Shōgun's seventh episode opens with dead samurai in full armor and arrows sticking up from the ground. We then see a living samurai (also in full armor) with his knife cutting the head off an enemy.
“The war is over!” a herald screams and runs around with a banner.
“Lord Toranaga has won!” he continues.
*obligatory record scratch*
I’ve heaped praises on the show’s cinematography, but the shot of the cheering samurai with their swords raised and Toranaga on the background encased in a haze of fog is just superb. The camera pans up to him looking away from the camera. He’s dressed in the same armor as he did the first time we saw him in episode one.
As the camera zooms in on his face, we don’t see Hiroyuki Sanada as the Lord of Kantō; it’s a much younger man. After all, this is as the text says, Toranaga’s first battle 46 years ago.
He and his retainer (we later learn that this Toda Hiromatsu played by Tokuma Nishioka) stand in front of another man (Lord Mizoguchi, lord of the defeated army as he says, “I formally surrender” later on). He congratulates Toranaga and tells him that “not many men win their first battle before pillowing with their first girl.” #priorities
“It was fate that forced me into declaring an unwinnable war,” he tells Toranaga.
His attendants start to help him remove his armor. He then kneels in front of the young Toranaga clad only in his kimono with his wakizashi (a shorter and smaller katana traditionally used for close quarter combat, beheading a defeated opponent and to commit seppuku).
Mizoguchi opens his kimono to bare his stomach and refuses his attendant. Instead, he wants it noted that it is Toranaga, to whom he refers as “the boy warlord” who will serve as his second.
Toranaga moves to his side and draws his katana (the regular one).
He raises it as Mizoguchi draws his wakizashi and tells him, “Maybe we’ll meet again in the afterlife. Maybe the one holding the sword will be me.”
He then proceeds to commit seppuku by plunging his blade into his belly and slicing from left to right. As his second, Toranaga’s duty is to cut off his head.
All that before we even start the beginning of episode seven, A Stick of Time.
The episode now starts with Lord Toranaga on his horse, in a forest clearing. The rest of his people are standing behind him.
Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) asks Hiromatsu, “How long since they last spoke?”
A long time, Hiromatsu replies. Yabushige asks what will happen if Toranaga's brother says no.
“Then this war is lost before our swords are even wet,” the older man replies.
Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe) strides over to Mariko (Anna Sawai) to begin to remind her to make sure Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) shuts up.
He doesn't get to finish his sentence before Mariko cuts him off, “He understands.”
Yoshii Toranaga and Saeki Nobutatsu: a brotherly reunion
I don't think I'll ever shut up about the cinematography of this show. The scene is dimly lit, signifying that it is dawn. However, since Toranaga is wearing a gold kimono, he looks highlighted against the grayish black tone. And since it is dawn, the area the Lord of Kantō is facing is encased in fog. This is where his half-brother Nobutatsu (Eita Okuno) will be making his entrance.
I'm not disappointed. It's a striking scene. Saeki Nobutatsu is in white and silver armor. The scene where they meet is like a study in composition and framing, as well as the use of negative space in the middle: Nobutatsu on the far left and Toranaga on the far right.
Nobutatsu tells his half-brother, “So in your desperation, you had no choice but to summon the vast legions of your mediocre brother… You piss-drinking bastard.”
And as in the ways of men — yes, even those who existed centuries ago — this is how they greet each other after many years apart.
Nobutatsu spots Anjin and says, “So the rumors are true. You've tamed a barbarian.”
Toranaga calls Blackthorne over. Mariko reminds him to bow. Anjin greets Nobutatsu in slightly accented Japanese, “It is an honor to meet my liege's kin.”
Later on, Toranaga complains to Mariko about how expensive Kiku's (Yuka Kouri) services are, which he is gifting to Nobutatsu. Mariko explains that the negotiations began with a much higher price. However, Gin (Yuko Miyamoto) offered to reduce it if she could privately meet with Toranaga for one stick of time. The stick refers to an incense; and how long it burns depends on how long the stick is. It is usually between five minutes to an hour.
Fun fact: if you watch Chinese historical dramas (xianxia or wuxia), this unit of time measurement is equivalent to 15 to 20 minutes.
Blackthorne interrupts and Toranaga tells Mariko to tell him to be at his best behavior during the banquet; as well as to wear his swords and not his pistol, “as is befitting a hatamoto.”
Anjin then asks if the order of Crimson Sky means that he is now commanding their maritime division during the attack. But Toranaga is keeping his cards close to his vest for now.
