was a Japanese scriptwriter. She is known particularly for writing the

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

Asadora , colloquially known as , is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode, Japanese television drama program series broadcast in the mornings by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white , starring Ta ...

Oshin is a Japanese television, Japanese Asadora, serialized morning television drama (''asadora''), which originally aired on NHK from 4 March 1983 to 31 March 1984; it is the 31st ''asadora'' overall to be produced. The 297 15-minute episodes follo ...

'', and was considered Japan's most successful TV drama scriptwriter. She established Hashida Cultural Foundation. Her real name was .

Life

Hashida was born in

Keijō , or Gyeongseong (), was an administrative district of Korea under Japanese rule that corresponds to the present Seoul, the capital of South Korea. History When the Empire of Japan annexed the Korean Empire, it made Seoul the colonial capita ...

(present-day

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

) in 1925 while Korea was under Japanese rule. She moved to Sakai City in Japan with her mother while she was still young. Sugako began studying Japanese literature at Japan Women's College in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

in 1942 but her education was interrupted by

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Although her family had lost its savings, she was able later to continue her education, transferring to the Department of Art at

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

. Hashida acknowledged that she discovered the work of

Kikuchi Kan , also known as Kan Kikuchi (which uses the same kanji as his real name), was a Japanese author and publisher. He established the publishing company Bungeishunjū, the monthly magazine Bungeishunjū (magazine), of the same name, the Japan Writer ...

during her studies and these were a substantial influence on her later work. After completing her studies, she found work in the script department of

Shochiku is a Japanese entertainment company. Founded in 1895, it initially managed '' kabuki'' theaters in Kyoto; in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and establis ...

. She was laid off in 1960 but continued to write scripts on a freelance basis and supplemented her income by writing short stories for girls' magazines. In 1965, she married Hiroshi Iwasaki, a producer for the

Tokyo Broadcasting System (formerly ) is a Japanese media and licensed broadcasting holding company. It is the parent company of the television network TBS Television and radio network TBS Radio. It has a 28-affiliate television network called Japan News Network, as ...

. In 1973, she wrote the script for the television drama ''Ai to Shi o Mitsumete''. This was followed by other successful scripts: the series ''Tonari no Shibafu'' (1976–77), ''

'' (1983–84), ''Fūfu'' (1979), ''Michi'' (1980), ''Onnatachi no Chuushingura'' (1981) and ''Dakazoku'' (1983). An English-dubbed version of ''Tonari no Shibafu'', ''The Grass Is Greener on the Other Side'', was shown on American cable during the early 1980s. ''

'', a serialised morning TV drama or

asadora , colloquially known as , is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode, Japanese television drama program series broadcast in the mornings by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white , starring Ta ...

, was the first asadora to be both produced and written by women in Japan. Hashida is known particularly for writing ''Oshin'', but she can be considered Japan's most successful TV drama script writer. ''Oshin'' was broadcast throughout Asia and became one of Japan's most famous television dramas. The series was developed from Hashida's original script.

Awards

Hashida received the Broadcasting Culture Award, the Golden Arrow and the Most Distinguished Individual Achievement Award in 1979. Four years later she received the Cultural Achievement Award in Broadcasting and the Kikuchi Kan Award. In 2020, she received the

Order of Culture The is a Japanese Order (decoration), order, established on February 11, 1937. The order has one class only, and may be awarded to men and women for contributions to Japanese Art, Japan's art, Japanese Literature, literature, science, technolog ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hashida, Sugako 1925 births 2021 deaths Japanese screenwriters 20th-century Japanese women writers Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Writers from Seoul Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd class Persons of Cultural Merit Recipients of the Order of Culture