Article Oguri Tadamasa (1827–1868)

Oguri's growing historical profile reached a new milestone in March 2025, when NHK announced that he would be the protagonist of its 2027 Taiga drama, Gyakuzoku no Bakushin (逆賊の幕臣). Actor Tori Matsuzaka was cast as Oguri, with Naoko Adachi writing the screenplay. According to NHK, the series will depict him as a gifted Tokugawa statesman who experienced the West firsthand, promoted sweeping political, military and industrial reforms, yet was branded a "traitor" after the Meiji Restoration and largely forgotten by history.

Rather than presenting the Restoration simply as the triumph of the imperial cause, the drama explores the paradox of a reformer whose ideas helped shape modern Japan despite his political defeat. The title itself deliberately invokes the Meiji-era label gyakuzoku ("traitor" or "rebel"). It reflects the broader reassessment of Oguri's place in Japanese history that has gathered momentum in recent decades.