Then we see Nobutatsu is bathing in a hot spring. And here's Nagakado (Yuki Kura) annoying his uncle, “I hear that your first kill on the battlefield is better than your first woman.”
It's now time for the banquet. Omi (Hiroto Kanai), acting on what Gin had insinuated earlier, quietly say how it is to Buntaro's honor that Mariko serves Anjin “with such devotion.”
Buntaro corrects him, “You mean her duty to our lord.”
When Nagakado asks his uncle of stories when his father was a boy, Nobutatsu obliges and speaks about Yoshii Toranaga, the boy warlord. Toranaga looks grim, as if anticipating something unpleasant. However, Nobutatsu only retells what happened during the opening scene of the episode. But Hiromatsu seems to sense there's something else as he seeks to distract Nobutatsu by asking if he's received his gift.
The visitor speaks about the beauty of Izu, but in the same breath says that beauty is fleeting: “Like trying to grasp a river, or f**k a sunset.”
Poetic.
Nobutatsu asks for Izu. This puts Yabushige's back up. He originally asked for Izu.
And here comes the actual story Nobutatsu wants to tell. When they were younger, Toranaga became a hostage.
In this context, it means that he is sent to live with another daimyo to secure the peace between his family and the other daimyo's.
Nobutatsu continues with the story, with their mother, a Minowara, reminds Toranaga that a Minowara does not feel fear. However, apparently Toranaga s**t his pants after he left their mother's arms and rode his horse that way for 10 ri. A ri is an old Japanese way to measure how far a person can walk in an hour at a reasonable pace. It's equivalent to almost 4 kilometers.
After humiliating Toranaga, Nobutatsu lets the mic drop: he has received another offer.
Toranaga's people are then alerted to what seems like hundreds of shouting samurai. Over the hill, torches and banners can be seen. His men inform him that Nobutatsu's men have blocked off all access to and from Izu.
Nobutatsu tosses an order for Hiromatsu to read. It's from the Council of Regents, inviting Lord Toranaga to submit before them in Osaka to answer for his treachery. And his response should be given to the council's ambassador, Saeki Nobutatsu. He's also the newly appointed regent, essentially replacing Toranaga.
And there's more where that came from: Nobutatsu mentions Nagakado's formal sentencing for killing Nebara Jozen and orders him to commit seppuku.
Nagakado reaches over to accept the order, but Toranaga stops him. He tells Nobutatsu that he is honored to receive the request and will respond by sunset tomorrow.
Afterwards, Blackthorne tries to put together a plan using the Erasmus, but Mariko isn't on board.
Elsewhere on the island, Toranaga is trying to figure out a way out of this betrayal as he stand by a torii.
And still elsewhere, Nobutatsu gives Yabushige the head of the general he sent to broker a secret peace.
Blackthorne then sees a ship with Ishido's crest is about to dock on the shores of Ajiro.
As Toranaga finishes contemplating what he's about to do, Nagakado asks him, “Do we die with blood on our swords?”
The boy can't win when his father replies, “Why is it that only those who have never fought in a battle are so eager to be in one?”
As the men return to the village, Gin asks Toranaga to honor his promise of a stick of his time, which he grants.
The Willow World makes a Shōgun reappearance
As the incense burns, Gin gets to her point, asking for Toranaga to create a district for the Willow World in the city he's building in Edo, as well as the creation of a guild for courtesans.
Toranaga tells her that with everything going on, he does not see a future when he can give her what she wants.
However, Gin counters him and tells him that fate is like a sword and it's “useful only to those who can wield it.”
She posits that all of this (Nobutatsu's betrayal, his garrison trapped) is all Toranaga's doing.
Why couldn't a spy have told him about the army coming this way? Why leave your weakened garrison so exposed? Why make such a careless mistake?
That was a non-subtle mic drop from Gin.
The scene shifts to Yabushige using the hot spring. Meanwhile, Omi and Nagakado are having their own hot spring time. He calls his uncle and his men “spineless pigs.”
Nobutatsu overhears Nagakado's insult and chides him for it being as dull as his blades.
On the shore, we watch Yabushige giving Blackthorne impromptu sword lessons. Buntaro takes advantage of Anjin both disarmed and on the ground. But he doesn't strike.
We go back to the tent with Toranaga writing his will. He ends up giving Gin her request.
Buntaro arrives then asks for Blackthorne's head. He says he doesn't like the way he looks at his wife.
Toranaga asks him if he thinks that Mariko is allowing Blackthorne's solicitation of her affections? Because if he does, then he'd have to take both their heads, not just Blackthorne's.
