예어 Tokugawa Shogunate

1868년 2월, 일본. 도쿠가와 막부가 쇠퇴하고 메이지 천황의 권력이 커지는 가운데, 황실 군인 곤조는 폭정의 종식을 알리기 위해 고향 사완도로 돌아옵니다.

에도시대에 요리로 유명한 무가에 시집을 간 여주인공의 우여곡절을 그린 드라마. 카가 현에 실존했던 요리 무사 후나키 덴나이와 그의 아들이 남긴 요리책 '요리무언초'를 바탕으로, 당시 부엌의 모습과 무가의 접대요리인 '향응 요리'에 대해 자세히 들여다 볼 수 있게 그려낸 작품. 하루는 남다른 요리 실력과 미각을 소유한 여인이지만, 기가 너무 센 나머지 결혼 1년만에 이혼을 당한다. 카가 지역 요리 장인인 후나키에게 실력을 인정받게 된 하루는 그의 간곡한 부탁으로 아들 야스노부와 두 번째 결혼을 하게 된다. 요리 무사 집안의 후계자인 남편은 놀랍게도 요리 실력이 형편없는데다 하루보다 4살이나 어리다. 하루는 시어머니와 협력하여 남편에게 요리를 가르치기 시작하는데.

Set in the 18th century, the show follows the Shogun Yoshimune, who likes to disguise himself as a low-ranking samurai and go into his capital of Edo to see the life of the common man, as well as to seek out and punish evildoers who would hurt his citizens. He is aided by Magistrate Oo'oka and a vivacious fireman, Tatsugoro, as well as a rotating cast of other recurring characters. Along with Zenigata Heiji and Mito Kōmon, it ranks among the longest-running series in the jidaigeki genre. Like so many other jidaigeki, it falls in the category of kanzen-chōaku, loosely, "rewarding good and punishing evil."

In an alternative feudal Japan, a strange disease that only affects males caused a massive population reduction, leaving females to fill the vacant jobs, therefore changing the social structure. Now, 80 years after the initial outbreak with a 1:4 male:female ratio, Japan is a completely matriarchal society. Females hold all important political positions, and males are their consorts. Only the most powerful female—head of Tokugawa shogunate—may keep a harem of handsome and unproductive males, known as "Ōoku".

Commanding shoguns and samurai warriors, exotic geisha and exquisite artisans—all were part of the Japanese “renaissance”; a period between the 16th and 19th Centuries when Japan went from chaos and violence to a land of ritual refinement and peace. But stability came at a price: for nearly 250 years, Japan was a land closed to the Western world, ruled by the Shogun under his absolute power and control. Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire brings to life the unknown story of a mysterious empire, its relationship with the West, and the forging of a nation that would emerge as one of the most important countries in the world.