Japon TV Series history 1990-2022
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- StarsShun SugataTomohisa YamashitaMeisa KurokiThis TV-drama follows Sakai Shintaro, descendant of Sakai Mineji -a Byakkotai samurai-, and traces the tragedy of the Byakkotai, a military force composed of 340 16 to 17 years old boys during the Boshin War (Aizu war).
- StarsMasato SakaiYô ÔizumiSeiyô UchinoThe life of Japan's last great battlefield commander is chronicled in this historical drama. In war-torn 16th century Japan, Sandana Masayuki bravely leads his small clan to survival during a brutal time through cunning strategy.
- StarsMasaharu FukuyamaShimba TsuchiyaMasaomi KondôThe story focuses on the life of Sakamoto Ryoma, who lived from 1835 to 1867. He was an important leader in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa Bakufu, eventually bringing about the Meiji Restoration.
- StarsTakehiro HiraAoi MiyazakiYumiko TakahashiThe 47th NHK Taiga Drama is a life story of Atsuhime who was born in Kagoshima Prefecture, then called Satsuma, and became the wife of Tokugawa Iesada, the 13th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate.
- StarsHaruka AyaseMitsuko KusabueJun FubukiThis historical biopic follows the life of Japanese heroine Yae Niijima. As Yae dedicates her life to helping others, she becomes a role model for modern women everywhere.
- StarsIssei TakahashiSeiyô UchinoFusako Urabe2007's Japanese NHK Taiga drama Furin Kazan (meaning 'Wind, Forest, Fire & Mountain' NOT The Trusted Confidant as stated above) contains everything you could want in this type of series- characters, action, intrigue, philosophy etc delivered by a superb cast. This is the story of a one-eyed limping ronin called Yamamoto Kansuke whose expertise in military tactics & strategy brings about the rise of the Takeda Clan. While most films made on the subject focus on the warlord Takeda Shingen, Kansuke is very much the focus here. The series is set during the turbulent Warring States Period in the mid-16th century when provincial warlords were constantly attacking each other. The benefits of sound strategy were immense & Kansuke's shrewd manipulation of the enemy reaps dividends for Takeda Shingen. It would be pointless to try to explain any more of the plot - the series spans 50 episodes of 45mins each! Everything from the storyline to the direction to the acting recommends this as one of the finest of the annual NHK dramas. Uchino Masaaki is superb as the wily Kansuke while Gackt turns in a spellbinding performance as the mystical Lord of Echigo. After each episode is a short documentary describing the modern-day sites of the battles/castles/shrines portrayed in the series but be warned! These often give away information not yet shown in the series & can act as a spoiler. Apart from that, Excellent Stuff.
- StarsKôji YamamotoShingo KatoriTakayuki TakumaJapan, July 1853. Scores of people lined the beaches at Uraga Harbor near the Shogunate Capitol of Edo. They came to get a glimpse of the American Fleet of Commodore Perry's infamous Black Ships that arrived on Japan's shores to deliver an ultimatum to open the country from 250 years of Isolation. Among them a is an impressionable low ranking Samurai & fencing instructor named Kondo Isami (Katori Shingo) and another low ranking Samurai turned Medicine peddler & playboy Hijikata Toshizou (Yamamoto Koji) who were both frightened and awed by the sight of such military might that has sent the country into crisis. Together, they will join with the young sword progeny Okita Soji (Fujiwara Tatsuya) who will join a group of ronin that will head to the Imperial Capitol in Kyoto to help preserve order for the Shogun. Betrayed by their initial leader in Kyoto, factions of ronin form and alliances are forged into what became the Shinsengumi; The Special Elite Corps. Under the auspicious of the Bakufu in Edo and the watchful eye of the Aizu Lord Matsudaira Katamori (Tsutsui Michitaka) the Shinsengumi will assume patrol duties in the suburb of Mibu. Tensions & chaos from allegations of abuse and corruption from the Serizawa faction lead to the assassination of its temperamental leader Serizawa Kamo (Sato Kochi) leaving the charismatic Kondo Isami in charge. Together with his old friend Hijikata promoted to serve as his Vice Commander & unit disciplinarian that would clean up the reputation of The Wolves of Mibu. They instill the strict code of Bushido and reconstitute the Shinsengumi under the Makoto Banner into a viable force whose task it was to protect the Shogun and root out anti-Shogunate plotters. But tragically, history is not on their side. Though believing they are doing what they believe is in Japan's best interests, these young idealistic Samurai will follow Kondo Isami in this 43rd NHK Taiga Drama into tragedy and into legend.
