Shōgun
Season 1 – Episode 10
Original air date : April 23, 2024 (Netflix)
Plot: In the wake of a tragic death, Blackthorne finally considers the true nature of Toranaga’s plan.
* * *
[children speaking indistinctly]
[child] Nigel!
[Nigel shushes]
[in English] He’s gonna hear us.
[child] I’m being quiet.
[Nigel] Who’s gonna know?
[child] Look at it. It looks sharp.
[Nigel] Be quiet. He’ll hear you.
[child] I’m only going to look.
[Nigel] Mother’s going to get angry if she knows we’re in here.
Be careful.
Why is it chipped?
Because Grandfather used it to fight off a whole army of Japanese assassins.
[Blackthorne coughing]
[breathing heavily]
Was it really given to you by a savage?
[flames roaring]
[Yabushige, speaking Japanese]
Anjin!
Get up!
Anjin!
Get up!
[people coughing, crying]
[grunting, panting]
[breathing heavily]
Mariko-sama.
Mariko-sama!
[sniffles, yells]
[breathes heavily]
[in English] Heavenly Father,
we commit to you your loyal servant, Mariko-sama.
Mariko-sama, Mariko-sama.
[Kiri, in Japanese] Lady Mariko!
[speaks Japanese]
[Kiri sobbing]
Forgive me…
[speaks Japanese]
[Kiri continues sobbing]
[breathing deeply]
[Kiyama] All of this was tragic and avoidable.
Osaka Castle isn’t as safe as we were led to believe…
that much is clear.
[Ohno] Lady Mariko should have been
allowed to leave without incident.
What does it matter now.
A letter of protest from my brother.
The violent death of his prized vassal
has left him shocked.
He has fled Edo in secret and prepares for war.
This means nothing.
Whether he surrenders here or in battle is up to him.
What matters is we are united.
To think this dishonorable attack
could have been ordered by a member of this Council…
Such a despicable attack.
Only Toranaga is conniving enough to pull it off.
He’s trying to sow division between us.
It is our duty to end his threat.
I say…
we march.
Lady Mariko must first be given a Christian burial.
I am sorry for Mariko’s death,
but let us not forget she was Akechi.
The same line that murdered Lady Ochiba’s father.
Lady Mariko will…
generously
be honored.
Fine.
In that case, we’ll go to war after.
And with the Heir’s support.
[Ishido] Of course.
His banners make our side lawful,
and Toranaga’s unlawful.
And what will be done about the heretic?
After we vote for war,
what happens to him is no longer of interest to me.
War is inevitable.
[regents] Inevitable.
[earth rumbling]
[regents panting]
[rumbling subsides]
This matter…
Perhaps it requires a bit more debate.
Stop this superstition.
We’re not peasants, digging in the dirt for meaning.
We are protectors of the Realm.
The vote is done.
You look well.
[speaks Japanese]
Your hearing… is it improving?
Ears.
[gasps, exclaims]
Thank you.
I thought Lady Mariko would only be captured.
She resisted, and she died.
There was nothing we could do.
Your efforts will not be forgotten.
After Toranaga is gone,
your seat on the Council is secured.
[Ishido chuckles]
[Yabushige grunts, breathes heavily]
The strangest thing…
When the Taikō was about to go to war with Toranaga,
he had all the votes…
until that earthquake hit.
It was a big one beneath Lake Biwa.
His allies called it a bad omen.
The Taikō was forced to forge a peace.
That was long ago.
[grunts, exclaims]
Where is it?
He blamed the catfish.
Its thick, ugly tail shaking the earth.
[grunting]
Yabushige. Yabushige!
[Yabushige gasps]
There are no catfish in that pond.
Ah…
Of course I know that.
Return to Izu.
Gather your army. Wait for my command.
Huh? [gasps]
[speaks Japanese]
[gasps, grunts]
[splashing]
[Yabushige continues splashing]
[falcon squawks softly]
I return you to the sky.
[falcon squawking loudly]
Bear many daughters.
[singing in Latin]
[Nigel, in English] Was it really given to you by a savage?
We live and we die.
[Blackthorne yells]
[coughing]
[breathing heavily]
[doctor, in Japanese] You’ve been asleep a long time…
Lady Mariko was buried the other day.
[samurai] Get up. Time to leave.
Lord Kiyama’s men will escort you to the harbor.
[in English] Well, get it over with then.
You have been permitted to return to Toranaga-sama’s galley.
Here is your pass.
[Blackthorne] Why am I receiving this permission from Lord Kiyama?
Where is Yabushige-sama?
He’s preparing the galley in Osaka Bay. I have come to bring you to him.
[Martin] All families have now been released from Osaka.
Praise be to God. At least that crisis is behind us.
Toranaga won’t be surrendering.
Not yet.
Ishido-sama has mobilized the Council of Regents to war.
