, and she makes more snarky and uninterested remarks than anyone else, but she seems to be the kind of girl who hides her true feelings behind a tough mask. It initially seems like she’s looking down on the friendship between Kiyo and Sumire, but it turns out she’s actually envious of having that kind of person for herself. Once she comes to terms with her own honest feelings, it becomes easier for her to show more affection and gratitude towards people in the household, including her own mother. I’m not sure if Mother Azusa was first married or that Ryoko is an illegitimate child, but in any case, her biological father has a new family of his own now. I couldn’t make out if the father actually knew about her or not. She goes to see him one time but doesn’t actually approach him – she just watches him with his new family and mentions she doesn’t need to say hi. I’m also not sure what her true feelings towards her mother are, except that she doesn’t really feel close to her. I just got the impression that Ryoko, being surrounded by this world she had no affinity with whatsoever, felt very lonely not to have any peers around her with whom she could talk about her own life. I guess that’s what made her so envious of the friendship between Kiyo and Sumire, and it made her wonder if she’d ever meet such a person for herself as well. It was nice getting a little insight into her mind, into how alone she felt. I’m just glad she came to terms with her situation eventually.
I’m not sure in which order I should list the three maiko girls, but I’ll just go with Tsurukoma, then Kikuno, then Kotono. Tsurukoma stands apart because of her glasses. Maiko aren’t supposed to wear glasses, so everytime she wears them in the house it just makes the duality of her real self and her maiko persona that much clearer. I’m not sure if she was actually the oldest of the three, but it did feel like that. Despite the fact that she seemed to be doing well and that she was performing steadily enough, being confronted with both Kiyo’s and Sumire’s perseverence and determination in their respective paths, Tsurukoma comes to the conclusion that becoming a geiko isn’t her real passion after all and she leaves the house in the final episode. Throughout the show she probably has the most interaction with Kiyo, she seems to be interested in her the most and Kiyo also at some point makes something special for her while the others are still sleeping.
Tsurukoma can be seen as the most quirky of the three maiko girls, as she leans the most towards being an entertainer, including doing impressions. I really liked how her name seemed to be the most individualistic too, I wonder from which senior she received a character for her name. For Kikuno and Kotono, I just assumed they both got the ‘no’ from Yoshino, but I’m not sure as Momoko and Yoshino are the only two former geiko shown in the series.
Kikuno doesn’t get as much storyline, but she is mostly depicted as being the strictest out of the three girls, especially towards Kotono. She always scolds Kotono for spacing out or being late for something, but it’s clear that she is just concerned for her.
I think it’s safe to assume that Kotono is the youngest of the three, as she still seems to be the most immature in terms of experience. I thought it was cute how she developed an innocent crush on the chubby delivery guy, and how there was some potential budding romance between them as he was quite taken with her as well. When confronted with questions of the others about what in the world she saw in him, Kotono only commented that the guy had ‘such sincere/kind eyes’. That was really sweet.
In one of the final episodes, a new girl named Riko (played by Narumi Kanon) joins Saku House as a new aspiring maiko. When she appeared I realized she was shown once before, very briefly, when Kiyo and Sumire go to pray at an altar or statue, I don’t remember what it was for but Riko is shown at that statue before them, rolling the stone ball very aggressively before her school friends tell her to make way for the two girls standing in line. Riko also initially doesn’t seem like maiko material at all, she has a bigger build and a very loud and energetic way of speaking. Her mother also seemed to be a bit unsure, lol. I liked it when Mother Chiyo went ‘you took in another odd one, didn’t you’ to Mother Azusa, haha. This only happens in the second-to-last episode so Riko doesn’t actually get much development, but she’s taken into the house without any further prejudice from anyone. I guess it also just proved how welcoming Saku House was to anyone willing to make an effort, and how they never judged new aspirant girls based on their appearance.
I just have a couple of people left that I want to mention, people that were linked to, or helped out at Saku House and appeared occasionally as regulars.
