Shōgun
Season 1 – Episode 8
Original air date : April 9, 2024 (Netflix)
Plot: Toranaga’s defeated clan moves to Edo; Blackthorne must decide who he fights for.
* * *
[villagers whispering]
[coughing]
[coughing continues]
Cracking his head on stone.
Wasn’t a death I’d thought of.
Be sure to record it in our book.
I’d rank it lower than boiling,
but higher than eaten by dogs.
[in English] Saeki-sama‘s army will camp at Edo’s boundary
where they will wait for Toranaga-sama to mourn his son.
For how long?
The customary 49 days.
And after that?
They will deliver us to Osaka.
[sighs]
[breathes heavily]
[coughs]
[horse approaches]
[in Japanese] Lord…
I am sorry for your loss.
[sighs]
[coughing]
[in English] My lord instructed me to give these to you upon entry to the city.
For the completion of your service.
When we submit to the Council, you’re not required to join us
since you no longer choose to stand with us anyway.
Fuji-sama will manage the land until your return.
Though I cannot say how my lord’s successors may deal with you.
[Blackthorne] Fine strategy he has.
At least Nagakado-sama died fighting.
Your men are here in this city.
The crew from your ship.
You must be eager to be reunited.
And my translator, what becomes of her?
Mariko-sama, don’t go to Osaka.
My allegiance forbids me from doing anything else.
[horse nickers]
[panting]
[samurai shouts in Japanese]
[Ishido] He’s surrendered.
Your ruse was a brilliant success.
A great Minowara, meeting his end at a humble fishing village…
Who would have thought.
He still has his mourning period.
Until his head is pressed to the floor in submission,
we are not free of his threat.
Perhaps, to strengthen our alliance,
we should make our intentions public.
Our pact is not in doubt.
In the days when I stood in the Taikō’s service,
I was captivated by you.
His favored consort.
Peerless in strength, grace, and courage.
If you saw those things, it was merely a reflection of our lord.
[chuckles]
I revered our lord,
but let us stop pretending he was kind.
We didn’t just survive our time, we made our place here.
I propose we strengthen our bond through marriage.
What would you say?
[breathes heavily]
The offer is yours to consider.
[Buntaro] What’s there to be said about Lord Nagakado…
He was eager to please.
[chuckling]
Full of long stories that went nowhere.
[chuckles]
Once, he fell from a tree and broke his arm.
Didn’t tell anyone for days.
So they would think he was brave.
[chuckles]
He was truly courageous.
At the same time,
he was reckless.
What an embarrassment.
[chuckles]
If I may…
It’s hard to believe Lord Nagakado isn’t here with us tonight.
He would have enjoyed us
honoring him.
But he’s not.
Because our lord has chosen to surrender…
to slice his belly before that snake, Ishido.
This is something Lord Nagakado could not accept.
Reckless as he may have been,
his life…
was given to one thing…
the name of his lord.
Lord Toranaga.
[chanting]
Absent from his own son’s funeral…
I’m told Lord Toranaga has fallen very sick from his journey.
[Yabushige] So you haven’t seen him either?
My nephew’s speech last night…
he’s just a boy, but he’s right about many things.
Look how his Edo generals wear their armor in protest.
There are those who haven’t yet given up.
Why not march to Osaka with guns and cannon?
You alone will head to Osaka.
As a condition of our surrender,
Ishido requested you return the guns and cannons to Osaka.
[exhales sharply]
[chanting continues]
[bell peals]
[priest chanting]
[bell peals]
[fire roars]
[priests continue chanting]
Her grandfather must be very proud.
Yes, I hope he will be.
His new granddaughter…
Lord Toranaga hasn’t come to see her yet?
I’ve heard he’s been in bad health since his return.
[baby crying]
Have you heard from your sister in Osaka?
Only by formal letter.
Assuring me that after Lord Toranaga bows to Lord Ishido
my family will be spared.
Beyond that, nothing.
You know how Lady Ochiba can be.
Each of us endures in her own way.
Staying hidden is hers.
Lord Buntaro.
Welcome back to Edo.
It’s good to be home, Lady Rin.
Lord Toranaga sent word for you to join him this afternoon.
I understand.
[gasps]
I will leave you.
Please stay.
I do not wish to interrupt.
These are hard times, this business with Osaka.
I’d like to prepare tea for my wife. What do you think?
I accept.
[servant] But we gave you firewood yesterday.
Understand, but I don’t need firewood.
Looking for, um…
My friend is asking for more firewood.
Please forgive this barbarian’s lack of manners.
[in English] Thank you for your kind attempt at translation, Father.
Alas, you are wrong.
[in Japanese] I ask for charcoal. It gives off better heat.
[in English] I must say I am impressed.
You have made your own way out here.