The Lady Ochiba has pledged her son’s support.
Toranaga will be dead in weeks.
Then you don’t know Yoshii Toranaga.
[Blackthorne breathing heavily]
[grunts]
The hostages are free.
Got just what he wanted.
No dirty hands, no war.
Just a woman.
She can’t have heard me before…
before she died.
I spoke before God.
Not your God or my God.
Just God.
Do you think it was acceptable?
Rest assured she was already sanctified.
Before her death, she came to me and received absolution.
I think it would’ve pleased her to see us being civil.
[chuckles]
Yes. Yes, you may be right.
Perhaps there might come a time we can set aside our differences.
[laughs]
Yes.
All this nonsense.
Catholic and Protestant, and Calvinist and every other shitist.
It’s only a shame that day will never come.
Will it, Father?
Is this where I’m to be ambushed?
Like the last time I tried to leave.
No longer protected.
Is that how I finally meet my end?
I will not deny it.
You were meant to die in these woods.
But an arrangement was made.
You will leave Osaka alive.
You’ll have to forgive me if I’m having some trouble
accepting anything on your word.
On this, you will just have to trust me.
[sailors speaking Japanese]
[Yabushige scoffs]
[in English] Go with God, Anjin-sama.
It was Lady Maria.
She asked the Church to spare your life before she died.
And now I have.
I have kept my word to her.
Goodbye.
And good luck.
[footsteps approaching]
[in Japanese] What does it mean, “on a leafless branch”?
It was written by my friend.
[Yaechiyo] The one who was just buried?
Yes.
So we must finish the poem.
What line would you write next?
Well…
a branch can have fruit…
also flowers…
How about…
Flowers are only flowers because they fall
But thankfully, the wind.
[wind blowing]
[sailors speaking Japanese]
[Yabushige sighs]
We should never have gone to Osaka.
Your ship.
We could sail on it together.
To your home country.
What’s your country called?
Country.
Country, yes. What is it?
[in English] England.
[in Japanese] Take me there.
Don’t you understand?
Here, then…
Teach me how to dive.
Like you taught Toranaga.
[servant speaks Japanese]
Show me.
Huh?
[in English] Pull yourself together, man.
[Yabushige, in Japanese] What are you saying? Hurry!
[captain speaks Japanese]
Look!
[Yabushige gasps]
[grunting]
Omi!
[shouts in Japanese]
[grunting, panting]
I’m sorry…
Lord Yabushige…
I’m instructed to ask for your swords.
My swords.
These men belong to Lord Toranaga, our liege lord.
The orders also belong to him.
Of course.
This way.
Enemies slipped past our guards by cover of night.
They knew exactly where to strike.
Christians, we think.
It’s all so terrible…
[samurai speaks Japanese]
[in English] Enemies? Christians did this?
Mariko-sama.
[samurai 2] Come this way!
[villager whimpering] Please stop.
Until we find those who aided the Christian raiders,
no one in this village will rest.
Lord Toranaga has ordered it.
[Yabushige panting]
[grunting]
Lord.
Thank you for returning my consorts and my vassals.
You’ve heard the news that Lady Mariko is dead.
Yes, I know.
That night,
you were seen letting intruders into my quarters.
[speaks Japanese]
One of Mariko’s ladies-in-waiting was with you in the cellar.
She sent a letter to Omi.
After Lady Mariko’s death,
they say you were guilt-stricken and asked for forgiveness.
I felt it was my duty to alert our lord.
Did you aid this attack?
[sighs, inhales sharply]
Yes I did.
[Toranaga] Fine.
All of your lands are forfeit.
Please slit your belly by sunset tomorrow.
Lord…
If you must kill me, give me a good death!
Like being torn apart by cannon
or eaten alive by a school of angry fish.
I beg you! Please!
Fine suggestions, but I don’t trust you.
Please commit seppuku by sunset tomorrow.
Izu is the fief of the Kashigi clan.
I declare Omi to be my heir,
and request it be given to him.
It is fair to ask, but Izu is no longer yours to give.
Who would you like to second your death?
Let it be the Anjin.
No.
In that case,
I would be honored if it would be you, Lord.
I shall.
Until tomorrow, then.
[Yabushige grunts]
May Fudō Myō’ō smile on tomorrow.
[guard shouts in Japanese]
[guard shouts]
[Blackthorne] Hmm.
Fuji…
You look…
healthy and strong.
Thank you.
[Blackthorne] No translator.
You protected my new son.
I am grateful to all of you.
So many have been lost since we parted in Osaka.
Beginning with Lord Nagakado,
whom we still mourn.
Thankfully I have more sons,
because of you.
[chuckles]
The morning we left Osaka Castle,
this came in secret from Lady Ochiba.
Have you read it?
What a suggestion!
[inhales sharply]
If I could use words
like scattering flowers and falling leaves,
what a bonfire my poems would make.