First of all, of course, Mr. Tanabe. I don’t exactly know how he was related to Mother Azusa, he was depicted teaching just once so I assumed he was a teacher, maybe at Ryoko’s school? I’m not sure. Anyways, he appears a lot at the Saku Bar and is often taking walks with Mother Azusa. It seems like he is familiar with all the maiko girls too, and always joins to watch performances.
I really liked the mai instructor lady, named oshisho-san Sakurai Kimie (played by Toda Keiko). She was strict during the lessons, but she really thought about what would be good for the girls and I liked how she had that running gag of her commenting on the food they brought her on her breaks, lol. She made me laugh multiple times, I just thought she was a really funny character, but she never lost her sincerity either.
Besides her, there were Mr. Takeshi and Mr. Hiroshi, father and son, who occasionally helped out. When they needed to change the window frames for the winter in the house, for example, they would come and change them. On the other hand they also helped the girls change into their kimonos for performances and such. I’m not sure what exactly their ‘profession’ was, but it was clear that their family had been helping out at Saku House for several generations. It really just made all the people, not just the lodgers of Saku House itself but also the people who helped out regularly, seem like one big family.
And then there was the Saku Bar. At some point I thought that the bar was connected to the Saku House, as sometimes Mother Chiyo or Mother Azusa would enter the bar through a door in the back. Anyways, the bartender was Mr. Ren (played by Lily Franky). He seemed to also be part of the Saku family, although I wasn’t sure in what way exactly. He also seemed to be on good terms with Ryoko, and she was the only person sharp enough to see that he would have difficulty with the fact that Mother Azusa and Mr. Tanabe would get married – although I wasn’t sure whether that meant he was secretly in love with Mother Azusa or with Mr. Tanabe, lol. In any case, he was always a very loyal and familiar figure. In the end, during Momohana’s maiko debut, he was the one who offered her a drink while mentioning something along the lines of ‘this one is for one-sided love’, and this really made me wonder about Sumire’s feelings, and if that was really about Kenta.
Finally, I wanted to give a final mention to Mr. Seino (played by Omi Toshinori) who was in charge of taking pictures of the maiko and geiko with an analog camera. He seemed to be a personal fan of Tsurukoma, as he was really sad to see her go and he even gave her an entire photo album of pictures he’d taken of her during her life as a maiko.
All of these people felt like they were part of the family, everyone was constantly encouraging each other and that was really nice.
One theme that came back with several characters but still remained a little vague, was the one of romance and marriage prospects. While it wasn’t particularly discouraged to be in love as a maiko, fact remained that they wouldn’t be able to remain maiko or geiko after they got married or had a child. I’ve always felt that this has to do with the fact that geiko should remain ‘pure’ and ‘untouched’. On the other hand, former geiko like Yoshino and Mother Azusa were also not shamed for quitting being a geiko after deciding to do either of these things, so I’m not sure how heavy it truly weighs. In any case, I just wanted to write a bit about the feelings that Mother Azusa, Momoko and Sumire may have been carrying when it came to romance and marriage prospects.
Mother Azusa didn’t seem to have much trouble envisioning getting together with Mr. Tanabe. As she was already no longer an official geiko, I don’t think it would’ve been such a big issue for her. I mean, even Mother Chiyo at one point asks her if she’s really okay with staying at Saku House because she herself wouldn’t mind if Azusa decided to marry Mr. Tanabe and move out. We don’t actually get to see the relationship between Mother Azusa and Mr. Tanabe evolve in the end, but it does end on a positive note in terms of Ryoko giving her blessing to the both of them. I’m not sure if that was indeed something that stood in their way of confirming their feelings, but I think it definitely helped them, especially Mr. Tanabe.
In Momoko’s case, it seemed to be a bit more complicated. I sometimes found it hard to determine what she was thinking. I think the whole concept of experiencing romance while you’re in the occupation of geiko is pretty complicated, as you can’t really afford to get distracted and you remain to be the object of other people’s admiration, so there’s no easy way to get away from it once you’re actually in it and making your way to the top. I did feel like Momoko had feelings for Iwai, and that maybe a part of her did want to stay with him, or rather, wanted him to stay with her, but she just couldn’t give up her life as a geiko. I also didn’t feel like she wanted to quit, because she mentioned a couple of times before that she really felt like she was meant to be doing this. So when Mother Azusa asked her if she wanted to quit and she suddenly said ‘I don’t know’, I was quite surprised. I couldn’t figure her out completely, but she did eventually stick with being a geiko, I guess because she really couldn’t bring herself to quit, after all. But it was hard to figure out her true feelings for Iwai, since she never spoke them out loud.
