This story follows the sweet and “overprotective” newly-wed life between Someya Yukito, a young master of an established inn in Asakusa, and Tsuruoka Io, a pure-hearted female apprentice training to be a chef. Tsuruoka was in the depths of despair until she found solace in the sweet konpeito candy given to her by Someya. Since then, she has earnestly cherished her feelings while training as a chef. Yukito’s affectionate words and actions reserved only Tsuruoka, along with his excessively cute jealousy, create an irresistibly heart-fluttering devotion with a charming gap that’s impossible to resist!
At the strong insistence of his father, Ushimatsu Segawa conceals his origins from a “buraku” area of low-class “untouchables,” leaving his hometown to serve as an elementary school teacher where he excels and is loved by his students. But he constantly struggles with the secret of his low-birth status and is disturbed by all of the discrimination levelled upon his class. It prevents him from pursuing a romance with Shiho, whom he meets at the temple where he resides, but who descends from a samurai family.
A "Goze" is a blind entertainer who travels to various places singing stories while playing the shamisen (Japanese three-stringed lute). Becoming a goze due to her blindness at seven-years-old, Haru was strictly trained with a parent's affection by her once kind mother, Tome.
Born 1972 in Tokyo, Ayako Kobayashi (小林綾子) is a Japanese actress. She became widely known for playing the main character in the 1983-84 NHK drama Oshin.