- StarsKazuki KitamuraKaoru HirataKaori TakahashiA humorless samurai, nearly desperate for work, agrees to assassinate a goblin cat that is accused of possessing a man's soul.
- StarsJun'ichi OkadaGaku HamadaMiki NakataniGunshi Kanbei (Strategist Kanbei) is a-year long taiga drama by NHK in 2014. This fictional series consists of 50 episodes and follows the journey of Kuroda Kanbei, a historical figure who lived during Japan's Warring States period as he navigated the murky water of political intrigues and military conquests of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu - the three unificators of feudal Japan. A brilliant tactician, Kanbei was one of Hideyoshi's trusted strategists who was known for his bravery and handicap.
- StarsSatoshi TsumabukiNobuko MiyamotoKazuki KitamuraThe story centers on Naoe Kanetsugu, a loyal and devoted samurai in Echigo Province in the 16th century. Kanetsugu was trained in his early childhood by Uesugi Kenshin and after his death, served Kenshin's adopted son Kagekatsu and is known for his extreme loyalty to the Uesugi family. He also made every effort to protect the people of Echigo with a strong sense of justice and genuine sympathy toward commoners.
- StarsSuzu HiroseYurinoRyô YoshizawaIn post-World War 2 Japan, a farm girl arrives in Tokyo and starts a career in animation.
- StarsHideaki TakizawaNoriko NakagoshiMutsumi FujitaFictionalized account of the last years of Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-1189), one of the great folk heroes of Japan, and the political intrigues that sealed his fate.
- StarsShun OguriEiko KoikeKôji YamamotoA story of Hojo Yoshitoki, and 12 other lords who supported Minamoto no Yoritomo as he became the founder and first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate.
- StarsMei NaganoYasuko MatsuyukiJun FubukiAfter losing her hearing in one ear because of a disease, Suzume Nireno's family and her childhood friend always motivate her and help her during life's twists and turns.
- StarsTakehito KoyasuA girl named Yuzuki, is transported to a world of the supernatural. She wakes up in the middle of a battlefield and is found by the leader of one of the armies, as well as his subordinates. She finds out that the armies are all lead by vampire and werewolves, and that her blood is special. Now it's up to her to help bring about peace, or destruction.
- StarsKen'ichi MatsuyamaTakaya KamikawaMasaki OkadaThe 51st NHK Taiga drama recounts the life of Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181), a general of the Heian period, who established the first samurai-based government in Japan.
- StarsJuri UenoMasako MiyajiHonami SuzukiThe play features three women of the Warring States Period, who're the daughters of Oda Yiji, the sister of Nobunaga Oda, known as the "Three Asai Sisters". During Go's life, she experienced many famous battles and events in the period.
- StarsTetsuji TamayamaCharlotte Kate FoxYouko MatsuokaMassan is based on the lives of Masataka Taketsuru and his wife Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowan, a Scotswoman Taketsuru met while studying abroad. American actress Charlotte Kate Fox stars as Ellie Kameyama opposite Japanese actor Tetsuji Tamayama as Masaharu Kameyama in a fictionalized account of Rita's travels to Japan and Taketsuru's attempts to begin the Nikka Whisky Distilling company. The story starts in Taisho era year 9, 1920 and the storyline develops for the next 50 years : The son and heir to a sake brewery in Hiroshima has discovered a passion for making whiskey. Blessed by his employer, he travels alone to Scotland to learn how to make the finest Whiskey. After two years, he returns to Japan with his expertise and dream of making Whiskey and his new foreigner wife. Massan is a Japanese television drama series, the 91st Asadora (morning drama) broadcast on NHK. It premiered on September 29, 2014, and will be broadcast daily until March 28, 2015. It is the first time that NHK's Asadora series has featured a non-Japanese actor in a lead role The drama shows a unique way of viewing Japanese virtues, and cross-cultural hospitality, while gaining an understanding of the differences between Scotland and Japan. The drama offers a unique view of growing up "Japanophile."
