Yae no Sakura

Yae no Sakura
Genre	Taiga drama
Written by	Mutsumi Yamamoto
Starring	Haruka Ayase Hidetoshi Nishijima Joe Odagiri Hiroki Hasegawa Jun Fubuki Yutaka Matsushige Kyoko Hasegawa Tetsuji Tamayama Go Ayano Shun Oguri Meisa Kuroki Kotaro Koizumi Shido Nakamura Takumi Saito Yoshiko Miyazaki Katsuhisa Namase Kumiko Akiyoshi Masaya Kato Masahiro Takashima Kōji Kikkawa Ichikawa Somegorō VII Takashi Sorimachi Izumi Inamori Hiroaki Murakami Hiroki Matsukata Toshiyuki Nishida
Narrated by	Mitsuko Kusabue
Theme music composer	Ryuichi Sakamoto
Composer(s)	Nobuyuki Nakajima
Country of origin	Japan
Original language(s)	Japanese
No. of episodes	50
Production
Running time	48 x 45 minutes 1 x 75 minutes 1 x 60 minutes
Release
Original network	NHK
Original release	January 6 – December 15, 2013
Chronology
Preceded by	Taira no Kiyomori
Followed by	Gunshi Kanbei

Yae no Sakura (八重の桜) is a 2013 Japanese television series. It is the 52nd NHK taiga drama. The story focuses on Niijima Yae, who is portrayed by Haruka Ayase.^[1] Yae is a strong believer in women's rights and the story follows her journey in Japan, during the time it is opened up to Western ideas.

Cast

• Haruka Ayase as Niijima Yae
  • Rio Suzuki as childhood Yae

Her family

• Hiroki Hasegawa as Kawasaki Shonosuke
• Joe Odagiri as Joseph Hardy Neesima
• Hidetoshi Nishijima as Yamamoto Kakuma
• Jun Fubuki as Yamamoto Saku
• Yutaka Matsushige as Yamamoto Gonpachi
• Kyoko Hasegawa as Higuchi Ura
• Mitsuki Tanimura as Oda Tokie
• Masahiro Toda as Tokuzō

Aizu Domain

• Go Ayano as Matsudaira Katamori
• Izumi Inamori as Matsudaira Teru
• Toshiyuki Nishida as Saigō Tanomo
• Ayame Goriki as Hinata Yuki
• Meisa Kuroki as Nakano Takeko
• Masane Tsukayama as Jinbo Kuranosuke
• Tetsuji Tamayama as Yamakawa Hiroshi
• Mikako Ichikawa as Yamakawa Futaba
• Ryo Katsuji as Yamakawa Kenjirō
• Kumiko Akiyoshi as Yamakawa En
• Kiko Mizuhara as Ōyama Sutematsu
• Morio Kazama as Hayashi Yasusada
• Hiroyuki Ikeuchi as Kajiwara Heima
• Shido Nakamura as Sagawa Kanbei
• Shingo Yanagisawa as Kayano Gonbei
• Shihori Kanjiya as Fujita Tokio
• Junko Miyashita as Takagi Sumie

Tokugawa shogunate

• Kotaro Koizumi as Tokugawa Yoshinobu
• Takaaki Enoki as Ii Naosuke

Shinsengumi

• Yū Kamio as Kondō Isami
• Jun Murakami as Hijikata Toshizō
• Kenji Furuya as Saitō Hajime

Government of Meiji

• Katsuhisa Namase as Katsu Kaishū
• Mitsuhiro Oikawa as Kido Takayoshi
• Kazuki Kosakai as Iwakura Tomomi
• Satoshi Tokushige as Ōkubo Toshimichi
• Masaya Kato as Itagaki Taisuke
• Takashi Sorimachi as Ōyama Iwao
• Eisuke Sasai as Sanjō Sanetomi
• Toranosuke Katō as Itō Hirobumi
• Manabu Ino as Yamagata Aritomo

Chōshū Domain

• Shun Oguri as Yoshida Shōin
• Takamasa Suga as Kusaka Genzui

Satsuma Domain

• Koji Kikkawa as Saigō Takamori
• Yoichi Hayashi as Shimazu Nariakira

Others

• Hiroaki Murakami as Matsudaira Yoshinaga
• Eiji Okuda as Sakuma Shōzan
• Goro Ibuki as Tokugawa Nariaki
• Kyusaku Shimada as Maki Yasuomi
• Hiroki Matsukata as Ōgakiya Seihachi
• Eric Bossick as Carl Wilhelm Heinrich Lehmann
• Mayuko Kawakita as Tsuda Umeko

Reception

In 2014, the series was nominated for the International Emmy Award for best drama series.

References

1. Corkill, Edan (January 4, 2013). "NHK spotlights gunslinging daughter of the north in yearlong Sunday drama". The Japan Times.

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Yae no Sakura at the Internet Movie Database