Thank you, Father. Ah!
[in Japanese] Lotus tonight. Please.
[in English] Except I seem to find Catholics
in every sordid corner of this country.
Like the cacka-rooch.
It was not you I came to Edo for.
I have urgent business with Toranaga-sama.
Strange that you are living out here.
Typically a hatamoto is given residence within the confines of his lord’s castle.
What are your plans now he has cut you loose?
Well, to start, I will reunite with my crew.
Get back aboard my vessel.
Then pay a visit to that Black Ship I’ve heard so much about.
Tell me, will you wear those clothes when you see your men?
Ah, yes.
[chuckles]
Yes, I intend to.
Thank you, Father.
[Martin] Lady Maria.
I am so glad to see you are safe.
I only wish it were a happier time.
How is your lord?
I’ve not seen him since we returned to the city.
[sighs]
[samurai speaks Japanese]
[Toranaga coughing]
[groans]
[coughing continues]
[grunting]
[sighs]
[Martin speaks Japanese]
You’ve heard that Lord Ishido has bent the Council to his will.
Of course we know this.
Our deal, which we made on the Black Ship…
Our church made its best effort,
but Lords Kiyama and Ohno
would not be swayed to your cause.
[exhales sharply]
Things my spies have already reported…
Have you really come all this way to tell me that?
Mariko.
From now on, you will translate for this priest,
as the Church is not our ally
and cannot be trusted to speak in our tongue.
Lord, if I may…
[in English] The Church did not send me on this mission, Lord.
I have come on my own.
[in Japanese] Tsuji says he is not here on the orders of the Church…
[in English] I know these are dire times, and many in Edo have lost hope.
[Mariko translating]
But not me.
Ochiba no kata has manipulated Ishido out of hatred for you
and I see no cause for her anger.
[in Japanese] Though Ochiba has no reason to be your enemy,
she controls Ishido.
I cannot change her hatred of me.
[in English] Unlike Ishido, you love the Heir.
If you form an alliance with his mother,
the Heir would be free to turn against Ishido.
[in Japanese] He believes you can forge an alliance with Ochiba.
And your thoughts?
You wish to hear my thoughts?
I do.
Tsuji has a point.
Why?
Osaka is not our enemy.
Ishido is.
If we align with Lady Ochiba,
Ishido’s only path to power will be removed,
as the Heir’s army will become our ally.
You once knew her.
Do you believe, in a thousand years,
Ochiba would ever ally with me?
I don’t think you are her enemy.
I think fear is her enemy.
[sighs]
She would sooner have my head buried in the earth.
What?
Speak.
Your face… has the color of defeat.
Lord, it’s not like you.
[Toranaga scoffs]
I…
This victory would come at too high a cost,
so I choose a peaceful defeat.
Then you are giving up on those
who would never give up on you.
Quiet.
If I wanted your advice I would have asked for it.
Call my vassals to assembly tomorrow.
I’ve heard these rumors about their defiance of my will.
Wearing armor to my son’s funeral.
Lord…
My son is dead.
I will have…
no further bloodshed.
I want their signed pledge
that they will march with me in surrender.
[groans]
[speaks Japanese]
[Toranaga grunts, coughs]
[breathes heavily]
Tell the priest I am grateful for his attempt to change my fate.
Since he kept his promise,
I will keep mine.
He may build a new church here in Edo.
The land has been set aside.
I only have one request.
That he return to Osaka and tell them what he sees here.
All I want is a peaceful death.
[coughs]
He’s going to fight.
How do you know?
Otherwise, our lord would not send him to Osaka
with a message.
Beauty of Nature.
Winter is ending soon.
Yes.
The scent of plums
detaches from the blossoms and leaves
off into the distance.
My mind is drawn to the distant haze
where the wind carries the detached scent.
Perhaps you would take cha?
It would be my honor.
Your performance was wonderful.
It was only for you.
[sighs]
Despite what my father says
I think we’re going to die in Osaka.
Perhaps that’s what makes this tea so meaningful.
I remember our first days together.
We were happy.
I struggle to remember clearly.
Are you still under the Anjin’s spell?
[breathes heavily]
Let us go to death tonight.
[inhales deeply]
I wish to finally give it to you.
In protest of our lord’s surrender, and your enemies,
let us welcome death together.
Let us enter oblivion as husband and wife.
Even now you fail to understand.
What you’ve denied me…
wasn’t death.
It was a life beyond your reach.
And I would sooner live a thousand years
than die with you like this.
[sliding door opens, closes]
[crying]
[villager speaking Japanese, cackling]
[in Japanese] Your men live in the funayado.
They’ve been drinking all the saké in the region for months.
We’ll be glad for them to leave.
[sailors singing indistinctly]
[guide] All of them.
