[Taiga Drama: Toyotomi Kyodai!] Episode 38 "Wa wo Motte, Yamato wo Nasu" Recap: Hidenaga Devoted Himself to Revitalizing the Castle Town; "Brushes" Are a Nara Specialty; Superstar of Japanese Art History Kanō Eitoku; "Toyotomi" Finally Appears
Episode 38 depicts Hidenaga's castle town revival, Nara brushes, Kanō Eitoku, and the birth of the Toyotomi surname.Summary
In Episode 38 of the NHK taiga drama "Toyotomi Kyodai!" ("With Harmony, Build Yamato"), set around 1585, Hidenaga (played by Taiga Nakano) and his retainers pour their energy into revitalizing commerce in their base of Yamato-Koriyama, while townspeople seek new business opportunities. Following Oda Nobunaga's policies, Hidenaga abolishes the guilds known as "za" and tries to attract merchants from Nara to Koriyama, but faces resistance from established temples and merchants with vested interests. He also employs forceful measures, such as banning the sale of certain goods in Nara and ordering them to be sold in Koriyama, and grants tax and labor exemptions, gradually expanding the castle town into 14 specialized districts. The episode focuses on Saizō (Shōtarō Mamiya), a brush maker who leaves Nara for Koriyama after chafing under a cartel-like guild system. Through the tea master Sen no Sōeki (Rikyū, played by Hidetaka Yoshioka), he meets the renowned painter Kanō Eitoku (Tsurutarō Kataoka), who demands exceptionally high-quality brushes. They develop a masterpiece that satisfies Eitoku, and the brushes, named "Eitoku-fude" after the master, become a huge success, used in a new work commissioned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Sōsuke Ikematsu), likely for the Jurakudai residence. The article explains that brushes are a traditional Nara craft, with Nara brushes still famous today, and that yak hair—surprisingly familiar to warriors as helmet decorations called "karagashira"—was a key material. It also profiles Kanō Eitoku as a peerless figure in Japanese art history, born in 1543, who served Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi and created monumental screen paintings for Azuchi Castle, Osaka Castle, and the Jurakudai, though most were lost to war; he died at 48 in 1590. Finally, the article notes that Hideyoshi was granted the surname "Toyotomi" by Emperor Go-Yōzei, replacing "Fujiwara," and that the drama has him say it means "to enrich all people," including Chacha and her sisters, setting up the next episode.
(Source：美術展ナビ)