This story is based on the novel "Jo no mai" by Tomiko Miyao which is based on the life of painter Shōen Uemura (1875–1949), the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. The title refers to the masterpiece bijinga ("picture of a beautiful woman") that Uemura painted at the age of 61. The main character, Tsuya Shimamura, is born in Kyoto as the second daughter of a tea trader who dies before her birth. Tsuya, who loves painting more than anything and is hopeless at housework, attends art school and at age 15 receives the name Shōsui (from the characters for "pine" and "green") from her teacher. The crown prince of England purchases one of her works, propelling her to fame overnight. The novel portrays the remainder of her stormy life, during which she is impregnated by her teacher and raises a fatherless child; through it all she devotes herself to her painting, undaunted.
Japanese study overview
Jo no Mai is a Japanese movie of 13,546 characters, with 1,519 unique words and 672 different kanji. Its difficulty rating on Jiten is hard, 3.4 out of 5. The full vocabulary list ranks all 1,519 words by how often they appear, and you can study them on Jiten or download them as an Anki deck.
Similar Media
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Vocabulary highlights
Here are some of the words that appear most often in this media, as well as a sample of its rarer vocabulary.
- お母ちゃんmum×46
- 先生teacher×40
- 言うto say×39
- 絵picture×33
- 思うto think×32
- 描くto draw×24
- 志満Shima×20
- 松渓Shoukei×18
- 持つto hold (in one's hand)×16
- 人person×16
- 島村Shimamura×14
- 子child×13
- 松翠Shousui×11
- 勢force×10
- 津也Shin'ya×9
- 画塾private painting school×7
- 葉茶屋tea shop×6
- 里子foster child×6
- 大鳳Ootori×6
- 展覧会exhibition×5