This also went for Sumire, I felt like she was quite similar to Momoko in that sense. She just had this really ambitious and genuine attitude towards becoming a maiko, but in-between we would get flashbacks from her about things they’d been through with Kenta, and just generally things that suggested that she was thinking about him. She would keep reading the New Year’s card he’d sent to her Kiyo and her. At first, I honestly thought there would be a kind of love triangle between her, Kiyo and Kenta. Sometimes it seemed to me as if Kenta had a crush on Kiyo and Sumire was having a one-sided crush on Kenta but could still never bring herself to feel resentful towards Kiyo. I’m not sure what it was because, again, it was never spoken out loud. But there was definitely something about Sumire, something was still bothering her deep down. I really wonder what it was.
The above paragraph brings me to a separate comment about the dialogue in this drama. I’ve mentioned it briefly in my introduction before, but I just loved how this drama sometimes resorted to silence and facial expressions rather than dialogue. The dialogues in itself were all really good, but sometimes the characters managed to convey so much by doing so little and I loved that. Especially the expressions shared between Kiyo and Sumire, like literally no words were required.
The other side of that is that some things were not expressed or explained as clearly as I would’ve liked. Although the charm of keeping certain messages hidden spoke to me in some way, in the end I did find it a pity that I couldn’t figure out what feelings and thoughts for example Momoko and Sumire were holding back. I’m not always the sharpest person so sometimes I need things spelled out to me, lol. Although I loved that sometimes silence was worth more than words, I would’ve liked some things to be explained in more words, haha.
Oh, one more character that I want to mention because I kept wondering about her: Yumi (played by Miura Rina). I thought that she was from a different house, because Kiyo and Sumire often talked with her on the balcony where they’d hang their laundry and Yumi was on the balcony that belonged to the other house. However, one time she did manage to come into Saku House and was sitting on the staircase. She didn’t actually live and eat in Saku House, but it seemed like she was also training to become a maiko. Until the end I wasn’t quite sure where she came from/belonged to. She remained a bit of a mystery to me. I initially thought she was just another maiko-in-training who they kept running into, but her appearances kept making me think there was more to her character.
I really like how this series places the traditional theme of maiko and geiko in a modern day setting. To make a series like this in 2023 feels like it’s meant to be educative. It just shows that even in modern times, Japan will always hold on to their rich culture and tradition that links to their history. Geiko will always be a symbol of pureness and gracefulness, and I found it very refreshing to see how learning the traditional arts of mai and flower arrangement still attract young girls these days, it proves how truly timeless it is. I’ve never been to Kyoto before but I can definitely see the appeal in taking a trip there and wandering through Gion, I bet it might feel like going back in time in a way. I love how they can still make these traditional themes so appealing for modern audiences, the whole vibe of the series really drew me in from the start.
As I anticipated, I was able to apply most of my comments on this series in the above character analyses, so now it’s time for some cast comments! I really liked the fact that I knew almost none of the actors before, I loved discovering all these new talented people. All in all I found the acting very nice and realistic, they truly created a very authentic vibe and I liked all the characters in their own way.
I didn’t even recognize her, but Mori Nana actually appeared in 3-nen A-gumi! I even gave her a special shoutout in my review because of her amazing natural acting there! She really impressed me in The Makanai. She portrayed the simplicity of her character so well, her easygoing nature and how well she naturally adapted to working in the Saku House. Her friendship with Sumire was so natural that verbal confirmation wasn’t needed, and it really seemed like she was genuinely happy where she was. She didn’t have any dark thoughts or heavy feelings, it seemed. I can’t remember the last time I saw such an uncomplicated main character in a show. Her genuine smile and unbiased kindness just makes it impossible to dislike her. I am looking forward to seeing more series with her, I believe there are a few left on my watchlist, but she definitely made me realize what I already briefly noticed in her appearance in 3-nen A-gumi, this girl has something so naturally charming about her and her acting is incredibly realistic, almost as if it’s unscripted. I really liked her performance.
