FURANO, Hokkaido — Snow fell on this Hokkaido city as family, actors and fans gathered for a farewell ceremony for screenwriter So Kuramoto, who died at 91 and whose drama "Kita no Kuni kara" (From the Northern Country) made the town a landmark of Japanese television.
The ceremony was held at the Furano Theater Factory, a venue Kuramoto helped design from the planning stage as a home for people who make theater. Flowers sent by Hidetaka Yoshioka, who played Jun in the drama, were laid out, and Tomoko Nakajima, who played Hotaru, attended.
Keiko Takeshita, 73, who played Yukiko Miyamae, arrived from Tokyo and wept in front of the altar. "I still can't believe it," she said. "I've been carrying that feeling all along. I just got here from Tokyo today, and I suppose the teacher really has gone up into the sky. He was a very, very big teacher whom I could call 'teacher' from my heart."
A town that became the story
Kuramoto based himself in Furano and wrote "Kita no Kuni kara" and "Yasuragi no Sato" from there, among many other works. He also founded the Furano Juku, a training school for actors and screenwriters, and left much of that legacy to the city.
The drama, which followed a father and his children who move from Tokyo to rural Hokkaido after the family falls apart, ran on Fuji TV and drew viewers into the town's fields and harsh winters. Fans came to Furano on Tuesday as well, visiting locations used in the filming.
Colleagues remember
Takehiko Ono, 84, who appeared in the drama "Yasuragi no Koku: Michi," said he had long worried about Kuramoto's health and age. "Of course I'm sad he died, but I've been freed from the fear that he might die," Ono said. "I'm living through ironic days."
Shunsuke Kazama, 43, also in "Yasuragi no Koku: Michi," recalled Kuramoto's advice. "He told me to be brazen at times, to carry a humble air while living boldly, and that made me happy," he said.
Director Hirokazu Koreeda, 64, who calls himself a Kuramoto fan, said he came to Furano as a university student after reading one of the scripts and traveled around by bicycle. "I'm just a fan. A real fan," Koreeda said. "What Kuramoto wrote is full of a fixation, a partiality, toward people who have failed in various ways. That is where the humanity lies, and that is how he depicted them."
A final script
Kuramoto completed the script for "Kamisama kara no Yuigon" (A Will from God), a TV Asahi drama scheduled to air next year. It is his last message.