It has been announced that Nogizaka46 idol group member Nagi Inoue will play Chacha, the eldest of the three Asai sisters, in the 2026 NHK Taiga drama "Toyotomi Brothers!", and this has become a hot topic. Speaking of Chacha, she was one of the key figures in the Warring States period who later became a concubine of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the ruler of Japan, and was called "Yodo-dono." She has been played by many actors in previous Taiga dramas. It is not clear at this point whether Inoue will play the period before she was called "Yodo-dono," but here we would like to look back on the actors who have played Yodo-dono in previous Taiga dramas that have focused on the Toyotomi family.
◇ The first Yodo-dono in the taiga drama was played by Yoshiko Mita, while Mana Ashida played her childhood role in "Go."
In the history of taiga dramas, Yodo-dono first appeared in the third series, "Taikoki," in 1965, played by Yoshiko Mita. This was Mita's "taiga debut," and she would later star in the 24th series, "Inochi" (1986), and the 33rd series, "Hana no Ran" (1994). This was the work in which Ken Ogata played Hideyoshi, and it is now a work with a "super luxurious" cast, including young actors at the time, such as Ogata, Koji Takahashi, and Koji Ishizaka.
In the 1981 film "Onna Taikoki," which was told from the perspective of Hideyoshi's wife Nene (Kita no Mandokoro), Kimiko Ikegami played Yodo-dono. The protagonist Nene was played by Yoshiko Sakuma, and Hideyoshi was played by Toshiyuki Nishida. At the end, Nene persuades Yodo-dono to accept Tokugawa Ieyasu's (Frankie Sakai) conditions in order to keep the Toyotomi clan alive, but Yodo-dono chooses the path of destruction rather than submission, and the Toyotomi clan that Nene built with Hideyoshi is destroyed, creating a memorable scene.
Takako Matsu played Yodo-dono in the 35th production "Hideyoshi" in 1996, which was a hot topic due to Naoto Takenaka's excellent performance as Hideyoshi. This was Matsu's second time appearing in a taiga drama since "Hana no Ran" (1994), and although she was still in her teens at the time, she played a key character towards the end of the series.
In the 50th film "Go: Princesses of the Warring States" released in 2011, the youngest of the three Asai sisters, Go (played by Juri Ueno), the youngest, was played by Mana Ashida, who was a child actress at the time, and Rie Miyazawa played Chacha and Yodo-dono as grown-ups. Although she was a quiet girl who cared about her younger sister, she had a fiery temperament similar to that of her mother, Ichi (played by Honami Suzuki), and in the final episode, she became an enemy of Go, who married into the Tokugawa family.
◇ Keiko Kitagawa plays the heel role of "Chacha" in "What Will Ieyasu Do?"
Most recently, in the 62nd film "What Will Ieyasu Do?" (2023), two years ago, child actress Shiratori Tamaki played Chacha as a young girl, and Keiko Kitagawa played the grown-up Chacha and Yodo-dono. Kitagawa also appeared in this film as Oichi, and her dual roles as mother and daughter became a hot topic. She married Hideyoshi (Tsuyoshi Muro), her mother's enemy, and after Hideyoshi's death, she awakened to her own ambition to control the turbulent times, taking on a heel-like position that stood in the way of the main character, Ieyasu (Matsumoto Jun).
Looking back at past taiga dramas, other actors who have played the role include Kyoko Kishida in "Spring on the Slope" (1971), Shiho Fujimura in "Golden Days" (1978), Masako Natsume in "Tokugawa Ieyasu" (1983), Kanako Higuchi in "Mitsuha Masamune" (1987), Mai Kitajima and Mayumi Ozora in "Kasuga no Tsubone" (1989), Mayumi Ogawa in "Aoi: The Three Generations of the Tokugawa" (2000), Asaka Seto in "Toshiie and Matsu: The Tale of Kaga's One Million Koku Domain" (2003), Hiromi Nagasaku in "Koumyo Komyo ga Tsuji" (2007), Kyoko Fukada in "Tenchijin" (2009), Fumi Nikaido in "Gunshi Kanbei" (2014), and Yuko Takeuchi in "Sanada Maru" (2016).
Chacha (Yodo-dono) was the niece of Oda Nobunaga, one of the greatest heroes of the Sengoku period, her father was Azai Nagamasa, a famous general known for his wisdom and bravery, and she is said to have inherited her beauty from her mother Oichi.It can be said that many of the actors who have played the role have combined beauty with presence.
Inoue, who plays Chacha in "Toyotomi Brothers!", was selected to join Nogizaka46 in 2022 after an audition that saw the highest competition ratio in the history of Japanese group idols, at about 7,987 times the number of applicants. She is the "next generation ace" of the group, and also serves as the center for the title song.
Although he has little acting experience, he was selected from over 1,600 applicants in an audition for "Toyotomi Brothers!" Producer Yukako Takahashi explained the reason for casting him, saying, "He showed a calmness and seductiveness beyond his years," so we're looking forward to seeing what kind of performance he will show us.
