Shibasaki Kou visits the grave of Ii Naotora before the filming of NHK 2017 Taiga "Onna Joushu Naotora"

Shibasaki Kou paid a visit to the grave of Ii Naotora, the heroine in the NHK 2017 Taiga drama "Onna Joushu Naotora", located at Ryotanji in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture on 26 August before the filming of the drama begins in early September. The day was Naotora's death anniversary. The drama will begin its run from 8 January 2017 at 8pm on Sundays.

Shibasaki commented after visiting Naotora's grave that she hopes to be able to convey the latter's life with conviction, sincerity and real love because this is how she would like her own life to be presented if this was a story about herself. She also expressed her wish to get some divine protection from Naotora after paying respects at her grave.

Shibasaki shared her view that in the current world, women have a lot more than their counterparts in the past but there are still challenges which they face today. As such, she hopes that this drama will be a form of encouragement to them and show how people can progress with their strong beliefs. After reading the script for the first 13 episodes, she said that she was touched by the story. As the filming will take a whole year, it is important to eat well so as to maintain her condition. In order to do so, Shibasaki cited the unagi which is a famous product of Hamamatsu as a good source of energy and will try to cook on her own when she has time. Even when she's busy, she will try to rely on the help of others to have foods rich in protein and build up her stamina. In order to prepare for the filming, Shibasaki has been attending horseriding lessons and how to read the Buddhist sutras after Naotora became a nun.

Sources: Sponichi / Nikkansports / Sanspo / Oricon