MOMOYA TV-Ads108-1976- Yaoya Oshichi

Time: 30 sec.

Product Name: KIMCHI-NO-MOTO

Description of Product: KIMCHI-NO-MOTO is a sauce for Kimchi, also spelled Gimchi or Kimchee. It is a traditional Korean fermented dish made of hakusai cabbage and other select vegetables with varied seasonings, and it is the most common Korean side dish served with rice.

Year: 1976

Advertiser: Momoya Co., Ltd.

Advertising Agency: YOMIKO Advertising Inc.

Production Company: Cinq Co., Ltd.

Description of Title: Yaoya Oshichi, literally Greengrocer Oshichi, was a daughter of the greengrocer Tarobei, and lived in the Hongo area of Edo in the early Edo period. She attempted to commit arson after falling in love with a boy, and this story became the model of Joruri plays.

In the opening scene, an extreme long shot of a city landscape dyed in red by a big fire zooms in to spot a lady in Kimono who climbs a fire lookout tower called Hinomi-yagura. This TV ad parodies a story about a real-life girl named Yaoya-Oshichi, literally means a greengrocer Oshichi. She lived in Hongo area of Edo, the former name of Tokyo, as anadopted daughter of the greengrocer Tarobei at the beginning of the Edo period. Her famous episode, an attempt at arson after falling in love with a temple page, was described in a novel “Koshoku Gonin Onna,” literally “Five Women Who Loved Love,”written by Saikaku Ihara, and then widely adapted for the traditional Japanese puppet theater Ningyo Joruri or Bunraku, Kabuki and film. The voice-over of this piece partly imitates a melody of Hibari Misora’s “Makkana Taiyo,” or “Red Sun.”