[sailors continue singing]
[sniffing]
[exhales deeply]
[in English] Stinks like Billingsgate at low tide.
[prostitute speaks Japanese]
[chuckles, coughs]
[in English] Come on. What’s wrong? Come on. Beautiful.
You’re my good doxy, you are.
[chuckling]
Come back.
[prostitute scoffs]
[sailor] Come back. You’re beautiful!
[sighs]
[gasps]
Pilot?
John Blackthorne! Is that you?
Hello, Salamon.
How are you?
We’d given you up for dead.
How many of us left?
Six. Barely hanging on.
Right.
Well, I’ve been given clearance…
for us to return to Erasmus.
I have a few friends. Good crew we could train.
I’ve been training some of them on the cannon already.
To do what?
To help us…
home.
Nah.
[sighs]
Whe… Where does the pilot want to take us this time?
Maybe Africa? Or back to the Americas?
Since you’re here, Pilot, tell me something.
When we left Santa Maria,
were there really Spanish ships to the South, to the North of us?
Had to come here?
I just hate to think that we spent these months wasting away
because our pilot had ambitions of his own.
First Englishman through the Strait ready to make his name.
We had orders.
We could have turned home, and you know it!
Our orders ended when the Captain-General sent a shot out the back of his head.
That you come to realize that we are here.
What is left of us is because of you.
I’ll speak to the rest of the men.
First, take off those skirts.
And we’ll, um… We’ll careen her. We’ll scrape her.
And the extra men we need,
you leave that to me.
I said take them off!
You son of a bitch!
[breathing heavily]
[grunting]
[dogs barking]
[in Japanese] Let’s go.
[breathing heavily]
[sailors shout indistinctly]
[in English] Here’s your goddamn, filthy…
[sighs]
[Salamon groans]
Tell him I understand we’ve had our differences in the past, him and me.
But now is the time when my choices are few.
[in Japanese] While he regrets that he has no choice in the matter,
he’s come to you out of desperation.
What does he want?
[in English] I once offered to sail for Toranaga-sama against his enemies.
Now he is determined to die.
Fine.
[in Japanese] Fate.
[in English] I now wish to forge allegiances
benefiting this country economically and strategically.
I still have my ship.
I can train a crew.
I just need a new banner to sail under.
You wish to sail on Yabushige-sama‘s behalf?
I don’t wish it. He is a shit face.
But he is a brave shit face. And that is the truth.
So, I must ask.
[in Japanese] He believes our lord will soon die,
and wishes to sail for you.
[chuckles]
I think he calculates, unwisely,
that you wish not to join Lord Toranaga in Osaka.
This is disgraceful.
[scoffs]
My nephew is right.
I refuse.
[in English] Yabushige-sama politely declines your request.
[in Japanese] The Anjin is wrong to think Lord Toranaga has given up.
I don’t know what the old man is up to,
but it’s not surrender.
[in English] Even Yabushige-sama stands with Toranaga-sama.
Only you waiver.
Then let me explain again.
There is no explaining treachery, especially against your sworn lord.
I am free of any obligations to him. He has made that very clear.
If he were in my position, he would do the same.
[grunts]
This weapon is not mine.
To tell you the truth, I feel embarrassed wearing it most of the time.
Perhaps there existed a… a moment in which
I had fooled myself into believing that I could one day belong to this place,
but that moment is leagues behind me.
[in Japanese] He says that he knows he doesn’t belong in Japan.
[Blackthorne] Having said that…
[in Japanese] own people
seem
…strange.
[in English] I don’t know where that leaves me,
but I do know that now I’m left to whittle what fate I can for myself.
[in Japanese] He believes he has no choice but to make his own fate.
[in English] Since I first saw you near death
on that cliff many months ago,
I’ve known you were a man who understood the importance
of taking fate into his own hands.
[Mariko, in Japanese] He recalls the time you were close to death on a cliff.
He believes you also know what it means
to control your own fate.
[chuckles]
[scoffs]
Tell him that since he is a foreigner, I will overlook his mistake.
I would never betray our lord.
We’ve been called to the castle to sign our obeisance to him,
and that is what I intend to do.
[grunts]
[in English] He refuses your offer.
Says it is betrayal of our lord.
You see, once loyalty begins, it does not have an end.
Otherwise, it would not be loyalty.
But loyal turns senseless very quickly when the order is suicide.
Would you like me to translate that?
Or was it for me?
[Gin, in Japanese] The main gates. Here.
My tea house will be here…
We’ll make a room for Kiku in a separate house.
I see nothing here.
It’s an idea she chased all her life.
It must be beautiful to finally see it.
It was your hard work that earned this for her.
Serving my mistress
is my greatest pride.
Do you think loyalty could ever be a disservice?
Or even a harm?
No.
I don’t know what I’m fighting for anymore.
