The 20th episode of the NHK Taiga drama "BROTHERS IN ARMS （Toyotomi Brothers!）" (NHK General, Sundays at 8pm, etc.), starring actor Taiga Nakano, titled "The Real Hiragumo," aired on May 24th and depicted the final moments of Matsunaga Hisahide, played by Naoto Takenaka. Takenaka expressed his feelings, saying, "First of all, I am grateful that they cast me again! And thank you so much for letting me play Matsunaga Hisahide! That's all I can say."
"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 20, Nobunaga (Shun Oguri) is furious with Hideyoshi (Sosuke Ikematsu) for abandoning the campaign against the Uesugi clan and returning home without permission. He orders Hideyoshi to be placed under house arrest and sentenced to death.
While the entire Hashiba family is working tirelessly to plead for clemency, news arrives that Matsunaga Hisahide (Naoto Takenaka) has betrayed them again. Having narrowly escaped death, Hideyoshi and Koichiro (Nakano) go to negotiate with Hisahide and convey Nobunaga's intention that if he hands over the unique tea utensil, Hiragumo, the rebellion will be overlooked.
But despite the exceptionally generous terms, Hisahide inexplicably refuses to accept them...
Here, Hisahide showed Hideyoshi and Koichiro "two Hiragumo" tea caddies. He said that one was real and the other was fake, and promised that if they could somehow distinguish the real one, he would do as Hideyoshi and Koichiro said. On social media, viewers reacted with comments such as "A ranking check suddenly begins," "Daimyo ranking check! Which one is the Hiragumo!", and "Hiragumo ranking check starts."
Koichiro cleverly managed to identify the real one...or so it seemed. However, it turned out that both were fakes, and Hisahide revealed that he hadn't been able to obtain the real thing before his life was extinguished in a huge explosion.
As he was engulfed in flames, Hisahide laughed and said, "It doesn't matter what's real and what's fake. You all deserve to suffer. Deceive Nobunaga well. I'll thoroughly enjoy watching Nobunaga's foolishness from the afterlife as he happily admires the counterfeit." He then threw a bomb into the fire and "exploded" himself.
Viewers showered him with praise for his demise, commenting, "Wow, he really did die in an explosion," "Huge explosion lol," "The way Bomb Masashi went down was magnificent!", "It was a magnificent explosion," "A man who gets angry while laughing, dies in an explosion while laughing," "Takenaka Naoto show," "Well, I think this kind of Matsunaga is also acceptable," and "As expected of Takenaka Naoto, his brilliant performance shines."