The Lord of Kantō asks for Mariko's opinion. She responds that her life is for her husband to take. In the end, Buntaro gives up. To accuse one is to accuse the other, and he doesn't want to accuse his wife of infidelity.
However, Toranaga now orders Mariko to choose between her priorities: her service to him in the name of her father's enemies or to Blackthorne.
Mariko reiterates that her loyalty belongs to him, as it has since the beginning. But she has been longing for death since her family's demise. She asks that he lets it end tonight.
I love that no matter how angry Toranaga seems to be with her, she doesn't ever seem to fear him. Even as he shouts at her — right in her face, really — she doesn't even flinch.
While some may think this is a self-preservation instinct, I don't think it is. I'm Asian (with both East and Southeast Asian ancestry). Most of the women in my generation were raised to fear our fathers when they get like this. We were also raised to show our fear. It's a way to placate their anger, to somehow lessen it.
Mariko isn't being defiant by not showing her fear to Toranaga, her lord, the man who can order her death and one who can supersede even her own husband's orders. She really just doesn't fear him.
I love this scene, again because of the composition. Mariko is on her knees in front of Toranaga, while he is crouched. His arm rests on one of his katana. The backdrop is of his black crest on white cloths on both sides and his white crest on a black cloth in the middle.
Mariko withdraws her tantō from her kimona and asks him to free her as she hands it to him. He strikes it out of her hands and walk into the rain.
Toranaga and his men are on the shores of Ajiro. He chides Hiromatsu about not correcting Nobutatsu when he told the story of his beheading Mizoguchi with a single stroke.
“It was nine times before that head came off,” Hiromatsu says.
According to the NIH, the force required to completely decapitate the human head is between 400 and 800 kgf (kilogram force). I'm not a scientist, but to be able to cleanly decapitate someone, other factors need to be taken into account such as the weight of the sword (a katana usually weighs an average of 1 kilo), the distance of the sword from the neck and the force exerted by the body. Suffice it to say, that a 12-year-old Toranaga would not have been able to slice Mizoguchi's head off in one stroke.
His senior advisors, which now include Blackthorne and Mariko, pile in and by to him one by one before taking their place behind him. They await Nobutatsu's army.
He arrives and the two brothers sit facing each other as Nobutatsu requests his formal response.
“I bow before you and agree to travel to Osaka where I will submit to the will of the Council before Lord Ishido,” Toranaga intones while the rest of his men look up in surprise.
“He has surrendered,” Mariko translates for Blackthorne.
Both Yabushige and Nagakado try to interrupt, but Toranaga silences them. He acknowledges that Crimson Sky was a mistake. And his surrender has effectively all sentenced them to death.
Blackthorne rises to address both Nagakado and Yabushige, “Behold the great warlord. The brilliant master of trickery… who tricked his own loyal vassals into a noiseless smothering.”
Mariko translates none of this.
“You're all dead,” Blackthorne finishes in Japanese and walks out.
Nobutatsu accepts Toranaga's surrender saying, “From this day you have nowhere to go and nothing left to be.”
When all that is done, he celebrates by having sex with Kiku, she is pulling a cloth tied around his neck, an erotic asphyxiation.
After he finishes, she asks, “Would you allow me to… elevate our play?”
I'm not sure if this is going to be a thing in later episodes, but it feels like a foreshadowing of Kiku's involvement in the grander scheme of things.
Nagakado and the price of hubris
However, as she leaves this allows Nagakado steals into Nobutatsu's room and attacks him. Nobutatsu tries to escape outside with Nagakado on his heels. However, as he prepares to strike he slips on a stone and hits his head on rock.
The scene ends with Nobutatsu standing over him, Nagakado lying in the water as the rain continues to pour.
I was looking forward to meeting Toranaga's half-brother the moment he was mentioned in the previous episode. I am not disappointed.
While I may have been thoroughly impressed with the aesthetics that contrast the brothers, I am even more impressed at the tension both actors portrayed. We don't know much about their issues. Suffice it to say that there are legion.
However, their issues will have to take a backseat because we are moving forward with what Toranaga's next move is. With Nobutatsu's men surrounding Izu, Toranaga surrendering and leaving for Osaka and now Nagakado attacking his uncle.
Toranaga doesn't seem to have a lot of options to get out of this mess. But as Blackthorne said, he's not just a great warlord, he's a master of trickery. So what tricks does he have up his sleeves?
Follow Us
Subscribe