This story is based on the novel "Jo no mai" by Tomiko Miyao which is based on the life of painter Shōen Uemura (1875–1949), the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. The title refers to the masterpiece bijinga ("picture of a beautiful woman") that Uemura painted at the age of 61. The main character, Tsuya Shimamura, is born in Kyoto as the second daughter of a tea trader who dies before her birth. Tsuya, who loves painting more than anything and is hopeless at housework, attends art school and at age 15 receives the name Shōsui (from the characters for "pine" and "green") from her teacher. The crown prince of England purchases one of her works, propelling her to fame overnight. The novel portrays the remainder of her stormy life, during which she is impregnated by her teacher and raises a fatherless child; through it all she devotes herself to her painting, undaunted.
Yûko Natori
Morio Kazama
Kunihiko Mitamura
Aki Mizusawa
Mariko Okada
Mieko Takamine
Yoshiko Mita
Ayako Kobayashi
Shirō Ōsaka
Kōjirō Kusanagi
Kin Sugai
Junkichi Orimoto
Tomiko Ishii
Shingo Misawa
Eizô Kitamura
Takashi Ebata
Takashi Noguchi
Ryoichi Kusanagi
Ken'ichi Nagira
Yoshiro Ichikawa
Tokuko Miura
Naoji Iwata
Mineko Maruhira
Kojin Tokuda
Masaharu Arikawa
Kojirō Kawanami
Kōjiro Shirakawa
Yoshihiro Igarashi
Gorō Ōki
Michiko Tsujima
Tsuyako Okajima
Mitsue Wakabayashi
Kayoko Tominaga
Mieko Hoshino
Aki Sawa
Mayumi Tokunaga
Tankurô
Junichi Hosokawa
Mayumi Eda
Katsuko Ōkawa
Keiko Nanase
Yuka Monma
Hiroshi Tanaka
Momiji Yamamura
Yoshiki Yamada
Shintarō Mibu
Shunji Kotani
Rantaro Mine
Michihiro Kinoshita
Yasushi Amaeda
Makoto Asai
Hiroyuki Sugaya
Sozaburo Yoshimi
Kozo Kotani
Etsuko Ichihara
Mikio Narita
Kei Satō