It's not surprising that NHK senior producer Yotaro Yashiki was pleased when he and his team came across a little-known princess named Go. Born in 1573, Go predates television by a good three centuries, but almost everything about her life suggests she was made for the medium, and, in particular, the Japanese national broadcaster's annual yearlong Sunday evening taiga drama series.
"Go was directly related to each of the so-called three heroes of the Sengoku (warring states) period," said Yashiki at a press conference last month, explaining why the princess was chosen as the subject for the 2011 taiga, titled "Go," which begins Jan. 9. "She would have known Oda Nobunaga as 'uncle,' Toyotomi Hideyoshi as 'brother' and Tokugawa Ieyasu as 'father.' "
In other words, the princess' tale offered near limitless dramatic potential. Those men are, of course, three of the most iconic figures in Japanese history. Contemporaries, but rulers in succession, they oversaw the gradual unification of hundreds of disparate fiefdoms into a single nation under the Tokugawa shogunate. "Go" represented the rare chance to tell all their tales — and the tale of a particularly tumultuous time — from the perspective of a woman.