Career
As a singer, he is known as one of the three "Gosanke" (referring to gosanke, the three great Tokugawa houses), along with Yukio Hashi and Kazuo Funaki. As an actor, he has portrayed people as varied as 20th century Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka (in the 1983 film Shōsetsu Yoshida Gakkō) and 16th century samurai Katakura Kagetsuna (in the 1987 Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai Taiga drama Dokuganryū Masamune). A native of Kagoshima, he has played the roles of native sons such as Kuroda Kiyotaka and Saigō Tsugumichi, but his characters also include Tokugawa Ieyasu, Yagyū Jūbei and Hattori Hanzo.
His roles in Chūshingura tales have included Mōri Koheita (1985).
Saigō has starred in various prime-time television series. These include Edo o Kiru, Genkurō Tabi Nikki Aoi no Abarenbō, Abare Hasshū Goyō Tabi, and Abare Isha Ranzan.
Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai has tapped him for various Taiga drama roles as well. Among them are Mōri Hiromoto (in Mōri Motonari, 1997), Sanada Yukimura (Aoi Tokugawa Sandai, 2000), and Honda Masanobu (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai"s Taiga drama Musashi, 2003) in addition to Katakura Kagetsuna.
