The second episode of the NHK Taiga drama " UNBOUND (Berabou) " (General TV, Sunday 8pm and others), starring actor Ryusei Yokohama , "Yoshiwara Hosomi 'Ahh Oedo'", will be broadcast on January 12th. From this episode, Ikuta Toma will appear as Hitotsubashi Harumori.
Ikuta will be appearing in a taiga drama for the fourth time, following "Gunshi Kanbei" in 2014, "Idaten: Tokyo Olympic Banashi" in 2019, and " The 13 Lords of the Shogun" in 2022. He will play Hitotsubashi Harumori, the head of the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family, one of the "Gosankyo" (three branches of the Tokugawa family) that was created as a response to the succession of the eighth shogun, Yoshimune. He is Yoshimune's grandson and a cousin of the tenth shogun, Ieharu. As the shogun's successors die young one after another, Harumori's son Ienari, the last remaining shogun, becomes the eleventh shogun, and Harumori gains all the wealth and power as the "father of the shogun."
"The father of the 11th shogun, Ienari, who enjoyed the pleasures of life before anyone else in the world."
When announcing his participation in the role in July last year, Ikuta commented, "When I played Minamoto no Nakaaki in ' The 13 Lords of the Shogun', I was disliked by many people for being such a villain (laughs). This time, in order to surpass the 'irritating Nakaaki', I will play Hitotsubashi Harumori, a man known as a monster. I would like to selfishly portray the creepiness of the man who eliminates those who get in his way one by one with a smile on his face."
"This will be my first time acting alongside Yokohama, but I have the image of him as a stoic and sexy actor. I hope he will enjoy this long battle of a year and a half together with all the loving staff. Recently, there has been a strong theory that Jisei was the mastermind behind it all, and was secretly plotting to make his own son the shogun. He is a sociable person and seems very kind, yet he carries out brutal acts with a straight face. That is the kind of Jisei I am aiming to play," he said.
"UNBOUND (Berabou)" is the 64th taiga drama, depicting the life of Tsutaya Juzaburo(or "Tsutajyu" for short), who is said to have built the foundations of Japan's media industry and pop culture. The script was written by Yoshiko Morishita, known for "Drama 10 'Ooku'" which was broadcast on NHK two years ago and became a big hit.