- StarsKasumi ArimuraAkemi MasudaYui SakumaThe 17-year-old Yatabe Mineko grew up in a family of seven in a mountain village in northeastern Ibaraki Prefecture. Her father Minoru has gone to Tokyo to work in order to earn extra money. However, her life completely changes when her father does not come back for the New Year. Mineko asks her family to let her go to Tokyo to find him and promises to send money home. In the autumn of 1964, she and two childhood friends Tokiko and Mitsuo are hired to start working at a small factory in Tokyo's working class neighborhood. After work each day, Mineko searches for her father and gets disheartened at times. Mineko overcomes challenges and starts to lay down roots in Tokyo as she experiences many meetings and farewells amid the laughter and tears with regulars, people of the shopping street, friends, and colleagues. But will she be able to find her father?
- StarsYukie NakamaCharles GloverTakako UeharaSet in the Ryukyu Kingdom during the latter days of the Tokugawa shogunate, a woman who wants to complete her studies despite her gender restrictions, takes advantage of the disappearance of her step brother and disguises herself as a Eunuch named Son Neion. Later still under disguise, she passes the exam to be a royal governments official.
- StarsBaijaku NakamuraToshiyuki NishidaKazuyo AsariThe 39th NHK Taiga Drama is Aoi Tokugawa Sandai. It is James Miki's dynamic and colorful tale of three generations of the Tokugawa dynasty--from its founder Ieyasu to Iemitsu, the third Shogun who solidified the Tokugawa power base.
- StarsFernando GilSimón AndreuKai InowakiAn Italian missionary arrived in Japan during the Middle Ages in order to proselytize, evangelize and recruit people to his religion. He instituted seminaries around the country and picked the most ardent to travel to the Vatican in order to meet the Pope himself. Their fate and circumstances is tested.
- StarsNaoto OgataMomoko KikuchiKeiko TakahashiThe life of Oda Nobunaga, the Japanese warlord that started the unification of the country through a sneries of wars in the sixteenth century. His labor was followed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. He welcomed the Jesuits, the order that through their political meddling created the conditions that led to their expulsion, the ban on Christianity, and the closing of the country under Toyotomi.
- StarsBeat KiyoshiRyû ManatsuRô NaruseA dramatized biography of the second of Japan's three legendary leaders. Rising from obscurity, Hideyoshi served under the command of Oda Nobunaga. With an extrodinary combination of intelligence, bravery and military skill, Hideyoshi rose to near-absolute power and greatly expanded upon Nobunaga's unification of Japan's warlords. This series also focused on Hideyoshi's personal life, particularly his relationships with his mother and his wife, and the pair's rivalry for influence over him.
- StarsTasuku EmotoMachiko OnoRyo IshibashiKazutaka An is a young psychiatrist at Kobe University Hospital. He enjoys playing jazz, recording his thoughts in a diary and reading books. Suddenly, a devastating earthquake hits Kobe. Kazutaka is traumatized by the earthquake himself, but he still gives treatment to the victims. He listens to their stories and feels their pain.
- StarsKazuyuki AijimaShunsuke KariyaAkira TakahashiThe story is set in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture in the era around the Second World War. When the story opens in 1928, the heroine, Sakurako, is a very active seven-year-old girl who is interested in becoming a jazz pianist, and music features extensively in the plot.
- StarsAkari KizukiHana SugisakiThe latest in the series of morning serials known as asadora Takei Chiyo is a poor pre-teen Japanese girl from a poor family, She could not even make it to school properly. Her surroundings and downtrodden Osaka neighbourhood does not inspire much confidence or allow for aspirations for the future She obtains a part-time job at a cafe where there are performances all around her. Chiyo begins to daydream about herself becoming an actress and travels for it.
- StarsMasahiro MotokiBunta SugawaraAyako WakaoThe series focuses on the life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th and final ruler of the Tokugawa period. Born the seventh son of Lord Nariaki of Mito, Yoshinobu is named shogun when he is just 29 years old. With a wisdom and vision beyond his years, he tries to prolong the life of this 200-year-old dynasty which began with Ieyasu. However, he is unable to forestall the winds of revolution as clans in Choshu, Satsuma and Tosa, with the help of the Imperial Court, clamor for change.
