The new cast for NHK BS and NHK BS Premium 4K's "Kyotojin no Hisokana Tanoshimi Rouge - Keisho" (Sundays at 10pm), starring Hoshi Moeka as the heroine, has been announced. Nostalgic characters from "Kyotojin no Hisokana Tanoshimi Blue - Shugyochu," which aired from 2017 to 2022 and focused on the youth of Kyoto, will appear from episode 5 onwards, airing on February 1st. The worlds of the two works will cross over.
"The Secret Pleasures of Kyoto People" was a drama that aired five irregular episodes from January 2015 to May 2017. Set in the long-established Kyoto confectionery shop "Kuraya Harunobu," the story follows the beautiful young proprietress, Sawafuji Sanyako (Tokiwa Takako), as she continues to refuse arranged marriage offers from her mother, the proprietress, Tsuruko (Ginpucho), and lives a modest life. Following this, "The Secret Pleasures of Kyoto People" was recast as "The Secret Pleasures of Kyoto People Blue: Training," which ran from September 2017 to May 2022 and focused on five young people from Kyoto, with a different cast.
The currently airing series "Kyoto People's Secret Pleasures Rouge - Inheritance" is a sequel to the original story of Sanhachiko. At the end of the previous series, Sanhachiko gave up her position as young proprietress to marry Mikami Takeru (played by Ishimaru Kanji), a Parisian resident she had once had a crush on. However, in this series, she returns to Kyoto once again. Mikami suggested to Raku (played by Miyako Hoshi), his daughter from his previous marriage who grew up in Paris, that she take over a long-established Japanese confectionery shop, and Raku decided to study in Kyoto. When Raku began living with Tsuruko at Kuraya Harunobu, his mother-in-law Sanhachiko followed him to Kyoto. Although she felt that taking over a long-established shop was too much for Raku, she volunteered to act as his mentor.
◇ Will we see the growth of Kento Hayashi, Riho Yoshioka, and Katsuya Maikuma in "Blue: Training"?
The cast members who will influence Raku in various ways as he tackles the theme of "succession" have been announced, but the ones to watch are Kento Hayashi, who plays the gardener Wakabayashi Kent Kotaro, Riho Yoshioka, who plays the ceramic artist Miyasaka Yuko, and Katsuya Maikuma, who plays Shoin Eiji, who grows vegetables in Ohara, Kyoto, all of whom were main cast members in "Kyoto People's Secret Pleasures Blue: Training." They will appear in the new series in the same roles.
Kotaro, played by Hayashi, is a disciple of Kyoto's leading gardener, Miyama Seibei (Ishibashi Renji), and the son of Shiho (Akiyama Natsuko), who has already reappeared as a bar madam. He trained in his father's native England, but was called back to Kyoto by Seibei.
Yuko, played by Yoshioka, is the daughter of one of Kyoto's leading ceramic artists. After a conflict with her father, she traveled to England to find her own style of ceramics and began dating Kotaro. It will be interesting to see what happens between Kotaro and Yuko, who both trained in England, and how they grow.
Eiji, played by Maikuma, is a friend of Kotaro, who learns a certain truth from Kotaro when he returns to Japan.
Also making a comeback is Saki Takaoka, who plays Yuiko Hagisaka, the proprietress of the restaurant Hagisaka. As usual, her husband remains missing, and she appears to be running the restaurant alone.
Cast members appearing in the series for the first time include Yuichi Kimura as Seiroku Sato, a former apprentice of Seibei who now runs his own landscaping company and is a senior gardener to Kotaro, and Yuko Natori as Izuki Kakyoko, the wife of the 16th generation owner of Izu Hibiki (played by Yasunori Danta), a kimono merchant with a history of nearly 500 years, and the mother of Hiroomi (played by Denrin Sugita). She is said to hold a secret.
Although both series are written and directed by Minamoto Takashi, what new world will be revealed by the merging of the two subtly different worlds of drama?
The next episode, Episode 5, of the drama "Kyoto People's Secret Pleasures Rouge - Inheritance" will be broadcast on February 1st, and Episode 6 will be broadcast on March 1st due to coverage of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
