I always felt that you could get a sense of the Western mother by how she¡¯s depicted on television. From the idealized perfection of Carol Brady on ¡°The Brady Bunch¡± in the 1970s to the more authentic imperfection of Roseanne Conner on ¡°Roseanne¡± in the 1990s, American sitcoms always seemed to be where ¡°mom¡± lived. And in the U.K., mums seemed more complicated, on soap operas like ¡°EastEnders¡± and ¡°Coronation Street.¡±
In various surveys asking who best represents a Japanese mother over the decades, the most popular responses generally skew older. Actor Sayuri Yoshinaga, 79, ranks high on a few lists, for instance. Maybe the moms that helped us emotionally recover from the war will always have a hold on our hearts.
Another source of motherly role models in Japan? Manga. Specifically, manga that spawned TV adaptations. The full-time mothers in shows such as ¡°Chibi Maruko-chan,¡± ¡°Kobo-chan¡± and the longest-running animated TV series in the world, ¡°Sazae-san¡± (sorry, Marge from ¡°The Simpsons¡±), not only gave us our ideal moms but also presented them living in Japanese-style multigenerational households.
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