Taiga drama

Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white Hana no Shōgai, starring kabuki actor Onoe Shoroku II and Awashima Chikage, the network regularly hires different writers, directors, and other creative staff for each taiga drama.

The 45-minute show airs on the NHK General TV network every Sunday at 8:00pm, with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 1:05pm.

[1] The usual procedure of a taiga drama production would have one-third of the total number of scripts finished before shooting begins.

Shiho Fujimura (as Rui) Komaki Kurihara (as Yuki) Black and white.

Depicts daily life of merchants and traders in Sakai during the Sengoku period.

Shima Iwashita (as Hōjō Masako) Set during the Genpei War into the start of the Kamakura period.

Gō Katō (as Kariya Yoshiaki) Set during the Bakumatsu and Meiji Restoration periods.

Toshiyuki Nishida (as Tadashi Amo) Set in the Meiji and Taishō eras.

Muromachi to early Sengoku periods, focuses around the Ōnin War.

Nanako Matsushima (as Maeda Matsu) Depicts the Genpei War during late Heian period.

Takaya Kamikawa (as Yamauchi Kazutoyo) Sengoku to early Edo periods.

The second work to depict Saigō Takamori as its main lead in Taiga dramas.

Sadao Abe (as Masaji Tabata) Set during Meiji and Shōwa eras.

Saka no Ue no Kumo was originally set for a 2006 broadcast as "21st Century Taiga Drama".

NHK broadcast three taiga dramas covering modern and contemporary history from 1984 to 1986.