I hadn’t seen Deguchi Natsuki before, but I really liked her in The Makanai. She really was a perfect fit for the role of Sumire. She has this incredibly pure and innocent youthful beauty about her. We get to see the journey of such a young girl growing into a maiko and it was really interesting to see how she, despite her attachments to Kiyo, still managed to pave her own way and remain determined throughout the whole ordeal. While I thought her quiet acting was amazing, as mentioned before I would’ve liked to get some more insight in Sumire’s thoughts. The only narration we ever get in the story is from Kiyo, and Sumire seems to keep most of her thoughts and feelings to herself. I liked that she really exceeded being just ‘the best friend’ of the title character, because the story was as much about her as it was about Kiyo. I was really impressed with her subtle acting, half of the time it didn’t even seem like acting because she was just immersed in taking in all the impressions around her. The way her eyes lit up when she was watching Momoko perform, for instance, or how she took in everything during her lessons. It really felt like watching a documentary about her actually training to become a maiko. She was amazingly natural.
By the way, not me being shook at the fact that both Mori Nana and Deguchi Natsuki are actually 21 years old?! Honestly, when they said they were 16 in the show I didn’t even believe them, lol. Especially Deguchi Natsuki looks incredibly young for her age. I’m shook.
I kept trying to convince myself that I knew Hashimoto Ai from something, but it turns out I don’t. She looks so familiar, though! Anyways, wow. This woman is a literal piece of art. In her geiko outfit, she literally looked like she stepped out of a painting. I am not surprised at all that she’s a model in real life, being all tall and lanky and gorgeous. Even her face, the sharp nose and chin, everything about her is so aesthetic, I can’t even fathom it. Once again, a perfect casting choice, she really made Momoko the mysterious yet quirky character that she was. I was very impressed with her performance.
I kept thinking about how much Matsuoka Mayu reminded me of the Korean actress Seo Jung Yeon for some reason, but I now realize that I’ve seen her before in Mondai no Aru Restaurant. I would never have guessed that was her. In that series, she was basically what Ryoko was like in The Makanai! Admittedly, that was almost 10 years ago so of course she’d have aged, lol. Anyways, I really liked the vibe that Yoshino brought with her, it was nice to see a variety in personalities, because that really made you realize how any kind of person could be suited to become a geiko in their own way. If there had been more episodes, I definitely would have liked to see a flashback of the time when Momoko and Yoshino were still in training, that would be really nice. I liked how natural the entertainer persona came to her, too.
Apparently I’ve seen Matsuzaka Keiko before in Hayako-sensei, but it has been too long ago for me to remember her from there. I was sure I probably knew her from somewhere because again, she looked really familiar. I liked how quirky Mother Chiyo was, already in her affinity with Korean actors, lol, that just made her super relatable all of a sudden. But also in her gracefulness towards that kabuki actor who was her first love. I was curious to know a little more about her backstory, but the way she was depicted now was also nice because of her simplicity. She was a very nice character, maybe not as much of a mother figure as Mother Azusa, but she really cared about all the girls and held good relationships with everyone. She made Mother Chiyo into a very quirky lady, even at the age of 70!
Tokiwa Takako was another one of those actresses that I swore I knew from something, but it turns out I don’t. How come all these people have such familiar faces? Anyways, I really loved Mother Azusa. I kind of expected her to be really strict or something, but I loved that they gave her such a ditzy quirk. The thing with her eating Sumire’s snack and accidentally giving her the wrong comb to wear, she was just so human and I loved it. I would’ve liked to see Mr. Tanabe actually go on one knee, but I guess we’ll just have to imagine that happening for ourselves. Mother Azusa was a really kind person, she obviously cared about all the maiko in her care as much as she cared about Ryoko, although she may have been a little awkward in expressing her feelings towards her own child. I thought it was nice to give her a backstory like that. While all the characters were always smiling and seemingly happy, you just know that in their time, they must’ve also gone through a lot of stuff, not all of it nice. I love how she portrayed Mother Azusa as such a relatable character.