Those words are too beautiful to belong to you.
They belong to Lady Mariko.
Only her words remain with us now.
[speaks Japanese]
But what a bonfire she made.
[Blackthorne, in English] What is that?
[in Japanese] They carry remains of my husband, Lord Tadayoshi,
and my only son Tsurumaru.
I should bury them in the family temple,
but I wish to be close to them.
I’m not sure what to do…
Anjin-sama.
Tomorrow I am leaving.
Lord Toranaga has given me permission to become a nun.
Do you understand what I say?
“Nun”?
Fuji, nun?
[in English] Yes.
[in Japanese] Nun.
I wish
for you to stay.
Impossible.
I order it.
Fuji is…
consort.
So sorry,
but I am no longer your consort.
My service to Lord Toranaga is now complete.
[in English] Well, you served him well.
[in Japanese] Fuji…
best nun.
I will try.
However…
I am sad for this village.
Ajiro.
After what happened to your ship,
the villagers are being severely punished.
I am sad too.
Fuji.
Prepare message for Lord Toranaga.
Wish to see him tomorrow.
[horses approaching]
[horse nickers]
Your sword and your gun.
I will bring you to Lord Toranaga.
[horse whinnies]
[Toranaga] Tell him…
we are disgusted by the destruction of his ship.
My men will not rest until the saboteur is found.
Lord, perhaps this is too much for a simple fisherman to translate.
Does he still not know?
[speaks Japanese]
Tell him.
[in English] Forgive me for the deception, Anjin-dono.
I was born Tonomoto Akinao, in the Azuchi prefecture.
I am samurai.
In order to spy on his enemies,
years ago, my lord ordered me to convert to the religion of the Portuguese.
So I took the name Muraji and moved here.
Well at least you’re not Catholic.
I am a Christian and also I am Tonomoto Akinao,
vassal to Toranaga-sama.
I am both these things.
My lord says he will not rest
until he finds those who helped destroy your ship.
Muraji,
I’ve prepared something to say in Japanese.
Perhaps you will help me if I falter.
[in Japanese] Thank you for agreeing to see me.
The day you surrendered to your brother…
I apologize for my disrespect.
Back then, I had…
given up…
that…
[Muraji] “Hope”?
[in English] Hope.
Or is the word you are looking for “faith”?
At this point, either one of them will do.
[in Japanese] Please leave Ajiro alone.
One man lost hope…
but Ajiro is loyal.
Why does he care about the plight of my village?
Doesn’t he seek vengeance on his enemies?
[in English] He asks why you do not wish to fight your enemies.
My enemies didn’t burn my ship.
[in Japanese] He says it was not his enemies who burned the ship.
[in English] It was Mariko-sama. She hated my war against the Catholics.
[Muraji, in Japanese] He says it was Lady Mariko…
She hated his war with the Christians in Japan.
[in English] So she made an arrangement in Osaka
to trade my survival for the destruction of my ship.
[in Japanese] She ordered the destruction of his ship in exchange for his life.
[in English] So you see?
[in Japanese] …this death, not right.
Want no more blood.
What about the Anjin’s war?
[in English] I don’t need it anymore.
[in Japanese] My war…
small war.
I refuse his request.
Why?
Those who are disloyal to me continue to breathe air in my domain…
I cannot just stand by.
[in English] He says the sentence stays until the disloyal have been found.
[in Japanese] What are you doing?
[in English] I was the disloyal one.
[in Japanese] I die,
not village.
[scoffing] Who do you think you are?
Does he really think that if he takes his own life
I would stop searching for these traitors?
I die,
not village.
No.
[in English] Don’t you understand?
I came here to use you.
To use you!
From the day I set foot on your shores,
I fed you shit.
[slowly] I fed you shit.
[breathes shakily]
[in Japanese] “Enemy.”
[speaks Japanese]
[shouting] Enemy!
[sighs]
[in English] Fuck it.
We live and we die.
[in Japanese] I, Anjin, by my death…
protest the callous punishment of this village by Yoshii Toranaga.
[gasps]
[inhales sharply]
[breathing heavily]
[grunting, yells]
Enough!
[grunting, panting]
If you’re finally done,
rebuild that ship,
and make me a fleet.
[Yabushige] Find a good husband for my wife.
Make sure he’s not an idiot.
You made me your heir…
I’m grateful.
Uncle…
I swear the name of Kashigi is safe in my hands.
[Yabushige] If I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t have suggested it.
I considered you the son I never had.
My death poem.
My dead body,
Don’t burn it, Don’t bury it, Just leave it in the field
And with it, fill the belly of some hungry dog.
[chuckles]
Impressive, right?
I think my skills have never been sharper.
[chuckles]
I have learned much from you.
And now the learning ends.
[grunts]
My final will.
