Interestingly, it seems that Totto-Chan: The Little Girl At the Window, a Japanese children's book which was published in 1981 was also quite popular in India around the time that Oshin was broadcast in India. I've ordered the book from the library to check it out.
Both Oshin and Totto-Chan are works of historical fiction. And I really enjoy learning more how people lived in different places and periods. I enjoyed the Sazae-San comics because it offers a glimpse of life in Post-WWII Japan. And I love it when Tintin references real historical events like the Japanese Invasion of 1931 which is the background of Tintin And The Blue Lotus.
Oshin spans from the late Meiji Era (pre-1912),when the main character, Oshin, is a little child, to the 1980s (late Showa Era), when Oshin is an old lady. So far the story reminds me of other books I've read, like Memoirs of a Geisha, Heidi and A Little Princess. There is a young female protagonist, the innocence of childhood, injustice, homesickness, misfortune, antagonistic characters and sympathetic ones.
I've seen up to eleven 15-minute episodes. The first few episodes takes place in present day Japan (minus 30 years :P ). Oshin, an old lady living with her successful grown up children, suddenly packs her clothes and disappears. While most of her children and children-in-law are blaming one another for her disappearance, her favourite grandson, Kei, goes to a hotspring town on a hunch and finds her there. Oshin tells him that she wants to go to the places of her past, reflect on her life and find out where she went wrong. Kei stays with her as they go to different places and she tells him the story of her life.
Oshin remembers her loving family, which includes her parents, grandmother and several siblings. As she grows older, she becomes aware of the harsh reality of their poverty. Oshin's grandmother starves herself so Oshin could have enough to eat. Oshin's mother, at one point, tries to induce a miscarriage by standing in the freezing Mogami River during winter because they couldn't afford another mouth to feed. Oshin's father is burdened by the shame of not being able to provide for his family. They have bad harvests and debts to pay. More than anything, Oshin wants to go to school, but at the age of six, she finds that she needs to leave home and work for a living.
Oshin is given a job at a merchant's home as a nanny to a baby. She is worked extremely had for a child her age. She misses her mother sorely. She is trained up by a senior maid who is quite hard on her but appears to genuinely want the best for her young protégé. An older boy, who is an employee of the household, befriends Oshin and looks out for her. At the local schoolmaster's request, Oshin's employers allow her to go to school (with the baby on her back) where she learns to read. But Oshin is bullied by the other school children and, when they threaten to hurt the baby, she drops out of school.
This is as far as I've watched. It's been pretty sad. And sadder is the fact that many young children have suffered and still suffer in the same way as Oshin. It also seems to be quite informative about Japan in the late Meiji Era. There were no child labour laws back then but children had the right to an education. You can see the going-ons of the wealthy household of a merchant and the going-ons of the impoverished one of a farmer.
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