#the makanai cooking for the maiko house

[llovelymoonn]

who am i?

mary oliver house of light: “maybe” (via @weltenwellen​) \\ the makanai: cooking for the maiko house (via @idleminds​) \\ andrew wyeth spring (1978) \\ susan sontag as consciousness is harnessed to flesh: journals and notebooks, 1964-1980: “february 17th, 1970” (via @theoptia​)

support me

[pinkmasquerade]

After watching some more shojo, I find that there's something so healing about seeing earnest representations of girl friendships and girlhood. The compliments both grandiose and sincere, the teasing, and the casual way you can fling your arms around each other. Being silly, trying new things together and being unafraid to be weird. The unabashed ways that you show your love, and the unspoken agreement to protect one another.

We were girls together, and all that.

[verycoolgir1]

[smittenskitten]

DEGUCHI NATSUKI as Herai Sumire / Momohana

MAIKO-SAN CHI NO MAKANAI-SAN (2023)

[mugiloves]

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘪: 𝘊𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘬𝘰 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 (2023)

𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼'𝘀 🍲

[xbethelight]

Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san 舞妓さんちのまかないさん (2023)

[momentsatmydesk]

~ 'Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House', a very warm Japanese drama, also happens to be a favorite of mine.

When one of my favorite Instagram artists @wiwadd happened to share a drawing of Kiyo and Sumire, I knew I had to print it out and include it in my Lokta journal. 🥰

The glitter quote 'You're going to do great things' is also fitting for Sumire who achieved her dream of being a Maiko. (Equally fitting for Kiyo who beautifully shows us it is we who must define what success means to us) 🌟~

[cuthalions]

The horrible and vile zombie maiko strikes again!  — THE MAKANAI: COOKING FOR THE MAIKO HOUSE - EPISODE 8: CARNAVAL

[waitmyturtles]

What a WEEK IT HAS BEEN. Double Savage savaging, The Eighth Sense ending, The Promise sucking, the Our Skyy 2 x The Eclipse trailer dropping -- I’ve been taken on an emotional whirlwind by the drama gods. (Oh, and I’ve finished my Love Sick OGMMTVC analysis, which I’ll drop tomorrow. So THAT’S been bouncing in my head. AND, I started watching Make It Right. So I’ve ALSO been spending time with MORE turnt up teenage boys. GAWD. BRACES.)

ANYWAY. ALL OF THIS CONTEXT TO SAY: when Our Dining Table drops, I drop everything and run to it, because:

1) it’s beautifully done, as ever 2) it has the pace that I’m looking for in a show 3) it has delicious food, obvi, and 4) this week, we began to get very direct insights into Yutaka’s past that help us understand who he is -- and more importantly, helps Minoru to begin understanding who Yutaka is, and 5) we really begin to see Minoru cheese out on Yutaka, which is SO cute and SO great to see visualized, as opposed to the manga, which doesn’t offer quite the same nuances.

Our Dining Table gives me all the comfort. I keep, keep, keepin’ on, keep going back to the familiar blanket of Japanese BL doramas that brought me to this Tumblr space in the first place.

So: to thoughts on Our Dining Table, episode 4, we go. 

We find out Yutaka was adopted, and made to feel incredibly uncomfortable about eating -- AND about joining in a family structure -- by the actions and behavior of his older adopted brother. We see Minoru utterly GIDDY with being able to spend time with Yutaka alone. We see Tane-kun doin’ his damn thing, being SO CUTE, OMG, I WANNA PINCH YOUR CHEEKS, CUTIE -- but also serving, of course, as a metaphor of the family that Yutaka has now been DIRECTLY INVITED to join, by dad Ueda-san himself. AND as a metaphor of the family that Yutaka had been NOT invited to join as a youngster, somewhat close to Tane-kun’s age.

Yutaka had been directly invited to join his adoptive family, also by his adoptive father. But we saw at the dining table of THAT family, how engagement and communication worked. There.... was none. At least, none coming from the parents. None at all. No correction, no discipline, no nothing. You were expected to fall into your role, eat in silence. Very patriarchal, very expected, very common. You exist, without existing, if that makes sense.

I just love comparing that paradigm to how we see the Uedas interacting, jovial and lively at the table, sitting on the floor on cushions, as opposed to stiff dining chairs, with Tane-kun laying down like an uncle after a big curry meal. (Sweet potatoes in curry, radical!) Tons of conversation, interaction, jokes, physical affection. 

