Renbutsu Misako & Narimiya Hiroki to join the cast of latest installment of "Ooku"

Narimiya Hiroki and Renbutsu Misako will be joining the cast of the latest two-part "Ooku" drama SPs starring Sawajiri Erika which will be shown on 22nd and 29th January next year. Narimiya takes on the role of the 11th shogun Tokugawa Ienari who had more than 10 concubines and over 50 children with them. He will be embroiled in the women's battles as he gets smitten with his evil concubine Omiyo in Part 1 and the kind concubine Ume in Part 2 who are both played by Sawajiri. In order to play Ienari from a young man to an older man, Narimiya reduced his weight by 7kg and paid special attention to the way and speed he spoke as well as his gestures so as to look the part.

As for Renbutsu, she will be appearing in Part 2 as Uta, the younger sister of Ume who is jealous of the latter being selected as a concubine despite both of them having met Ienari. While visiting her pregnant sister at Ooku, Uta makes use of the chance to get close to Ienari and gets permission to enter Ooku. Uta then schemes to bring her elder sister down in order to win Ienari's favour. Renbutsu who is making her first appearance in a period drama, expressed her wish to try this genre for a long time although it was rather beyond her comprehension why Uta would go to that extent to harm her elder sister. However, as she has siblings in real life, she can somewhat understand the jealousy of being compared to a perfect sibling so she hopes to be able to convey that kind of frustration felt by Uta.

Besides the two of them, other co-stars include Asano Yuko who will play the chief of Ooku and Mitsuura Yasuko from comedic duo Oasis who will play Ienari's first wife Tadako.

Source: Nikkansports / Sanspo