Makita Aju is actually a year younger than Mori Nana and Deguchi Natsuki, I really wouldn’t have thought that. I haven’t seen her in anything else before, but I really liked her natural acting as well. She was someone who’d usually kind of glance down rather than directly talking to people, and whose words may have come across as a bit more harsh than she would’ve meant. I think she portrayed the rebelliousness layered by loneliness in Ryoko very well, I felt for her at times because it seemed like she didn’t have that many people she could rely on, like even friends she could meet up with. It was interesting that there was one character like her within that house, at least one person who kept a distance from it all, who stayed away but was still accepted into the family. I think she did very well, I think in hindsight Ryoko may have been one of the most interesting characters to me.
Fukuchi Momoko is going on my list of actresses to keep an eye on. I LOVED Tsurukoma. There was just something about her that immediately made me like her, I don’t know what. It was so nice seeing this girl with her maiko-hairstyle and these old-fashioned strap-connected glasses, it immediately made her this ‘character’, like you could immediately see the duality of her as a person versus her being a maiko. Apart from the fact that I find her super pretty, despite her youthfulness there was something wise and profound about her face (I see that she’s indeed a bit older than the others, she’s 25 in real life), and I found it a refreshing choice to make Tsurukoma eventually decide to quit being a maiko. I hadn’t seen it coming, but it made her seem all the more mature to me for realizing that there was more for her to discover, that this wasn’t her final destination. Her performance entertained me to no end, I really loved all of the scenes she appeared in. I really hope I’ll get to see more dramas with her, I believe there are some left on my watchlist. Looking forward to that!
Wakayanagi Kotoko in turn reminds me of a younger version of Korean actress Seo Ji Hye. Again, she looks so familiar but I haven’t seen her in anything before. I would’ve liked to know a bit more about Kikuno’s story, but I liked that the three maiko girls all had their own personality and that they all still worked really hard to achieve their goal. Kikuno clearly took care of Kotono most of all, and at some point I even thought they might be actual sisters, because their names were also kept so similar. That didn’t seem to be the case, though, so maybe she just took her role as ‘older sister’ very seriously. I liked her performance.
Apparently this is Minami Kotona’s drama acting debut! According to MyDramaList she’s working on one movie right now, but she hasn’t done anything else before. It seems like she’s the youngest of the bunch too, she’s only 16 years old. In the series they really made them all look practically the same age, so that’s cool. She was probably the character closest in age to Kiyo and Sumire when they entered the Saku House and it felt like she also hadn’t been a maiko for that long yet, maybe she’d just made her debut. What I’ve said about most all people until now also goes for her: I really liked how naturally she acted and the slightly ditzy side to her also suited her very well. I loved how, when they were filming that horror movie sequence, she was just walking around with that bald patch on and even opened the door to the delivery guy without even feeling a little bit ashamed, haha. She’s really cute, too!
Iura Arata is such a familiar face by now that I’m not even surprised to see him anymore, haha. I feel like he’s appearing in a lot lately, mostly Netflix series. I know him from Rich Man Poor Woman, Tantei no Tantei, Unnatural and I recently saw him as a guest appearance in First Love: Hatsukoi. It was nice seeing a slightly less arrogant or grumpy character from him for a change, haha, he really played Mr. Tanabe very sympathetically and I was just waiting for him to officially confess to Mother Azusa. I liked his character, how we was kind of adopted into the Saku House family even though he also stood outside of it for the most part. He was just a very familiar presence to everyone. It was nice to see him in this.
Lily Franky is such an iconic actor, and this is actually the first time I’ve seen him appear in a drama series! I’ve only ever seen him in movies, and specifically Koreeda Hirokazu movies before. I guess he couldn’t leave him out of this one, either. Apparently he’s done plenty of drama series before, I’ve just never seen them, lol. Some movies I’ve seen of him are Like Father, Like Son (Koreeda), Our Little Sister (Koreeda), Shoplifters (Koreeda) and I recently saw him in the movie Call Me Chihiro, which is also on Netflix. I really like him, he always adds such a nice touch to all the characters that he plays, so it was nice to see him here as a friendly bartender.
