The 21st episode of the NHK Taiga drama "BROTHERS IN ARMS （Toyotomi Brothers!）" (NHK General, Sundays at 8pm, etc.), starring actor Taiga Nakano, titled "Turbulent Times! Takeda Castle," aired on May 31st, and featured the appearance of Dashi, played by Kasumi Yamaya.
"BROTHERS IN ARMS （Toyotomi Brothers!）" is the 65th Taiga drama. With Toyotomi Hidenaga (Koichiro) as the protagonist, it depicts the miraculous feat of unifying Japan together with his older brother Hideyoshi (Tokichiro) through their strong bond, a success story of dreams and hopes.
In episode 21, Hideyoshi (Sosuke Ikematsu) and Koichiro (Nakano) take over the conquest of Harima, which is caught between the Oda and Mori clans, in place of Araki Murashige (Tortoise Matsumoto).
It seemed like a difficult mission, but through Murashige's mediation, Kodera Kanbei (played by Yuki Kura), the castellan of Himeji Castle, skillfully won over the local lords of Harima to the Oda side. Following Hanbei's (played by Masaki Suda) plan, Hideyoshi decided to advance his troops further west, heading towards western Harima...and so the story unfolded.
In this episode, Dashi makes her first appearance as the wife of Araki Murashige, the lord of Arioka Castle in Settsu Province, who was entrusted by Nobunaga with the task of pacifying Harima Province. She is a beauty known as the "modern Yang Guifei" and is also Murashige's greatest supporter.
This will be Yamaya's second appearance in a Taiga drama, the first being in "The 13 Lords of the Shogun" (2022), where she played Setsu, a concubine of Minamoto no Yoriie (played by Kaneko Daichi), four years ago.
On social media, comments included: "Oh... Dashi-sama...", "The famous beautiful wife has appeared", "Kasumi Yamaya's portrayal of Araki Dashi is also good", "Dashi is beautiful!", "Dashi-sama in this historical drama is also beautiful...", "Dashi-sama in this work is also beautiful", and "Dashi-dono is so beautiful...it's sad". In addition, fans of the Super Sentai series also reacted to Yamaya, with comments such as "Momo Ninja has appeared", "Murashige-san's wife is Momo Ninja from Ninninger!", "Oh, Momo Ninja", and "Momo Ninja has grown up to be quite something...".
