The NHK Taiga drama "BROTHERS IN ARMS （Toyotomi Brothers!）", starring actor Taiga Nakano, airs on NHK General on Sundays at 8 PM and other times. In the 26th episode, "Make Nobunaga Laugh!", which aired on July 5th, Nobunaga (Shun Oguri) suspects his nephew Nobusumi (Atsushi Ogata) of colluding with the Chosokabe clan and plotting a rebellion, and orders him to stay under house arrest. The subsequent developments have captured the attention of viewers.
In this episode, after hearing the whole story from Mitsuhide (Kaname Jun), Koichiro (Nakano) and Hideyoshi (Ikematsu Sosuke), sensing Nobunaga's suffering, invite Nobunaga and Ichi (Aoi Miyazaki) to Nagahama Castle, where the entire Hashiba family entertains them. As the feast reaches its peak, Hideyoshi and Koichiro plead, "Please forgive Lord Nobusumi." Nobunaga, who had been somewhat stubborn, finally loses a drinking contest with Hideyoshi and grants his brothers' wish.
The next day, Nobunaga confesses that he has recently been seeing the image of his younger brother Nobukatsu (played by Motoki Nakazawa) in Nobusumi's son, and that this may have clouded his judgment of Nobusumi. He then expresses his gratitude to Hideyoshi for admonishing him.
Hideyoshi said he only wanted to create a new world with Nobunaga and make everyone happy, but Nobunaga himself said, "To be honest, I'm still not sure what a new world would be like." Nevertheless, Nobunaga said, "One thing that comes to mind is the sky. There are no boundaries in the sky. If there are no boundaries, there will be no conflict. The sky is one and endless. I want to create a country like that."
Hideyoshi, who expressed his desire to become the sun and continue to illuminate the country that Nobunaga was building, was moved to tears of joy when Nobunaga praised him, saying, "You have become a fine samurai." Nobunaga then promised Hideyoshi, "When you return (after defeating the Mori clan), we will have a tea ceremony."
From here, the story takes a dramatic turn. The scene changes, and Nobusumi threatens Mitsuhide, saying that if the official letter he received from Ashikaga Yoshiaki (played by Onoe Ukon) is found, Nobunaga will not forgive him.
Mitsuhide, who had been ordered to assassinate Nobunaga by that letter, was surprised and panicked to learn that Nobusumi knew its contents, but Nobusumi confessed, "I am the one who wrote it." The episode ended with Mitsuhide speechless, and the next episode, episode 27, was announced as "The Honnoji Incident."
As a result, not only was Nobunaga's judgment not clouded, but the story unfolded in a way that the Toyotomi brothers' request for Nobusumi's pardon would trigger the Honnoji Incident. On social media, comments included: "It's ironic that the Toyotomi brothers' attempt to persuade Nobunaga to pardon Nobusumi ended up causing the Honnoji Incident...", "If you kept watching your loyal lord become darker and darker each day, and increasingly distrustful of his retainers, even Fujikichiro would want to admonish him... what an irony," and "The actions taken with Nobunaga's best interests in mind ended up hastening the countdown to the end... what an irony."
Furthermore, some comments included: "The scenario is that Hideyoshi desperately tries to persuade his lord to forgive Nobusumi, which ultimately leads to the Honnoji Incident. When Hideyoshi learns the truth, he will probably descend into darkness and become a tyrant who cannot trust anyone," and "I wonder if Lord Akechi will reveal to Hideyoshi that Nobusumi was the mastermind before he dies. Hideyoshi will have to kill Lord Akechi knowing that, and that will surely lead to him becoming even more distrustful of people and a tyrant than Nobunaga."