I think I’ll keep it at that for the cast comments! I think the acting overall was really nice and realistic, and it just gave the whole series such an authentic feel to it. Everyone acted out their lines so naturally, and the way the show was structured felt like a documentary about these girls’ lives, that’s how unscripted it sometimes felt. When I say ‘unscripted’ I just mean to say that it felt that they were not following a script. I liked how we just fall into the story, it is also authentic in the way it introduces you to the characters without actually providing a profile, like ‘name, age, role in the house’. You really get to know the characters according to how often they appear through the story and what they tell you about themselves. In this way, we get to know more about some characters and less about others and that in itself also makes it really realistic.
I guess the only criticism I have is that it is so short and there is still so much I want to know. There are still a lot of characters I want to know more about, I want more backstories. I want to see Mr. Tanabe propose to Mother Azusa, I want to see some flashbacks from Momoko’s and Yoshino’s time in the house, I want to see how Riko will do in her training, etc. I’ve just gotten genuinely curious about everyone’s story, and leaving me hanging has got me feeling mixed. It’s been a great watch and I don’t even fully blame it for leaving several things open (Japanese movies and series tend to do that, anyway), but I guess the fact that I felt like I need more was exactly because of how good it is. It’s just gotten me invested in this big Saku House family so much that I don’t want to leave so soon. The lack of exciting events may also induce some criticism but on the other hand, slow-paced daily life-based stories are very much my thing, and it’s also what I love about Mr. Koreeda’s films. So yeah, my only criticisms exist because of how much I enjoyed the show. I really hope Japan keeps making these kinds of shows, because so far I’m really liking them.
If I had to sum up all the things I liked about this show, it would go something like this: I liked how it managed to balance the traditional aspect of the geisha culture with the respectful preparation of Japanese food. The food depicted was absolutely mouth-watering and it made me want to get a bite of every single thing Kiyo made. It’s a story about true friendship, friendship that perseveres through unforesoon circumstances, friendship made stronger by genuine mutual care and encouragement. The way everyone rooted and was genuinely happy for each other when they managed to advance on their path, even if it caused some inevitable envy. I loved how every character played an important role, and how it was emphasized how maiko and geiko truly are nothing without the additional support of their seniors, teachers and helpers. The support system they have behind the scenes is incredible. It taught me so much about Japanese culture, even when I already thought I’d learned most of what there was to learn. It actually made me want to visit Gion, Kyoto and feel this sensation for myself, see actual maiko and geiko with my own eyes, because now I feel like I can bring up more respect and understanding for them than before. The story is apparently based on a manga series, but they managed to bring it to life so well that it might as well have been a reconstruction or a documentary of a geiko‘s personal experience or something. I just loved the authenticity, the Kyoto-dialect that was mostly used, the ookini-s and the otanomoushimasu-s. And I loved how it was about inclusion. The fact that Saku House admitted girls from all backgrounds and personalities, even ‘odd ones out’ like Riko, because they never judged anyone based on their appearance or behavior. It was all just so nice, so welcoming, so warm. Also, I’m absolutely craving Japanese food now.
This show is definitely a gem amongst all the new stuff that’s been coming out on Netflix these days. I am glad I was able to see a drama series from Mr. Koreeda Hirokazu after only having seen films from him, but this might just as well have been one of his films, the style was unmistakable. The acting was great, the vibe was alluring, it was really my kind of series. The only thing I can comment is that it wasn’t very eventful, as in, dramatic, and I would’ve loved to see much more content, but I also can’t say that these points make the series less good. It’s an ichi-go ichi-e, a one of a kind gem, and that’s my final word on it.
I’ve decided that it’s time to catch up on some more recent hyped releases before I go on with my watchlist, because they keep piling up and I can’t keep up with them if I let them go by for too long. So up next is going to be a very recent newly hyped romantic comedy, I’m really curious!
Until then, bye-bee!
