Synopsis
Osaka, 1802. Eight year-old Mio and Noe, although they come from different social circumstances, are close friends. One day they happen to meet a fortune-teller, who says that Noe’s destiny is to ‘rise like the sun’, while Mio’s is a ‘cloudless blue sky’ indicating a life of unceasing hardship. The girls pay this no heed, promising ‘whatever happens, we’ll always be together.’ That night, however, it begins to rain heavily in Osaka, and the city suffers a massive flood.
Time moves on, and we next find Mio at ‘Tsuruya’, a soba noodle establishment in Edo’s Kanda district. Having lost her parents in the flood, and long separated from Noe, she lives in a tenement with Yoshi, formerly the proprietress of the ‘Tenman Icchoan’ restaurant in Osaka, with whom Mio came to Edo. Taneichi, the Tsuruya owner, put Mio in charge of his establishment when he saw that she was a brilliant cook. As a woman chef she is able to display her cuisinary talent, but as she is not used to the different tastes of Edo, she is forced into a constant process of trial and error. Eventually her passion for cooking leads her to incorporate the best features of both Osaka and Edo cuisine, and her soft egg custard, oyster platter, and turtle eggs become the talk of the town, drawing crowds of regular customers. All seems to be going well, and Mio goes each day to worship at a shrine named for a shape-shifting fox whose face she sees overlaid with that of Noe as a little girl. Then one day the tough-looking Mataji, who cooks at the Okinaya, an establishment in the Yoshiwara red-light district, comes and asks Mio to cook for Asahi, the district’s reigning courtesan.
On that day the gears of fate begin to grind.
Will Mio and Noe meet again?
What future does the destiny set out for them hold?
An exhilarating story of undying friendship and the spiritual growth of a woman chef who overcomes trial upon tribulation, forging her own destiny through her dedication to her craft.