[Kiku] If you look and see nothing…
you must simply look harder.
Lord Toranaga was very generous to grant you this plot.
It’s among the best in the city.
Who is that over there?
[guide] Your neighbors.
I’m told they are courtesans.
Courtesans…
[bell peals]
[servant] Good morning, Lady Daiyoin.
I have tea and your favorite sawara today…
[grunting]
[gasps]
[servant] Someone find a doctor!
[doctor] It was a stroke early this morning.
All we can do is make her comfortable.
[Daiyoin sighs]
I knew it would be this face to send me off.
All of your strength. And sadness.
You must stop these games.
Promise to release the hostages.
Ishido comes from nothing, and he is nothing.
[gasps]
How about some medicine to ease your pain, Lady Daiyoin?
Tell our son to look for me in the Pure Land…
Look what I made…
[exhales deeply]
[breathing shakily]
[rain pattering]
[samurai shouts]
[attendant speaks Japanese]
[Toranaga coughing]
[grunts]
[coughing continues]
Tomorrow, Yabushige will leave for Osaka.
In addition to delivering my guns to Ishido,
he will submit the names of those who will join me in surrender.
I now require your signatures on this list.
[samurai] Lord…
we are unable to accept what must be a ploy.
There is no such trickery.
Forgive us, Lord…
we cannot follow you on this path to defeat.
You refuse your duty?
Our duty is to advise you.
If you stay in Edo, Ishido will be forced to fight us here.
He will destroy this city.
Let him try.
Which is more important?
Survival of our clan, or Japan?
My fight is decided.
Lord…
if you will not change your mind
then I will
commit seppuku at once.
[breathes heavily]
Do you all doubt your allegiance to me?
Traitors should confess at once!
If you surrender to Osaka
it is treason against your heritage…
Quiet!
This is between me and Lord Toranaga.
My one and only friend.
Lord…
I have
stood by your side since you were a piss-dripping boy.
Then die by my side in Osaka.
You are throwing away all that we have fought for.
[sighs]
I have made my decision.
Now you must make yours.
So you do believe in pointless death.
Lord!
Your vassal dies in vain!
[breathes heavily]
Then die.
[gasps]
Lord!
Please stop this…
He has set his mind against me.
I will not yield.
Lord Toranaga…
Then this is farewell.
Buntaro, bring my sword and second me.
[inhales deeply]
[sighs]
I’m following you into death.
No.
Father…
please…
You must live.
You will know what it is to be denied.
Do not give up on our lord.
Even when it appears he has given up on himself.
[breathes heavily]
[crying]
Now second me.
[Omi] Lord Toranaga!
This is madness!
Stop this!
[samurai murmurs]
Forgive me…
[grunting]
[shouting]
[breathing heavily]
[rain continues]
I beg your pardon.
[Toranaga] Do you disagree with what happened today?
Today we all suffered great loss.
I won’t deepen the wound by disagreeing.
The sound of rain on the leaves
can be heard.
Still more fragile
is the dew of tears on my sleeves
even in springtime.
Waiting, the pine tree
never withers in winter.
If I could use words
like scattering flowers and falling leaves,
what a bonfire my poems would make.
[chuckles]
I concede victory, Mariko.
[coughs]
Your poetry was always superior.
Tell me…
has the Anjin gone to Yabushige yet?
Yes.
But Lord Yabushige refused.
[chuckles]
He’ll change his mind after today.
Hiromatsu made sure of it.
The Anjin and Yabushige are both goshawks.
Short-winged and predictable.
Then…
Lord Hiromatsu…
[sniffs]
Hiromatsu…
my old friend…
[shudders]
knew his duty well.
Osaka has to believe my defeat is real.
Now are you ready to do your part?
I’m ready.
[samurai shouting indistinctly]
[Yabushige] Hurry! Hurry!
Be quick.
What are you doing?
Hurry it up!
Yes… [breathes heavily]
If Lord Toranaga finds out you’ve aligned with the Anjin…
I won’t die on behalf of a crazy old man.
But the Anjin is dangerous.
[grunts]
Uncle!
What do you want?
Take care.
[grunts]
[sailors shouting indistinctly]
[speaks Japanese]
What you said the other day…
it meant a great deal to me.
[grunts]
[sighs]
Allies.
You…
…and me.
Allies.
Allies.
We’re allies.
[Blackthorne chuckles, speaks Japanese]
[chuckles]
[sighs]
[samurai exclaims]
[in English] Someone’s coming.
[in Japanese] Lord Toranaga has requested I accompany you to Osaka.
[sighs]
[Toranaga coughing]
[breathes heavily]
[Toranaga] Thank you, my son.
You earned me some time.
I will not waste it…
Hiromatsu and you, both.
I will not waste it.
