The screenplay by Yoshikata Yoda is based on various stories from Saikaku Ihara's 1686 work The Life of an Amorous Woman.

[2] The story opens on Oharu as an old woman in a temple, looking at a vast collection of statues of Arhats, whose faces remind her of the events of her life.

As a young woman in a noble family, the daughter of a samurai, she is courted by a neighboring Lord's retainer, Katsunosuke, and runs away with him.

After an exhaustive search, Oharu is found to meet every criterion and is sold to Lord Matsudaira with the hope she will bear him a son.

She chases after him through the compound, is herself pursued by his guards, and in the confusion, ends up escaping to pass the rest of her life as a wandering nun, begging for alms at every doorstep.

[5][6] Composer Ichirō Saitō received the 1952 Mainichi Film Award for The Life of Oharu, Inazuma, Mother and Himitsu.