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The story
In NHK’s taiga drama “Toyotomi Brothers!,” Taketa City in Oita Prefecture and Ibaraki City in Osaka Prefecture — both linked to Sengoku-era warlord Nakagawa Kiyohide, said to have fought bravely and died in battle at Shizugatake — jointly sent NHK a written statement on the 28th protesting that the show’s portrayal is “far removed from historical fact.” The drama reportedly shows Kiyohide attempting to betray Hideyoshi before begging for his life, a major departure from the accepted account that has stirred controversy. On 5ch threads, opinions split over how much dramatic license should be tolerated — defenders saying “it’s fiction, so it can’t be helped,” versus critics arguing “turning a warlord who died in battle into a traitor is going too far.”
8/29 (Sat) 11:00 — Oita Godo Shimbun
Regarding the portrayal of Sengoku warlord Nakagawa Kiyohide in NHK’s currently airing taiga drama “Toyotomi Brothers!,” Taketa City in Oita Prefecture and Ibaraki City in Osaka Prefecture — both connected to Kiyohide — jointly sent a written statement to NHK on the 28th, saying the depiction is “far removed from historical fact” and that they “cannot help but feel regret.” While acknowledging that dramatic staging and embellishment fall under “freedom of expression,” the two cities asked that “works based on historical subjects respect accurate historical fact as much as possible.”
Kiyohide was the father of Nakagawa Hidenari, first lord of the Oka Domain, which included present-day Taketa City. He was also castellan of Ibaraki Castle, located in what is now Ibaraki City. In the 1583 Battle of Shizugatake, where Hashiba (later Toyotomi) Hideyoshi defeated Shibata Katsuie, Kiyohide fought on Hideyoshi’s side. He defended the Oiwayama fort but is said to have died in battle after being attacked by Shibata’s general Sakuma Morimasa.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
It's fiction through and through, you know.
Because it's a crap script.
The NHK people say this with a smirk, but
if that's the excuse, just make up a fictional story loosely based on real figures —
right now they could just call it a drama about the (deliberately garbled) brothers "Toyotomi Yoshihide and Nagahide" lol
They churn out garbage every year with crap scripts and acting.
Rerun the good ones from the past instead.
You can watch those on a paid streaming service, can't you?
The good ones from the past were fiction too, though~
Past taiga dramas were full of embellishment as well.
Besides, a period drama that's faithful to historical fact would be boring anyway —
they had Tokugawa Yoshimune patrolling the streets of Edo on a thoroughbred white horse.
Like a taiga drama about Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, or one on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or one on Alexander the Great.
I'd love a taiga drama on Romance of the Three Kingdoms — heavy CG use would be fine.
Magnificent Century (the Ottoman Empire drama) and the one about Catherine the Great aired on BS — if you go for that world-class level,
they're steeped in real history, unlike today's watered-down, dishonest efforts —
quite a shock compared to recent taiga dramas lol
Genghis Khan, though —
wouldn't that be good? Complete with an ordo (Mongol royal camp).
Local governments should be even angrier about that —
it's obviously pure invention.
Nagahama City: "Well, it's not like it damages Lord Nagamasa's image, so…"
A bit of invention is unavoidable, but having Oichi perform the kaishaku duty is really too much.
I think this year's taiga drama is especially bad.
Re: #186
Actually, that's the least problematic part.
It's not twisting any established historical fact —
they're just dramatizing something that's already a black box,
a part that can't be proven true or false either way.
Showing the Japanese army abusing local civilians — scenes not in the original novel — they just did whatever they pleased.
Even if it's not in the original novel, it's something that actually happened.
"Thank you, Japanese soldiers! That's all that matters!!" (mocking those who'd rather see a sanitized, flattering version)
so maybe some new theory claiming Nakagawa betrayed Hideyoshi has surfaced.
If they're going that far, they should also depict Hideyoshi arriving late to the Battle of Yamazaki — and go way over the top with that too.
It's not a new theory, just a contrarian spin on the accepted narrative.
This screenwriter said in some interview that sticking to historical fact wouldn't be interesting,
but honestly they don't seem to have a solid grasp of what's the accepted narrative, what's historical fact, or what new theories have actually emerged.
There's surely no theory that Nakagawa Kiyohide betrayed Hideyoshi at Shizugatake.
It wouldn't explain why Kiyohide's heirs had their fiefs increased by Hideyoshi in recognition of his brave fighting at Shizugatake.
so I doubt there'll be this kind of uproar over historical accuracy.
Quite a lot of records survive, and Katsu Kaishu will probably be a second lead character,
so I think it'll cause an even bigger stir than this one.
Compared to the Bakumatsu era, far fewer records survive from the Sengoku period.
A drama lives or dies by the screenwriter's skill. I'll watch it regardless.
The Bakumatsu era has plenty of documentation, and photographs too.
If they clumsily change things, it'll just look wrong.
Why would that follow? Mitsunari showed up in Toyotomi Brothers! too, as a stubborn, rigid figure — has there been a complaint about that?
Nobody's even watching this stuff anymore, right?
The only masterpiece in recent years was The 13 Lords of the Shogun (Kamakura-dono) — everything else has been trash.
Yeah, it really is better to have solid source material as a backbone rather than a fully original script.
Mitani said Kamakura-dono was based on the Azuma Kagami chronicle.
They should've just had Jubei (Akechi Mitsuhide) do everything Koma's character did — most of Akechi Mitsuhide's life is barely documented anyway.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQaLlq_bMAAqzhI.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQaOai6aIAEnXP_.jpg
we won't know what really happened unless someone invents a time machine,
so I think some degree of dramatic license in a drama is fine.
But when a warlord who, by the accepted account, fought bravely to the end and died in battle
gets turned into someone who begged for his life and betrayed his lord — that's a bit much.
It's only natural for people connected to him to think, "why drag his name through the mud like that?"
It's not even a part that affects the main thrust of the drama's story much,
so it's a mystery why they threw in this unnecessary change.
He was sacrificed to make Maeda's defection look cleaner…
Maybe they wanted to paint Maeda and Nakagawa as the light and dark sides of "betrayal"?
It's probably so that holding the line until Hideyoshi's return could be credited entirely to Hidenaga, and to make Maeda's betrayal look milder by comparison.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Nakagawa Kiyohide is a warlord said to have defended the Oiwayama fort at the Battle of Shizugatake and died in battle after being attacked by Sakuma Morimasa’s forces; he was the father of Nakagawa Hidenari, first lord of the Oka Domain. The drama reportedly depicts a scene in which Kiyohide tries to betray Hideyoshi, then begs for his life before being killed — a major departure from the accepted account of him “dying in battle after fighting bravely.” Opinions split in the thread over how much dramatic license should be allowed in a taiga drama, with the debate centering on whether the change touches the honor of a real historical figure. Past taiga dramas have included plenty of invented material too — such as the circumstances of Azai Nagamasa’s death — but changes that contradict documented achievements tend to draw backlash from those connected to the figure involved. Some also pointed out that records show Kiyohide’s descendants received an increase in fief from Hideyoshi in recognition of his achievements at Shizugatake, casting doubt on the “betrayal” theory.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread “NHK Taiga Drama ‘Toyotomi Brothers!’ — Taketa City and Others Protest Nakagawa Kiyohide Portrayal: ‘Far Removed From Historical Fact’.”
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