Yoshitsune

Plot

In the Heiji Rebellion, Taira no Kiyomori defeats Minamoto no Yoshitomo. Yoshitomo flees the battle but is betrayed by his own vassal and killed in Owari province. Yoritomo (one of Yoshitomo's sons) is captured, but Kiyomori decides to spare him and banishes him to Izu. Yoshitomo's beloved concubine Tokiwa Gozen flees to Kyoto with their three children. After learning that Kiyomori has arrested her own mother, Tokiwa goes to him to plead for mercy. Kiyomori spares the lives of the children, sending the older two to temples, and brings the youngest boy, Ushiwaka, and Tokiwa into his household. Treating him as his own child, Kiyomori receives criticism of his generous behavior towards Ushiwaka, the son of his enemy. Soon, he sends Ushiwaka to the Kurama temple where he is renamed Shanao. Shanao frequently escapes the temple at night, and this behavior makes it clear that he will not enter the priesthood. After learning the true identity of his father, of his Genji lineage, and of Kiyomori's plans to move against him he bids his mother farewell and travels northeast to Oshu.

While Kiyomori starts to build a dream city and international port in Fukuhara, he also starts to work his way into the Imperial Court, eventually marrying his daughter Tokiko to the Emperor. With this new power the Heike grow fierce and unpopular with the court and people of Kyoto. Shanao, now named Yoshitsune after his rite of manhood, is living under the guardianship of Fujiwara no Hidehira and decides to join his exiled older brother Minamoto no Yoritomo and throws himself into the feud between the Heike and Genji.

Production credit

Sword fight arranger - Kunishirō Hayashi

Cast

Minamoto clan (Genji)

Hideaki Takizawa as Minamoto no Yoshitsune

Ryunosuke Kamiki as young Yoshitsune (aka Ushiwakamaru)

Kiichi Nakai as Minamoto no Yoritomo

Sosuke Ikematsu as young Yoritomo

Ken Matsudaira as Benkei

Aya Ueto as Utsubo

Ren Ôsugi as Minamoto no Yukiie

Masaya Kato as Minamoto no Yoshitomo

Izumi Inamori as Tokiwa Gozen

Satomi Ishihara as Shizuka Gozen

Eiko Koike as Tomoe Gozen

Naomi Zaizen as Hōjō Masako

Nenji Kobayashi as Hōjō Tokimasa

Noboru Kimura as Hōjō Yoshitoki

Tetsurō Tamba as Minamoto no Yorimasa

Tsubasa Imai as Nasu no Yoichi

Akira Nakao as Kajiwara Kagetoki

Shun Oguri as Kajiwara Kagesue

Junpei Kusami as Adachi Morinaga

Takashi Matsuo as Ōe no Hiromoto

Mao Noguchi as Ōhime

Yukiyoshi Ozawa as Minamoto no Yoshinaka

Taira clan (Heike)

Tetsuya Watari as Taira no Kiyomori

Keiko Matsuzaka as Taira no Tokiko, Kiyomori's wife

Masanobu Katsumura as Taira no Shigemori

Shingo Tsurumi as Taira no Munemori

Takahiro Itō as young Munemori

Shigeki Hosokawa as Taira no Shigehira

Hiroshi Abe as Taira no Tomomori

Noriko Nakagoshi as Taira no Tokuko

Toshiki Kashu as Taira no Koremori

Kotaro Koizumi as Taira no Sukemori

Maki Goto as Yoshiko

Yōko Minamikaze as Ikenozenni

Yuri Nakae as "Kenshunmon-in" Shigeko

Tadahiko Hirano as Taira no Morikuni

Binpachi Itō as Ōba Kagechika

Northern Fujiwara

Hideki Takahashi as Fujiwara no Hidehira

Ikkei Watanabe as Fujiwara no Yasuhira

Kazushige Nagashima as Fujiwara no Kunihira

Imperial family

Mikijirō Hira as Emperor Go-Shirakawa

Mari Natsuki as Tango no Tsubone

Tōru Baba as Emperor Takakura

Ichikawa Otora VII as Emperor Antoku

Masao Kusakari as Taira no Tomoyasu

Accolades

8th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix

Won: Best Drama

Won: Best Actor - Hideaki Takizawa