Segodon

Plot

The drama follows the life of historical figure Saigō Takamori. Born the first son of a lower-class samurai, he was exiled two times and went through three marriages. He was one of the central figures of the Meiji Restoration but later rebelled against the government over dissatisfaction with Meiji reforms.

Cast

Saigo family

Ryohei Suzuki as Saigō Takamori

Ao Watanabe as Kokichi (young Takamori)

Keiko Matsuzaka as Saigō Masa, the mother of Takamori

Morio Kazama as Saigō Kichibei, the father of Takamori

Toshiyuki Nishida as Saigō Kikujirō, Takamori's son

Yuki Imai as Teen Kikujirō

Kairi Jō as Child Kikujirō

Ai Hashimoto as Suga, the first wife of Takamori

Haru Kuroki as Iwayama Ito, the third wife of Takamori

Konomi Watanabe as young Ito

Ryo Nishikido as Saigō Jūdō, one of Takamori's brothers

Taiyō Saitō as Saigō Shingo (young Jūdō)

Mone Kamishiraishi as Saigō Kiyo, the wife of Jūdō

Gōta Watabe as Saigō Kichijirō, one of Takamori's brothers

Taketo Arai as young Kichijirō

Yuki Kashiwagi as Saigō Sono, the wife of Kichijirō

Nanami Sakuraba as Ichiki (née Saigō) Koto, one of Takamori's sisters

Yuki Kurimoto as young Koto

Yūki Maekawa as Ichiki Sōsuke, Koto's son

Ōkubo family

Eita as Ōkubo Toshimichi

Tatsuki Ishikawa as young Toshimichi

Rie Mimura as Ōkubo Masu, the wife of Toshimichi

Mitsuru Hirata as Ōkubo Jiemon, the father of Toshimichi

Mariko Fuji as Ōkubo Fuku, the mother of Toshimichi

Tamami Kusaka as Ōkubo Suma

Yuki Uchida as Oyū

Satsuma Domain

Ken Watanabe as Shimazu Nariakira, the master of Takamori

Munetaka Aoki as Shimazu Hisamitsu

Takeshi Kaga as Shimazu Narioki

Rumiko Koyanagi as Yura

Raita Ryu as Zusho Hirosato

Seiya Osada as Shimazu Mochihisa

Rasei Nakajima as young Mochihisa

Naho Toda as Kiku

Yukiya Kitamura as Ōyama Kakunosuke (later Ōyama Tsunayoshi)

Naoki Inukai as young Kakunosuke

Mitsuomi Takahashi as Arimura Shunsai (later Kaeda Nobuyoshi)

