Yae no Sakura

Yae no Sakura (八重の桜), is a 2013 Japanese drama produced by NHK. It was aired in Japan by NHK from January 6, 2013 to December 15, 2013.

“Yae no Sakura” poster

Basic information

Original title (Japanese): 八重の桜
Phonetic title: Yae no Sakura
English title: Yae no Sakura
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan
Runtime: 45 minutes
No. of episodes: 50
Genre: Period drama, Historical drama
Director: Taku Kato, Masae Ichiki, Takuya Shimizu, Yoshiharu Sasaki
Scriptwriter: Mutsumi Yamamoto
Producer: Naito Shinsuke
Production company: NHK
Broadcast network: NHK
Broadcast period: January 6, 2013 – December 15, 2013

Plot

Yae (Haruka Ayase) is born into the Yamamoto family in Aizu, Fukushima Prefecture. Her father is Aizu domain's official gunnery instructor. Yae becomes more interested in guns than sewing. She learns gunnery from her brother Kakuma (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and participates in the Battle of Aizu. Aizu though loses the battle.

Yae divorces her husband Naonosuke Kawasaki (Hiroki Hasegawa) and walks away from guns. She finds a new interest in learning. Yae then meets Jo Niijima (Joe Odagiri), the founder of Doshisha University, and marries him.

Yae is a strong proponent of gender equality and acts according to what she believes in. This rubs others the wrong way, but her husband, who experienced western culture in the United States, supports her. In her later years, Yae servers as a nurse during the Russo-Japanese War. Yae is later referred to as the "Nightingale of Japan".

Some scenes in “Yae no Sakura”

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
• Ichikawa Somegorō VII as Emperor Kōmei

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