Ikuta Toma, who plays Hitotsubashi Harumori in the NHK Taiga drama " UNBOUND (Berabou) " (General TV, Sunday 8:00 pm and others), starring actor Ryusei Yokohama Ryusei, is a hot topic. Episode 15 "Gloves Calling Death" aired on April 13th, depicted the last moments of Matsudaira Takemoto ( Koji Ishizaka), and episode 16 "Farewell Gennai, the Guardian of Horai" aired on April 20th, depicted the last moments of Hiraga Gennai (Ken Yasuda Ken). As Harumori, who is said to have been involved in each of their deaths, Ikuta's "evil face" stands out.
◇ In the role of Nakaaki in "Kamakura-dono," he had a sarcastic and irritating face.
This will be Ikuta's fourth time appearing in a taiga drama, following "Gunshi Kanbei" in 2014, "Idaten: Tokyo Olympic Banashi" in 2019, and "The 13 Lords of the Shogun" in 2022. In "UNBOUND," he plays Hitotsubashi Harumori, the head of the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family, one of the "Gosankyo" (three branches of the Tokugawa family) that was created as a successor to the eighth shogun, Yoshimune. He is Yoshimune's grandson and a cousin of the tenth shogun, Ieharu (Hidekazu Mashima). 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."
Speaking of Ikuta in historical dramas, his role as Minamoto no Nakaaki in "The 13 Lords of the Shogun" three years ago is (naturally) still fresh in our memories.
Nakaaki is a close aide to Emperor Go-Toba (Onoue Matsuya) and ostensibly serves as the tutor to the third Kamakura Shogun, Minamoto no Sanetomo (Kakizawa Hayato). However, after arriving in Kamakura, he sometimes behaves like a spy and puts pressure on Hojo Yoshitoki (Shun Oguri Shun).
From Yoshitoki's point of view, he was a complete "villain," and Ikuta-san showed plenty of "evil faces" backed by his skillful acting, but his faces were just annoying and irritating. Oguri-san, who played Yoshitoki, also confessed his true feelings at the time, saying, "I'm really annoyed."
◇ Haruhisa Hitotsubashi: "More than annoying, he's kind of creepy"
How does the " UNBOUND " Jisei compare to Nakaaki from " The 13 Lords of the Shogun "? Even though they both have "evil faces," their atmospheres and charms seem to be different. Rather than being "an irritating, sarcastic face," his facial expression and posture are "more creepy than annoying."
It would be easy to say that the role is different, but Ikuta himself is aware of this, saying, "When the appearance was announced in July last year, I spoke of my enthusiasm, saying, "When I played Minamoto no Nakaaki in ' The 13 Lords of the Shogun ', a lot of people hated me for playing such a villainous character (laughs). This time, I want to surpass the 'irritating Nakaaki,' and play Hitotsubashi Harumori, a man known as a monster. I would like to selfishly portray the creepiness of eliminating those who get in my way one after another with a smile on my face."
The role of Jisei is truly one of "walking the talk". Looking back, Jisei's first victim (?) was the head of the Tayasu family, Jisatsu Tanyasu (played by Irie Jinji), who died at the end of the third episode, "Many Visitors 'A Thousand Eyes'," which aired on January 19th. Then Takemoto and then Gennai were eliminated by Jisei (probably) as "in the way," but it seems that Jisei's creepiness is steadily increasing.
In "Drama 10 'Ooku'," which was broadcast last year and was written by the same Yoshiko Morishita who wrote " UNBOUND ," Nakama Yukie gave a passionate performance as the extremely insane Hitotsubashi Harumori. We can look forward to seeing even more bizarre performances from Ikuta in the future that surpass Nakama's character Harumori.