- StarsSôta FukushiShingo TsurumiYûma YamotoSet during the early Meiji era, Private Detective Shinjuro Yuki returns to Japan from abroad. He is trusted by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. PShinjuro attempts to solve strange cases take place. Meanwhile, Rie Kano is the daughter of a powerful businessman. She becomes attracted to Shinjuro.
- StarsTakashi MatsuyamaAyumu MuraseRaikô SakamotoThe daily life of Isobe Isobee, a lazy slacker samurai with big dreams.
- StarsKurt CommonJerry P. MartinezLance GatlingExamining Japan's defense policies and the U.S.-Japan alliance's role in addressing regional security threats in East Asia from the American military's viewpoint.
- StarsKyôko YoshineMiho KannoKaho TsuchimuraBeppin-San traces the life of Sumire (soo-mee-reh) a clothing maker, designer, retailer and business woman in Kobe City, Japan from before World War II onwards.
- StarsGaku HamadaMelinda AntaramianWakana AoiSet in the late Meiji period (Meiji period: 1868-1912). Ten Fujioka's (Wakana Aoi) family has run a drug wholesale store for generations in Kyoto. She laughs a lot, but, due to her laugh, important business talk flounders. Her father, Gihee (Kenichi Endo), tells her not to laugh. One day, she meets a man Tokichi Kitamura (Tori Matsuzaka) who is chased by a bunch of men. Since then, Ten's life changes.
- StarsErika TodaYasuko TomitaKôhei MatsushitaBorn in Osaka in 1937, Kawahara Kimiko is the eldest of 3 sisters. At age nine, she and her family moved Shigaraki in Shiga Prefecture. Growing up surrounded by local Shigaraki pottery, she decided to become a ceramics artist. Despite her passion, as a woman she faced many setbacks in a patriarchal industry. We follow her life from childhood to marriage to a pioneering career in the ceramic arts.
- StarsBaijaku NakamuraTaikô KatônoSatoshi TokushigeDenshichi of Kuromoncho is a subordinate of a police constable. He punishes widespread evil in the backstreets of Edo with a purple truncheon entrusted to him by the inspector Toyama Saemon, who is the magistrate of Kitamachi. Denshichi condemns the crimes rather than the criminals and is sympathetic and kind.
- StarsJunpei MizobataYûna TairaYoshiko MiyazakiTachibana Noboru, a 20-year-old aspiring doctor, lives for tomorrow. Leaving Dewa Province (present day Akita), he turns to an uncle Komaki Genan, who is a town doctor in Edo and gets a job as a doctor of Kodenmacho Prison at Genan's recommendation. The impressionable Noboru sees the suffering of people who live at the bottom of society as he gets involved in all sorts of incidents inside the prison and solves them with brilliant deductions and jujitsu skills. One night, he is informed that there is an emergency case. A prisoner, Katsuzo, who is due to be exiled to an island for housebreaking, is suffering from a stomachache. Noboru goes to the prison with grim determination. However, Katsuzo feigned his illness in order to lure him to the prison. Noboru is entrusted with a secret task by Katsuzo. It is to obtain his share of 10 ryo from the man who was the ringleader of the housebreaking and hand this money over to a woman called Omitsu in Fukagawa. Omitsu had pledged to be his wife. Sympathising with Katsuzo, Noboru accepts his request.
- StarsKazuko KatôMasao KusakariKyôzô NagatsukaTange Tenzen is made a vassal to the shogun. He is a master of the single long sword fighting style. But in order to defend the honour of his wife, Nagao Chiharu, he loses an arm and his family is also wiped out.
- StarsKazuma SuzukiHiromi IwasakiNaoki NokuboJapanese TV program that reproduce as a suspenseful drama based on actual historical events.
- Unbroken through the centuries since the Jomon Era, the ancient holy places of the Tohoku Region of Japan provide awe-inspiring and breathtaking views and experiences for modern visitors. Nestled on Japan's Honshu Island and known for its many volcanoes and mountainous terrain, this historic region is where the spirit and rich culture of Japan collide with modern life.