Mori Motonari

Details

Title: 毛利元就
Title (romaji): Mori Motonari
Format: Renzoku
Genre: Jidaigeki
Episodes: 50
Viewership ratings: Avg: 23.4%, high: 28.5% (Kanto)
Broadcast network: NHK
Broadcast period: 1997-Jan-05 to 1997-Dec-14
Air time: Sunday 20:00

Synopsis

The 36th NHK taiga drama is Mori Motonari. This series chronicles the life of Mori Motonari, a warlord of the early 1500s who stood at the vanguard of the Warring States era. All Japanese school textbooks contain the Mitsuya no kyokun, Mori's famous lesson to his three sons that teaches that while one arrow is easily broken, three arrows together cannot be broken. In 1997, 500 years after his birth, NHK dramatizes Motonari's rise from a chief of the region of Aki (now Hiroshima) to a daimyo who rules over ten provinces of the Chugoku region. Motonari was 64 years old and already the patriarch of a powerful dynasty about the time Oda Nobunaga and Takeda Shingen appeared on the scene. And even after his death, the Mori family figured prominently in Japanese history. His grandson Terumoto became a loyal Toyotomi vassal. Defeated at the Battle of Sekigahara, Ieyasu confiscated most of his lands, leaving him only with Suwo and Nagato, later known as Choshu. But 260 years later, the Mori got their ultimate revenge, leading the imperial forces against the Tokugawa in the Meiji Restoration. --KIKU TV

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Cast

Mori Clan

Iwabuchi Yukihiro → Morita Go → Nakamura Shikan VIII (中村芝翫 (8代目) as Shojumaru → Mori Motonari
Tomita Yasuko as Mi-no-kata (Motonari's wife)
Matsuzaka Keiko as Sugi-no-kata (Mori Hiromoto's second wife)
Kamikawa Takaya as Mori Takamoto (Motonari's eldest son)
- Kanazawa Takumi (金澤匠) as Chiyojumaru
Matsushige Yutaka as Kikkawa Motoharu (Motonari's second son)
- Ando Kazushi (安藤一志) as Matsujumaru
Megumi Toshiaki as Kobayakawa Takakage (Motonari's third son)
- Tomita Shigeo as Tokujumaru
Takahashi Yumiko as Eno (Morimotonari's eldest daughter)
- Ito Asuka (伊藤明日香) as young Eno
Morita Go as Mori Terumoto (Motonair and Mi-no-kata's grandchild)
Nakamura Hashinosuke IV (中村橋之助 (4代目) as Kotsurumaru
Saigo Teruhiko as Mori Hiromoto (Motonari's father)
Takeshita Keiko as Sachi-no-kata (Hiromoto's wife)
Matsubara Chiaki as Aio-no-kata (Hiromoto's concubine)
Go Takuya (後藤拓也) → Ashida Shotaro → Watabe Atsuro as Kochiyomaru → Mori Okimoto (Motonari's elder brother)
Ise Yuki (伊勢裕樹) → Ishii Suguru (いしいすぐる) → Nishijima Hidetoshi as Takewakamaru → Aio Mototsuna (Motonari's younger half-brother)
Ichiro Maki as Yuki-no-kata (Okimoto's wife, Komatsumaru's mother)
Kitao Wataru (北尾亘) as Komatsumaru (Okimoto's eldest son)
- Fukugawa Yuta (深川雄太) as young Komatsumaru
Azusa Mayuko as Matsu-no-kata (Motonari's younger half-sister)
- Azumi Reina (安積玲奈) as Matsu-hime
Tajima Honami (田島穂奈美) as Yoshi-hime
Kase Taishu as Shishido Takaie (Motonari's son-in-law)
Watabiki Katsuhiko as Kumagai Nobunao (Motoharu's father-in-law)
Shimizu Shin as Kikkawa Motosuke (Motoharu's eldest son)
- 仁科拓海 as young Motosuke
Otsuka Nene as Toshi-no-kata (Naito Okimori's daughter)
Nishina Fuki (仁科扶紀) as Mimi (Motoharu's wife)
Fujiyoshi Kumiko as Ako-no-kata
- Mifune Mika as Ako-hime
Matsumoto Rio as Tama-hime (Terumoto's wife)
Miyamoto Nobuko as Tae
Akimoto Naomi as Ko
Tanaka Hiroko (田中ヒロコ) as Sayo

Production Credits

Original writing: Novels Yamagiri Mori Motonari no Tsuma (山霧毛利元就の妻) and Motonari, Soshite Onnatachi (元就、そして女たち) by Nagai Michiko (永井路子)
Screenwriter: Uchidate Makiko
Executive producer: Kida Yukinori (木田幸紀)
Producer: Naito Shinsuke
Director: Matsuoka Koji (松岡孝治), Kobayashi Takeshi (小林武), Yoshikawa Kunio (吉川邦夫), Sano Motohiko, Ochi Atsushi (越智篤志), Watanabe Yoshio, Imai Yoichi (今井洋一), Iso Tomoaki, Yamamoto Toshihiko (山本敏彦)
Music: Watanabe Toshiyuki
Narrator: Hirano Keiko (平野啓子)

Episode Ratings

See Mori Motonari/Episode Ratings

Notes

Morita Go acted as young Mori Motonari, and Mori Terumoto.
In the United States, specifically KIKU-TV and other licensees of the JN Production subbed work, episode 1 was split into two episodes (1A and 1B), while making episode 2 episode 3, and so on down the line, the ending result appearing to have 50 episodes.

External Links

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