Media Supported by the Aizuwakamatsu Film Commission – A Netflix series「Last Samurai Standing (Ikusagami)」Filming location introduction

Aizu Clan School Nisshinkan Vice-curator Hiroshi Nihei

Is there anything about the filming that left a lasting impression on you?

There were so many extras, it was just incredible. I remember being surprised at how different the inner garden of the Nisshinkan became from what I’m used to.
Filming was also stopped once due to sudden rain, but while actors and staff were waiting under the eaves at the edge of the courtyard during the rain, Producer/Action Choreographer/Lead Actor Junichi Okada even went to far as to take the time to lighten the mood, and I really felt his generosity as a producer.

With filming, there must be both difficult things and good things about providing the location. How do you feel about it looking back now that the work has been released?

Because filming took close to 2 months to complete and it was shot all at night, just physically, parts of it were difficult. Despite that, meeting the actors and staff everyday and getting to the point where we could casually just say hello as we passed was really great.
I feel like there was not a lot we could help with just as a production location, but I am really happy to have been able to be involved in such a large scale work such as this one. It has become an unforgettable memory for me.

Filming Support Coordinator  Aizuwakamatsu Film Commission  Ms.
Watanabe

Within the Aizu Region, the Aizu Nisshinkan and Tenkyokaku were chosen as filming locations; could you tell us how that came to be?

The production company was looking for locations for a work set in the Meiji era (1868-1912), so we showed them a variety of locations within the Aizu region and I heard that the director thought that the ‘Nisshinkan’ was perfect for his vision of the ‘Tenryu-ji Temple.’
It was perfect that the main temple hall has a big open space in front of it, and within that there’s even a pond. Apparently he was actually expecting to have the most difficulty finding the location for ‘Tenryu-ji Temple’, so it was a pleasant surprise to find such a perfect place.

Is there anything that left a lasting impression on you as the film support coordinator?

We had to find 350 staff members that could work late nights for days at a time.
We even reached out to other film commissions in Tokyo and nearby places to recruit enough people. I heard that we had up to 150 people from Aizu helping out.
Additionally, we had local businesses through the Chamber of Commerce and Industry help us out in many ways, and to have had so many people come together to make such a large scale project come to life has given me confidence. I was so proud to see all of the names of the people from Aizu in the end credits.

There must be some behind the scenes stories from filming. Could you tell us some?

Because there is a scene where Mr. Okada falls into the pond, we had to take on the task of cleaning the pond and replacing the water. To do that, we had to move all of the koi fish living in that pond to another, and would you believe that there was over 100 fish!
During a break in filming, when we gave Mr. Okada a pin-badge of Aizuwakamatsu City’s official character, the samurai ‘Wakamattsun,’ he made a face like ‘huh?’ before saying ‘Ohh! He’s a samurai!’ and I’m sure Wakamattsun himself was happy with the recognition. And by the way, the old court-style music that was used as the BGM for the scenes filmed at the Nisshinkan was performed by the Aizu Ten’ga-kai, a traditional court music group that usually performs the different ceremonies at Aizuwakamatsu largest event, the Aizu Festival.