Burning Flower
television series
Burning Flower (花燃ゆ, Hanamoyu) is a 2015 Japanese historical drama television series, the 54th NHK taiga drama. The series stars Mao Inoue as Sugi Fumi, a sister of Meiji Restoration scholar Yoshida Shōin. It premiered on January 4, 2015, and ended on December 13, 2015.
Plot
The series depicts the Meiji Restoration, occurring during the last years of the Bakufu Shogunate and the early years of the Meiji Era, through the point of view of Sugi Fumi (ja), the younger sister of Yoshida Shōin.
Cast
Sugi family
Mao Inoue as Sugi Fumi (later Katori Miwako)
Momoka Yamada as young Fumi
Yusuke Iseya as Yoshida Shōin, Shishi of Bakumatsu era, Fumi's second eldest brother
Rihito Itagaki as young Shōin
Kyōzō Nagatsuka as Sugi Yurinosuke, Fumi's father
Fumi Dan as Sugi Taki, Fumi's mother
Eiji Okuda as Tamaki Bun'noshin, Fumi's uncle
Taizo Harada as Sugi Umetarō, Fumi's eldest brother
Yūka as Odamura Hisa, Fumi's second eldest sister, Odamura's first wife
Kanon as young Hisa
Yūki Morinaga as Sugi Toshisaburō, Fumi's younger brother
Odamura family
Takao Osawa as Odamura Inosuke (later Katori Motohiko), Fumi's second husband
Rino Katase as Odamura Shino, Inosuke's mother
Kanji Tsuda as Matsushima Gōzō, Inosuke's elder brother
Students of Shoka Sonjuku
Kengo Kora as Takasugi Shinsaku
Masahiro Higashide as Kusaka Genzui, Fumi's first husband
Kōji Seto as Yoshida Toshimaro
Hitori Gekidan as Itō Risuke (later Ito Hirobumi), the first prime minister of Japan
Ryūta Satō as Maebara Issei, leader of Hagi Rebellion
Jun Kaname as Irie Kuichi
Takurō Ōno as Nomura Yasushi
Chōshū Domain
Kin'ya Kitaōji as Mōri Takachika, the 13th daimyō of Chōshū
Takahiro Miura as Mōri Motonori, the last daimyō of Chōshū
Keiko Matsuzaka as Mōri Tomiko
Rena Tanaka as Mōri Yasuko
Takashi Naitō as Mukunashi Tōta
Mayumi Wakamura as Mukunashi Mitsuru
Noriyuki Higashiyama as Kido Takayoshi, one of the Three great nobles
Kanji Ishimaru as Sufu Masanosuke
Shinji Yamashita as Kijima Matabei
Masanori Ishii as Inoue Kaoru
Tasuku Nagaoka as Yamagata Aritomo
Yūto Ichioka as Ōmura Masujirō
Mizuki Itagaki as Mōri Motoakira
Okugoten
Okugoten is the harem (oku) of Chōshū Domain.
Kayoko Shiraishi as Kunishima
Guin Poon Chaw as Sonoyama, director of Okugoten
Anna Ishibashi as Mari
Machiko Washio as Ushio
Noriko Eguchi as Hinode
Yumiko Takahashi as Shino
Rina Ikoma (Nogizaka46)
Nanase Nishino (Nogizaka46)
Mai Shiraishi (Nogizaka46)
Nanami Hashimoto (Nogizaka46)
Erika Ikuta (Nogizaka46)
Kazumi Takayama (Nogizaka46)
Yumi Wakatsuki (Nogizaka46)
Reika Sakurai (Nogizaka46)
Mai Fukagawa (Nogizaka46)
Manatsu Akimoto (Nogizaka46)
Satsuma Domain
Takayuki Takuma as Saigō Takamori, one of the Three great nobles
Naoto Eguchi (Dobu Rock) as Shimazu Hisamitsu
Tosa Domain
Tsuyoshi Ihara as Sakamoto Ryōma
Tokugawa shogunate
Shintarō Mori (Dobu Rock) as Tokugawa Yoshinobu
Hideki Takahashi as Ii Naosuke
Ryuichi Isozaki as Matsudaira Shungaku
Shinsengumi
Masaya Nakamura as Kondō Isami
Kento Kaku as Okita Sōji
Aizu Domain
Takehiko Fujita as Matsudaira Katamori
Foreigners
Lee Longshaw as Townsend Harris
Mark Chinnery as Samuel Wells Williams
John Ohkuma as Thomas Blake Glover
Others
Haruka Igawa as Takasu Hisako
Umika Kawashima as Takasu Ito
Hirotarō Honda as Tominaga Yūrin
Kento Miyahara as a sumo wrestler
Anne Suzuki as Tatsuji
Mitsuru Hirata as Dr. Yamane Bunki
Yuina Kuroshima as Takasugi Masa, Shinsaku's wife
George Yamamoto as Shiraishi Shōichirō
Akiko Hinagata as Ikumatsu, Takayoshi's wife
Tōru Emori as Akuzawa Gonzō, official of Gunma prefecture
Yoshiko Mita as Akuzawa Sei
Shunsuke Daito as Hoshino Chōtarō
Yoshihiko Hosoda as Arai Ryōichirō
Kazuyuki Aijima as Suzuki Eitarō
Hiroyuki Onoue as Kudō Chōjirō
Masako Miyaji as Tome
Yoshizumi Ishihara as Funatsu Denjibei, one of "Three agricultural professionals of Meiji"
Takamasa Suga as Murakami Tsunehisa
Kurara Chibana as Tsuda Umeko
Kisuke Iida as Saigō Jūdō
Eri Fuse as Mrs. Sagano
Atsuko Sakurai as Mrs. Iketani
Fumina Hara as Mrs.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Burning Flower” is television series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Burning, Flower and television, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “television series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17230891. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2015.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Burning Flower”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Burning Flower primary sources, Burning Flower archive and Burning research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Burning Flower”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Burning Flower” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.