I love Yutaka staring into space. I love it. I love him falling into his meditations and Minoru catching him on it. The wheels are NOT quite turning yet for Yutaka -- he’s still dealing with the trauma of his childhood.

But he’s recognizing why he’s drawn to the Uedas. I think he’s beginning to define what that warmth means to him.

That’s why I LOVED THE FLASHBACKS, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Yutaka is doing a comparative analysis of his past and present in those flashbacks. It was SO WARM AND SO CUTE. I LOVED every moment -- seeing what moments Yutaka was drawn to recalling, and how he compared them to his cold childhood. (If the show continues to hew to the manga, we’ll see how Yutaka ended up with his adoptive family, and it’ll all make sense.)

Oh, and I LOVED -- gah, my heart -- I loved how the episode ended with Minoru looking at the picture of his mother, and recognizing that his was not the only family who had gone through something. And we see in next week’s preview, that we get the story of the Uedas. 

This show. Perfectly paced. Perfectly warm. Centered on food. Centered on family. Family warmth and growth. With every episode, we see Tane-kun getting more and more close to Yutaka -- and vice versa, as Yutaka pats Tane-kun’s full belly. It’s just....

It’s just perfect family warmth for me, the thing that I love about doramas so much, so much more than anything else in a show. 

---

I want to quickly say that if you love the food in Our Dining Table, the last food-centered dorama that Japan produced was PHENOMENAL, and directed by Koreeda Hiroyuki, called The Makanai: Cooking For the Maiko House, which is on Netflix. Many of the food shots in Our Dining Table are reminding me of the cinematography of The Makanai -- simple, sumptuous, gorgeous. 

I feel like The Makanai was one of the most important doramas to come out of Japan in recent years, and even though it’s not a BL, I think it’s really worth watching, to see how Kyoto and geisha/maiko culture still exists in the face of modern Japan. I learned a tremendous amount, and the acting was off the charts. Highly recommend if you have the time!

[vats9underscore9]

[splitting-infinities]

ok i'm just gonna slap some post-crying-spurred ramblings about The Makanai here because i need to shout from the rooftops:

this show good

i'm so stuffed with emotions and visual imagery of food and art. what a triumphant, wholesome masterpiece. this show means so much to me.

basically if you adore shows about the power of true friendship, platonic love, strong female-led stories, beautiful depictions of tradition and culture in a modern era, found family, one (1) hilarious zombie episode, and gorgeous shots of cooking food, you will love this.

unhinged spoilered ramblings below

hnnnnggggh momohana only ate the sandwiches made by kiyo because she promised. her father's character arc in the last episode. the zombie skit. azusa's blossoming love story. the way momoko is so refined and dedicated to her art, and she also loves super gross horror movies and inflicts them on other people with delight. momoko's breakup and how satisfying it is to see when things just don't work out but it's okay. how kiyo makes tsuru the same meal her grandmother made her in the first ep because it's a meal of sending off travelers on a journey. the way chiyo and her long lost actor man got to have their moment. that one jump cut of hiroshi and his dad drinking coffee and reading in the exact same way - hilarious. the soft and kind of melancholy mother daughter relationship we get with azusa and ryoko? lovable characters like Ren the adorable bartender and the photographer who makes tsuru her photo album?

I think the part that got me choked up the most was when sumire goes out to fancy dinner and sees fried oysters on the menu but it's just not the same and when she gets home kiyo has that exact dish waiting for her? totally captures the feeling of food being better when you're with people you love. it's👏about👏the👏love👏!

[jennguyen-draws]

Just finished The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko house. It was the cutest thing I've watched in ages.

So soft. So warm. Such nostalgic vibes as well. If you watch the trailer and like it, you will definitely enjoy the actual show.

[redsamuraiii]

The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (Ep2)

Sometimes when you fail at achieving your dreams, life is telling you that you are meant to achieve greatness elsewhere.

[screampotato]

Ace/aro moment in Netflix's "The Makanai"

(loving this show)

[mugiloves]

“Every single one of us gets a choice of our own. We can either cook, or be the one who eats it. We can be the ones who up and go or stay. And none of those are better or worse than the other ones.”

The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (2023) dir. Hirokazu Koreeda

[xbethelight]

Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san 舞妓さんちのまかないさん (2023)