Original subtitles

In Wakayama, Hatsu had received a letter from her eldest son, Ainosuke.

It's sour.

Your pickled plums always tastes good, Hatsu.

What does Ainosuke say?

He's finished his apprenticeship, and he's officially a bank clerk.

He's getting a salary, too.

A salary? How nice.

That's something to celebrate.

He also wrote how much he's enjoying his work

at the bank and all the people who work there.

He seems to be fine.

What's this?

I bought this with my first pay.

It works well on rough hands.

Please try it, Mom.

Ainosuke!

Hello!

It's Set-chan.

Hey! Not Set-chan again!

That boy!

Yonosuke is popular with the young girls in the village.

Asa ga Kita

Week 20 "What I Want To Talk About Now" Episode 117

Original Story: Chieko FURUKAWA

Screenwriter: Mika OMORI

Music by: Yuuki HAYASHI

Theme Song: "365 Nichi no Kamihikouki" Sung by: AKB48

Narrator: Keiko SUGIURA

Asa Shirooka: HARU

Shinjiro Shirooka: Hiroshi TAMAKI

Sobei Mayuyama: Tasuku EMOTO

Eizaburo Shirooka: Akito KIRIYAMA

Miwa: Sumika NONO

Izumi Narusawa: Koji SETO

Heijuro Yamazaki: Shigeo TSUJIMOTO

Hatsu Mayuyama: Aoi MIYAZAKI

What we have to do are these two things.

First of all, we need to get the people in Japan where

recognition of the need for education is low, to

understand and accept it.

Parallel to that, we need to get government funding for the

establishment of a women's college.

If these things don't go well, then this business won't get off the ground.

I see...

I thought we should start by getting people who will

donate money like you suggested.

You're going to do that?

I can't let you do that.

Just as you said, I may not know anything about

revenues and expenditures but you should leave the

gathering of donations to me.

No! I'm a business woman.

So I'll handle everything to do with money.

You're an educator, so don't think about

anything else, and just think about education.

In other words, you'll take care of this side while

I take charge of this.

I'm so grateful.

I can't have that.

You're already responsible for two companies, so

you're very busy.

I've always been busy, so no matter how

busy it gets, it wont bother me a bit.

Rather than fret about it, we need to take action.

I want you to make this into a book, and make

a guide book for establishing a women's university.

Okay.

I'll take that guide book, and go to all the wealthy

people, not only in Osaka, but throughout Japan

one by one to get donations.

I wrote down all the prominent people that Kano-ya knows.

That many?

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

If they're intelligent, and they read what you

wrote, they should understand how important it is for women

to have higher education.

Please pull yourself together.

Even if I can help with the money end,

you're the only who can protect and pass on your ideas.

I don't know what to say.

I don't know what would have happened if it weren't for you.

I told you we would work toward the same goal, didn't I?

From now on, I'm your ally.

Ms. Shirooka! I swear to you that I will wear these clothes

for the rest of my life.

Never mind that... You keep saying something about

"surpri... surpri..." What does it mean?

Surprise...?

Let's see... It means...

The same thing as your "bikkuri-pon."

It means "bikkun-pon"?

Is that what it means?

From there, Asa and the Narusawa's supporters

set up a base for their operations in Nakanoshima once they had the capital.

I think we should set a goal of raising more

than 300,000 yen in donations.

Once we raise 100,000 yen, I want to undertake the

establishment of the women's university.

However...

A university for women?

No!

Pardon the intrusion.

She couldn't get the well-known businessmen and people in

the financial circles to understand their goal.

Donation? That means you're not going to hold onto the

money for me... You want me to give it to you...?

That's right.

I thought someone with insight like you would understand.

Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?

I'm sorry... But women's education from now on will sustain Japan.

You say women will sustain Japan.

So if this women's university is established how will we profit from it?

Let's see... If women are educated... For example, there'll be a lot of

women who are well-educated like your daughter, Sakae.

You can't ask for a bigger profit than that, can you?

