The first episode of the NHK Taiga drama "Toyotomi Brothers!" (General TV, Sunday 8:00 PM and other times), starring actor Nakano Taiga, titled "Two Monkeys," will be broadcast on January 4, 2026, with an extended run of 15 minutes. The story centers around Toyotomi Hidenaga, and depicts the miracle of the Toyotomi brothers, who, together with his older brother Hideyoshi, achieve the great feat of unifying the country through their strong bond. There are only four days until the start of the series. Here, we introduce Naka, played by Sakai Maki.
Naka is "a mother who warmly watches over her sons' career advancement."
She was the mother of the Toyotomi brothers. She lost her husband at an early age and raised two sons and two daughters on her own. She watched over her sons' extraordinary success with both joy and confusion, and when Hideyoshi became the most powerful man in Japan and became regent, she came to be known as "Omandokoro."
In the first episode, "Two Monkeys," Koichiro (Nakano), born into a poor farming family in Nakamura, Owari, spends his days contentedly cultivating the fields and living with the soil. One day, a group of bandits attacks the village, and his childhood friend, Nao (Shiraishi Sei), is about to be kidnapped. His brother, Tokichiro (Ikematsu Sosuke), returns to the village after an eight-year absence and saves him from peril.
The story goes that Tokichiro, who dreams of becoming a great success in the service of the young Sengoku warlord Oda Nobunaga (Shun Oguri Shun), asks Koichiro to become his retainer.
