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Hirotaka Matsukawa, chief producer of NHK’s Taiga drama “Toyotomi Brothers!”, spoke to reporters and addressed the polarizing scene in which Oichi and Shibata Katsuie join hands and leap to their deaths from Kitanoshō Castle, explaining, “We haven’t cut anything that’s confirmed as historical fact,” and “Even the Edo-period ‘Taikōki’ is fiction, not historical fact.” He also revealed a rivalry with “VIVANT,” which airs in the same Sunday night slot. On 5channel, discussion ranged widely — from opinions on this explanation, to the quality of the script and direction itself, to pointing out historical events left undepicted (such as the Tenshō earthquake), to frustration with NHK’s mandatory license-fee system.
Hirotaka Matsukawa (50), who serves as executive producer of NHK’s Taiga drama “Toyotomi Brothers!”, spoke to reporters in Tokyo by September 5. The drama tells the story of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Sosuke Ikematsu), who unifies the realm, and his younger brother and the series’ protagonist, Hidenaga (Taiga Nakano). Ahead of episode 34, “The Strongest Rival,” airing on the 6th, Matsukawa brought up the topic himself: “We’re two-thirds of the way through, so I really want to shift into an even higher gear here — I can’t let ‘VIVANT’ (on TBS) beat us (laughs).” Though said jokingly, it revealed his rivalry with the drama airing in the same Sunday night slot.
He continued, “Ever since episode 27, ‘The Honnō-ji Incident’ (aired July 12), I’ve really felt viewer enthusiasm rising. We’re confident in how ‘The Honnō-ji Incident’ turned out, and the following episode, ‘Hurry, Hideyoshi!,’ depicting Hideyoshi’s forced march back from Chūgoku, also came out really well, so I feel that’s coming through and building up viewers’ enthusiasm.” He said he’s felt solid momentum since around when “VIVANT” began airing. He especially noted, “We had the intention of bringing in viewers who hadn’t engaged with Taiga dramas before — elementary schoolers, for instance — and hearing that this is actually happening has been really encouraging,” explaining that the response has been strong from children who’ve become interested in history, and from their parents.
The drama has featured many unprecedented scenes that have sparked considerable debate — such as Azai Nagamasa’s (Ayumu Nakajima) wife, Oichi (Aoi Miyazaki), performing his kaishaku (the ritual beheading assist in seppuku), and, in the most recent episode 33, Shibata Katsuie (Makiya Yamaguchi) and Oichi joining hands and leaping from Kitanoshō Castle. On this point, Matsukawa explained, “I don’t believe we’ve cut anything that’s confirmed as historical fact. Our stance is to question the so-called conventional narratives that everyone assumes to be historical fact, and to propose, ‘Maybe it wasn’t actually like that.’ Some of what’s accepted as conventional narrative is simply believed because it was written down somewhere once, and recent research has sometimes produced completely different theories or overturned it entirely. And to begin with, the ‘Taikōki,’ written in the Edo period, is itself considered fiction — so we’re essentially building further fiction on top of fiction. I think people may be mistaking that (the Taikōki) for historical fact.”
Source: nikkansports.com / Original article here
What people said
It's almost entirely absent from this Taiga drama.
Without that, you can't understand why Hideyoshi subdued Ieyasu through diplomacy instead of brute force, unlike everyone else.
why has NHK's Taiga drama gotten this lightweight?
He also wrote Journey to the West, and even serious modern political drama about drafting Japan's postwar constitution — James Miki could handle material like that properly.
some people stubbornly believe that's actual fact.
Like Tetsuya Takeda.
Then explain the Nakagawa thing too —
why did the portrayal end up being the exact opposite? (lol)
Sloppy, shallow production,
scattering half-skimmed keywords while only talking around the surface of its themes.
Yeah, we get it already. So make it MORE interesting than the conventional narrative then!
It's just gotten boring, all you're doing is killing the mood.
Are you stupid or something?
On top of being gimmicky,
it's boring too lol.
If it were at least entertaining…
Yasuke was captured at Honnō-ji and thrown into the Nanban-ji (a Jesuit church), so he's probably done appearing.
The citizens paying that fee are less like customers and more like sponsors.
This drama's bad reputation deserves to grow into a license-fee boycott movement.
This is the important part lol.
Don't go taking our money just to make garbage.
They said the same thing with the 'female-led Taiga' too — they always trot this line out. They've been saying it for like 20 years now. But I've never once seen them actually pull it off
— all it's doing is driving people away from Taiga dramas lol.
They've been saying that for years now,
but they haven't brought anyone in, and viewers are leaving.
They should honestly just be grateful to the people still watching while complaining lol.
Basically what they're saying is: they don't need you.
Go ahead and do wild stuff like "Oda Nobunaga was actually a woman."
Can we please stop endlessly rehashing the Sengoku era like a broken record already?
Do the Nara or Asuka period instead — the Mononobe vs. Soga clan conflict, for example.
There are far too few historical records from Japan's ancient period to do much real research for historical accuracy.
— how is that war at all?
Content-wise, this is BS Jidaigeki (NHK's lower-budget satellite period-drama slot) level.
Over there it wouldn't get bashed nearly this much, and it's nice that they don't drag it out endlessly like the Taiga drama lol.
Honestly, BS Jidaigeki might be the better option right now lol.
Won't a screenwriter like James Miki come along again?
The scene where the father dies was the best.
they'll be gone soon anyway.
These days people live to like 100 lol.
"It hasn't been proven they didn't jump."
"It's said they committed seppuku, but there's no proof."
"So it's fine to change it freely."
By that logic even Sengoku BASARA (a wildly fictionalized video game series) would pass.
This can't really be called a historical drama anymore.
Ramba Ral doesn't hold hands with Simon and hop off somewhere together.
Simon charged in alone on a suicide attack.
Gundam's battlefield deaths are far more honorable
— a clean, dignified end.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Taiga dramas have traditionally been made by using the script to fill in gaps left by conventional historical narratives, and it’s a widely shared premise among historians that the Edo-period “Taikōki” was itself a work of fiction written to portray Hideyoshi as a hero. This interview is simply the production side putting that premise into words again — there’s nothing especially new in the content itself. What split opinion in the thread wasn’t “is it historically accurate,” but “is the depiction any good” — views were divided over whether bold dramatic licenses, like the scene of Oichi and Katsuie holding hands and leaping to their deaths, should be praised as strong direction or dismissed as a lazy shortcut. There are also historical events, like the Tenshō earthquake, that the Taiga drama barely touches on, so there’s a gap between the claim of “not cutting anything historical” and the actual choices being made about what to include. Complaints about NHK’s license-fee system flare up almost every time as well, but that’s a separate issue from evaluating the show’s content and should be read apart from the article’s main point.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “‘Toyotomi Brothers!’ Production Chief Interview: ‘We Haven’t Cut Anything Confirmed as Historical Fact’ / ‘The Edo-Period Taikōki Is Also Fiction, Not Historical Fact’.”
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