Yūto Ikeda as young Shunsai

Arata Horii as Murata Shinpachi

Kenshirō Katō as young Shinpachi

Ikki Sawamura as Akayama Yukie

Jun Itoda as Katsura Hisatake

Yu Tokui as Yamada Tamehisa

Shūichirō Masuda as Arima Shinshichi

Masaki Izawa as young Shinshichi

Takurō Ōno as Nakamura Hanjirō

Rukito Nakamura as young Hanjirō

Manabu Hamada as Sakoda Tomonoshin

Chōshū Domain

Tetsuji Tamayama as Kido Takayoshi

Kenta Hamano as Itō Hirobumi

Hayashiya Shōzō IX as Ōmura Masujirō

Hikaru Futagami as Kusaka Genzui

Osaomu Kaō as Shiraishi Shōichirō

Riki Choshu as Kijima Matabei

Manabu Ino as Kikkawa Kenmotsu

Masayuki Satō as Miyoshi Shinzō

Tosa Domain

Shun Oguri as Sakamoto Ryōma

Asami Mizukawa as Oryō, the wife of Ryōma

Shogo Yamaguchi as Nakaoka Shintarō

Akira Otaka as Yamauchi Yōdō, the lord of Tosa

Ryo Segawa as Gotō Shōjirō

Fukui Domain

Kanji Tsuda as Matsudaira Shungaku

Shunsuke Kazama as Hashimoto Sanai

Asahi Yoshida as Nakane Yukie

Tokugawa shogunate

Shota Matsuda as Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shōgun

Kenichi Endō as Katsu Kaishū

Naoki Matayoshi as Tokugawa Iesada, the 13th shōgun

Tamotsu Kanshūji as Tokugawa Iemochi, the 14th shōgun

Towa Araki as young Iemochi

Naohito Fujiki as Abe Masahiro

Shirō Sano as Ii Naosuke

Shinji Asakura as Hotta Masayoshi

Satoshi Jimbo as Nagano Shuzen

Takahiro Fujimoto as Yamaoka Tesshū

Jundai Yamada as Hiraoka Enshirō

Masami Horiuchi as Itakura Katsukiyo

Ōoku

Keiko Kitagawa as "Tenshō-in" Atsuhime

Yoko Minamino as Ikushima, the tutor of Atsuhime

Pinko Izumi as Honjuin, Iesada's mother

Aizu and Kuwana Domains

Shuji Kashiwabara as Matsudaira Katamori

Ken Shōnozaki as Matsudaira Sadaaki

Imperial Court

Nakamura Kotarō VI as Emperor Kōmei, the 121st emperor of Japan

Nomura Man'nojō VI as Emperor Meiji, the 122nd emperor of Japan

Shōfukutei Tsurube II as Iwakura Tomomi

Tomiyuki Kunihiro as Konoe Tadahiro

Nomura Manzō IX as Sanjō Sanetomi

Takeshi Nadagi as Nakagawa-no-miya

Kenichi Ogata as Nakayama Tadayasu

Yasuto Kosuda as Prince Arisugawa Taruhito

The Government of Meiji

Shugo Oshinari as Inoue Kaoru

Shingo Murakami as Yamagata Aritomo

Kiyohiko Shibukawa as Itagaki Taisuke

Hiroyuki Onoue as Ōkuma Shigenobu

Takaya Sakoda as Etō Shinpei

Foreigners

Thane Camus as Harry Smith Parkes

Hannah Grace as Mrs. Parkes

Steve Wiley as Ernest Mason Satow

Blake Crawford as Townsend Harris

Gilles Beaufils as Léon Roches

Noam Katz as Charles Lennox Richardson

Nathan Berry as Dr. William Willis

Others

Masatō Ibu as Tokugawa Nariaki, the father of Yoshinobu

Onoe Kikunosuke V as Getshō

Kimihiko Hasegawa as Date Munenari

Takayasu Komiya as Tokugawa Yoshikatsu

Michiko Tanaka as Tama

Takashi Tome as Den'emon

Hitori Gekidan as John Manjirō

Haruna Kondō (Harisenbon) as Tora

Michifumi Isoda as Naiki Jinzaburō, the first mayor of Kyoto

Kōkichi Tanoue as Naoo Nakahara

Production

Production Credits

Narrator – Toshiyuki Nishida

Music – Harumi Fūki

Historical research – Izumi Haraguchi, Manabu Ōishi and Michifumi Isoda

Architectural research – Kiyoshi Hirai

Costume designer – Kazuko Kurosawa

Kagoshima dialect instructors – Takaya Sakoda and Kōkichi Tanoue

The series is based on the novel Segodon! by Mariko Hayashi which was first released in serial format starting February 2016 in the literature magazine Hon no Tabibito, and published as a book by Kadokawa Shoten the year after.

Casting

Ryohei Suzuki was announced to portray the lead role of Saigō Takamori in Segodon on November 2, 2016. The main cast for the Saigo and Okuba family were announced on March 27, 2017, which includes Eita, Haru Kuroki, Nanami Sakuraba, Gōta Watabe, Muga Tsukaji, Morio Kazama, Mitsuru Hirata, and Keiko Matsuzaka. The main cast for the Shimazu family was announced on June 27, 2017, which includes Munetaka Aoki, Naho Toda, Yu Tokui, and Ken Watanabe. In September 2017, it was announced that Yuki Saito would not be able to play as Ikushima, and was eventually replaced by Yoko Minamino. By November 2017, Etsuko Ichihara also had to drop out as narrator of the series due to her ongoing recovery from encephalomyelitis, and was eventually replaced by Toshiyuki Nishida.

TV schedule

Soundtracks

"Segodon" Taiga Drama Original Soundtrack I (February 21, 2018)

"Segodon" Taiga Drama Original Soundtrack II (August 8, 2018)

"Segodon" Taiga Drama Original Soundtrack III (October 10, 2018)