"Created in response to deep popular needs, the legendary hero survives long after his death. . . . While the positive aspects of the hero's life and character come to be emphasized (or even created out of whole cloth), less attractive features are passed over in silence and remain forgotten until they are eventually exhumed by debunking historians of later generations."

Thus wrote British scholar Ivan Morris (1925-1976) in his magnum opus, "The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan." Specifically, Morris was referring to Takamori Saigo, leader of the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion. But the above paragraph could as easily apply to Sakamoto Ryoma, the current protagonist of NHK's yearlong "Taiga Drama" serial. A visionary who embraced democratic ideals, Ryoma was assassinated in 1867, at age 31, by reactionary rivals.

The national fascination with brilliant strategists from the 16th-century Sengoku Jidai, a period of prolonged civil war, may be diminishing, as the desire to lionize heroic historical figures is increasingly offset by a contemporary wave of cynicism — or realism if you prefer — that recognizes such men as mere humans beset by the same character flaws and weaknesses as everyone else.