NHK E-TV's program "The Power of Our Ancestors: A Fountain of Wisdom," which teaches us about wisdom relevant to the present day from historical figures, will rebroadcast "Aim for the Star of Middle Age: The Late Bloomer, Hachisuka Masakatsu" as a special episode on April 14th at 10pm. This episode features Hachisuka Masakatsu, who was portrayed brilliantly by Tsutomu Takahashi in the historical drama "BROTHERS IN ARMS （Toyotomi Brothers!）" and has become a hot topic.
Among Hideyoshi's retainers, Hachisuka Masakatsu, also known as Koroku, has long been popular with the public. He is often depicted as a rough and brute who boasts of his strength, but in reality, he was a small, gentle man who survived the Sengoku period through his intelligence and consideration for others.
His early life was a series of misfortunes. The lords he served were all destroyed one after another by Oda Nobunaga. Just when he was about to give up on any chance of making a name for himself as a warrior, Hideyoshi invited him to join the Oda forces. At this time, Masakatsu was already around 40 years old, an age close to the end of his life in an era when the average lifespan was said to be 50 years.
However, from this point on, Masakatsu became Hideyoshi's most senior confidant, supporting Nobunaga's quest for national unification and Hideyoshi's subsequent unification of Japan. This book explores the wisdom that enabled this late-blooming middle-aged man to achieve great success.