[groans]
Have a good death.
[Yabushige speaks Japanese]
I’m sorry to say it goes no further than this.
My nephew will make a good vassal to you.
You’ll be lucky to have him.
I have you to thank for that.
[Yabushige] And the Anjin.
You have me to thank for him too.
[Yabushige sighs]
[groaning]
[groans]
[clicks tongue]
If only I could have lived to see it…
The day your plan comes together, whatever it is…
My nephew’s first battle…
When the Anjin sails against
the Christians who burned his ship…
So many days I could have seen.
[Toranaga] If only it were that simple.
The ship had to be destroyed.
It was between that and the Anjin’s life.
Appointing a watchman to spread gunpowder…
wasn’t that hard.
Mariko negotiated for the Church, and I agreed.
You burned that ship.
It was a necessary ruse to test the Anjin.
Perhaps someday I’ll tell him the truth.
By then he’ll have rebuilt the ship,
and I’ll likely have to destroy it again.
I don’t think it’s his fate to ever leave Japan.
How does it feel
to shape the wind to your will?
I don’t control the wind.
I only study it.
[sighs]
But how can you win this?
With your forces outnumbered,
the Heir’s army about to attack…
Is it Crimson Sky?
I suppose it could work…
but I don’t see how.
At least tell me before I die…
Yabushige.
After all we’ve been through,
I thought you of all people would see.
Crimson Sky is already finished.
With the Regents united,
I could never send an army to Osaka.
It would have meant certain death.
So I sent a woman to do
what an army never could.
Don’t you see what’s coming next?
In just one month,
we will meet our enemies at Sekigahara.
Five armies squaring off on the field of battle.
And you’re right…
With the Heir’s army on Ishido’s side, I’d be finished.
However,
because of Mariko’s actions,
Lady Ochiba has grown tired of her alliance with Ishido.
In a letter to me, she secretly pledged
to keep the Heir’s army from the battlefield.
On that day, Ishido will have no banner.
The Regents will turn on him before a sword is drawn.
Only then will my dream be realized…
I will start it in Edo, my center of power.
A nation without wars.
An era of great peace.
All of us have made this possible.
You, me,
Lady Mariko…
Even the barbarian who came out of the sea.
[sighs]
How many times I’ve thought of giving his life away, but stopped.
Not because he’s important…
my banner would survive without him…
[chuckles]
but because he makes me laugh.
And my enemies need a distraction.
It’s hypocrisy,
our lives…
All this death and sacrifice from lesser men
just to ensure some victory in our names…
Do you remember what the Anjin said on the day we met,
when I told him his fight was pointless?
“Unless I win.”
If you win, anything is possible.
Even Shōgun.
[Yabushige gasps]
It’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it?
You’re no better than us, in your secret heart…
Tell me the truth.
I’ll take it to my grave.
Why tell a dead man the future?
[grunts, breathes heavily]
[grunts]
Are you to row me to my convent…?
[in English] Fuji-sama, you’ve served me all this time.
Please just allow me this one final gesture.
Look.
[in Japanese] Come.
To sea.
Last thing I ask.
[in English] I’ve always been of the mind that a soul committed to the deep
is a soul who, in some way, lives on forever within it.
[in Japanese] Understand?
Together… forever.
[speaks Japanese]
Together forever.
Let your hands be the last to hold her.
[in English] Raise the ropes!
[Muraji, in Japanese] Hoist the lines.
[in English] I know you’re tired, but tide’s come up some, so we’ll try again.
There you go.
[Muraji speaks Japanese]
Wait for my cue.
Pull!
[all grunting, straining]
[speaks Japanese]
[Muraji speaks Japanese]
[all grunting]
[villagers speak Japanese]
[in English] Oh. We’re pissing in the wind.
We need more water. Uh, tell them they can rest.
[Muraji, in Japanese] Take a break.
[gasps] Right.
Yes. Yes, this is wonderful.
Raise the ropes!
[in Japanese] Raise the lines.
[in English] Right, you miserable, sniveling, festering shit rags.
I have a feeling this is the one.
[in Japanese] Listen, everyone…
[in English] No. Look, Muraji. Just keep that between you and I, huh?
[in Japanese] Pull!
[villagers grunting]
[Blackthorne speaking Japanese]
[villagers grunting]
[speaking Japanese]
[villagers grunting]
[in English] There she is!
[villagers cheering, laughing]
[Blackthorne cackles]
I told you she was beautiful! I told you she’d be worth the business!
[villagers grunt]
[Muraji speaks Japanese]
[villagers grunt]
[in English] That’s enough. That’s enough.
[Muraji speaks Japanese]
[all groaning]
[Blackthorne] Good job!
[speaks Japanese]
Thank you.
[panting]
Great work today.
[chuckles]
Thank you.
[exhales sharply]
Hmm.
[chuckles]
