Hanamura, Benio

花村紅緒

The titular haikara is Benio Hanamura, a 17-year-old schoolgirl in Tokyo around 1920 (during the Taisho era). Benio lost her mother at a very young age and was raised by her father, a high-ranking official in the Japanese army. Consequently, she has grown into a tomboy; contrary to traditional Japanese notions of femininity, she studies kendo, drinks sake, dresses in often outlandish-looking Western fashions instead of the traditional kimono, and is less interested in housewife duties than in literature. She also rejects the idea of arranged marriages and believes in a woman's right to a career and to marry for love. Benio's best friends are the beautiful Tamaki, who is much more feminine than Benio but equally interested in women's rights, and Ranmaru, a young man who was raised to play female roles in the kabuki theater and has consequently acquired very effeminate mannerisms.