Bōshi


Bōshi was a Japanese television special about an elderly man who runs an old haberdashery in Kure. The drama was produced by NHK Hiroshima in 2008 for their 80th anniversary and received the valuable TV drama award at the 63rd Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs Art Festival.

Plot

In the port city of Kure, there is an old hat shop. Shunpei, the elderly shop owner, is proud of his career as a skillful hatter, with famous clients such as fleet admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. However, as time goes on, the number of orders decreases and his memory begins to fail him. Shunpei occasionally has to ask his security guard, Goro, to help him find his scissors.
One day, Shunpei discovers that his childhood friend, Setsu, is Goro's mother. She left Goro due to an issue with her husband, and now she is in the end stages of cancer. Setsu had been physically weak since childhood, due to radiation exposure from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Shunpei had thought of Setsu as a sister, but he couldn't ask her to live with him in Kure, so she left to earn a living in Hiroshima. He missed her ever since.
Shunpei decides to reunite Goro with his mother. Shunpei knows that Setsu has been living in Tokyo, suffering discrimination as a radiation exposure victim. But when Shunpei finds Setsu, she seems to be living quite happily. Setsu still has a small sailor hat which Shunpei made for her years ago, and which always cheers her up in the face of hardship. Setsu showed the hat to Shunpei, to encourage him and renew his pride. Upon seeing the hat, Shunpei's mind is restored and his forgetfulness disappears.

Cast

The theme song is titled Inochi no Uta / and was written for NHK's 80th anniversary. The lyrics invite the public to join the song to collect their messages of life and peace.
The Inochi no Uta Project continued in 2009.