Sakae turned down her marriage offer.

She said she enjoys her work at the bank so she doesn't

really want to get married.

That's not why I wanted her to be educated.

And now, you're talking about a women's university...?

Don't be ridiculous.

I'm back.

Welcome back.

Mr. Kudo... I'm sorry for being so rude.

I don't know how to apologize.

No... I have a good relationship with Kano-ya, so I'll forget

what happened today.

No one in society wants women to be educated.

I don't mean to contradict you, Dad, but you're the

one who sent me to girls' school to be educated

so I wouldn't end up to be someone's puppet.

That's why I regret it.

Just having a little bit of education, and you

stand up and challenge your father in front of people

like this... It would have been much better if

you'd turned into a puppet.

Kanoya's finally beginning to prosper, so it would be

in your best interest not to get involved in something strange like this.

How could you...!

Don't tell me you talked to our most important client

about donating to money for the university...?

Bank President...

I'm sorry.

Shall we sit down, and talk about this?

I'm home.

Welcome home.

I heard from Eizaburo...

He really came down hard on you, didn't he?

He did... I was only thinking of myself again, and rushed headlong into it.

I caused a lot of trouble.

I guess there aren't that many people like you and Narusawa-Sensei

who want women to be able to get an education if they want to.

I'm not thinking such admirable things like Narusawa-Sensei is...

Did you read it?

I was surprised that the man who sang that strange song

was so educated, and had such admirable ideas like this.

But it's difficult, after all.

A lot of paths have opened up since we were little...

Isn't that what you said?

I thought so, but maybe the way society thinks hasn't changed that drastically.

The important thing is what kind of people you meet.

What do you mean?

A long, long time ago, a certain little girl was told education

isn't something a girl needs and was told she shouldn't

even talk about wanting an education...

She lived a really constrained life.

But then, a man like Hikaru Genji appeared before her.

Hikaru Genji?

Like a knight in shining armor, this man gave her a shiny,

red abacus...

So the knight in shining armor gave her a shirty abacus?

That wasn't all. He told her if she didn't want to, she

shouldn't get married, and instead of doing as her

parents told her, he showed her a new path in life.

Thanks to that, the little girl learned to use the abacus,

learned the enjoyment of learning, and on top

of that, she was allowed to study business.

There must be a lot of girls today who are living a constrained life.

But not all of them will get an abacus like this.

A girl has the right to get an education as a person

and as a citizen... I think the women's university will be

a big signpost toward something like that.

I see...

This time, you want to help women to get this abacus.

That's my big goal right now.

But actually, I have another goal.

Another goal?

Someday, I want to learn at that university...

If possible, together with Chiyo.

If the university is established I'll have Chiyo enter university,

and even if it's just once in a while, I want to take classes there, too.

Since I'm already an old lady, I don't mind if I have to

just sit in the farthest corner in the class...

I don't know what Chiyo will think about that.

But I suddenly feel like rooting for you.

How did the other school get their donations...?

That's what I thought, too.

So as far as private educational institutions go, there's Keio

Gijuku or Tokyo Senmon Gakko, so I went to Tokyo Senmon

Gakko to ask how they acquired donations.

That's very bold.

It was Yukichi Fukuzawa, the greatest scholar in Japan

who established Keio Gijuku, and Shigenobu Okuma,

a Japanese politician who established the Tokyo Senmon Gakko...

That's right. It's a big university in the place called Waseda-mura.

So how did he acquire the donations?

I was kicked out of there by the person in charge of fund raising.

He said he couldn't discuss something like that.

I'm sure he wouldn't.

They'd be in a bind if the people donating to them were taken away.

Where are you going?

I'm going to write a letter to Mr. Okuma.

I'm going to ask Shigenobu Okuma directly...

At a time like this, we need to talk to someone who's tolerant.

Tolerant?

That's right. If we get the key point down, then everything

else will be easy.

Why didn't I think of it before?

Is she going to be okay?

Once she starts moving, there was no stopping Asa.