In previous episodes, ShÅgun’s culture clash has mostly amounted to a lighthearted prodding of one man’s customs butting up against those of the world around him. “Broken to the Fist,†however, wants Blackthorne to understand that societal norms are truly a matter of life and death during Japan’s Sengoku period. And no matter how many times in the series so far Mariko has tried to explain this to Blackthorne, it’s his developing relationship with Fuji that finally allows him to see the truth: He is not a stranger visiting a strange land. Japan is, at least for now, his home.
This episode is Fuji’s time to shine, and actor Moeka Hoshi knocks it out of the park. Fuji becomes one of the series’s most complex characters this week, between her masterful handling of the household affairs, her balancing act of fulfilling Blackthorne’s requests while keeping peace in the village, and the way she stands up to her uncle Buntaro. Oh yeah, also, Buntaro is back.
When we last saw him, Buntaro was assisting Toranaga’s escape by fighting off a horde of soldiers single-handedly. He now arrives in the fields outside Ajiro on horseback with Toranaga and Toranaga’s enormous army. It took 20 days of him fighting his way back to Edo with a group of ronin, only two of whom survived. As villagers cart away the viscera of the surprise cannon attack on Jozen and his men (a really, truly gory scene), Mariko looks uneasy at the idea of welcoming her abusive husband back into her life.
Following the opening credits, there’s a brief flash to an ornate litter in a courtyard with a close-up of a woman’s feet shuffling towards it. It seems Toranaga’s Edo business wasn’t just raising his army, he was also releasing Lady Ochiba to return to Osaka. When the Mother of the Heir arrives later in the episode, she thanks Ishido for his help securing her safe return, an important detail. In the pilot, Toranaga swore to the council that Lady Ochiba was visiting her pregnant sister in Edo of her own free will and was able to leave whenever she chose. The confirmation that Lady Ochiba was more or less a prisoner in Edo shows just how conniving Toranaga can be. Above all else, his focus is on maintaining the balance of power — something that shows itself multiple times in this episode.
With Lady Ochiba on her way back to Osaka, the Council of Regents once again meets to discuss Toranaga’s fate. While they all agree he needs to go, their bureaucratic incompetence is hamstringing their ability to elect a necessary fifth member. An ally of Ishido is turned down as an option because Lord Kiyama says, “The seat would stink of countryside.†It’s a dig at Ishido’s humble past, so when Kiyama suggests one of his allies, Ishido counters with, “The seat would stink of Christian.†Even if they’re aligned on impeaching Toranaga, it’s clear that this would be the first step in an all-out war between the Christian regents and Ishido — something Ishido is eager for but can’t win on his own.
Back at the army’s staging grounds outside of Ajiro, Toranaga confronts Nagakado about his foolish decision to massacre Jozen. Toranaga is spending time with his prized falcon/favorite metaphorical device while he chides Nagakado for being so easily tricked, deducing almost immediately that it was Omi’s influence (rightfully guessing that Yabushige wouldn’t be able to pull off a move that strategic). Toranaga compares Nagakado to a falcon but without the beauty, easily broken to another man’s fist, before taking the simile even further: “All men are like falcons,†he says. “Some are flown straight from the fist, killing anything that moves. Others are lazy and tempted by the lure. But all men can be broken. Learn to fly them at the right game, and they will do your hunting for you.†In telling his son that he’s a careless idiot who no longer has control of the cannon regiment, Toranaga is also revealing his entire philosophy in life. Why fight yourself if you can have another man do it for you? Why shoot down a pheasant with an arrow when a falcon is eager to do your bidding?
Speaking of pheasants, the one recently caught by Toranga’s falcon is given to Blackthorne as a gift, and Blackthorne is elated. He hangs it outside of his house to cure and instructs his house staff to leave it be, even if it starts to stink. “If touch — die!†he declares in broken Japanese, more excited about his bird than correct wording. If he truly hopes to learn the language, he might not be so fast and loose with hyperbole.
It’s this decree, however, that opens up our insight into Fuji, who tells the staff, “From now on, nothing he uses will touch our food.†She’s torn between her service to Blackthorne and trying to uphold the standards of a high-class Japanese household, which is revealed even further in her interaction with Buntaro, who now has to live at Blackthorne’s house with Mariko. When he asks Fuji what it’s like being consort to a barbarian, she curtly responds, “Sorry … I am consort to hatamoto, I wouldn’t know.†It’s one of the few times we’ve seen Fuji stick up for herself, and maybe there’s something to Mariko’s assertion in episode four that serving as consort would give her life meaning after the loss of her husband and son. But that’s not the only mic-drop line she delivers in this confrontation with her sullen uncle. When he asks if Blackthorne makes her pillow (the term in the show that’s used for sex when translated from Japanese), she replies, “No. Thankfully, the Anjin prefers the company of other women.†Her face immediately afterwards conveys regret, but it’s a bold move: Fuji is willing to risk revealing the affair if it helps her assert her standing in the house.
Toranaga confronts Yabushige over Omi’s role in Jozen’s killing, and Yabushige admits, readily, that the two young men were up drinking too much sake the night before. But when Yabushige swears he’ll discipline his nephew, Toranaga has a counter: “Discipline? He found a way to force our enemies to attack.†As Toranaga praises Omi’s strategy and gives him full command of the cannon regiment, Yabuhige’s dismay is evident, but it’s nearly impossible to get a read on Toranaga. Does he truly believe Omi made the right move? Is he just needling Yabushige, whom he knows is playing both sides? If he’s actually praising Omi, then is his criticism of Nagakado really that his son didn’t come up with the plan himself?
This all makes Yabushige even more determined to find the Ajiro spy who leaked news of the Erasmus to Toranaga, and he uses this as an excuse to berate Omi while giving him the news he’s the new cannon commander. And yet, even when on such shaky ground with Toranaga, Yabushige still can’t resist sending one of his top generals to Osaka to try and patch things up with Ishido.
At a formal dinner that Blackthorne is hosting for Buntaro, Mariko, and Fuji, Blackthorne’s gesture of rabbit stew is seen as an affront (Fuji later instructs the staff to throw it in the ocean), and tensions quickly mount. “You know where I come from, only women drink from a tiny cup like that,†says Blackthorne in a taunt to Buntaro. As with Buntaro’s earlier observation that Blackthorne eats noodles like a baby monkey, Mariko edits her translation, leaving out the gendered insult, but Buntaro nonetheless takes the bait. The two men then start a sake-chugging contest out of large bowls as Mariko tries to tell everyone it’s time for bed. But Blackthorne isn’t done toying with Buntaro. He demands that Buntaro tell a war story, even though Buntaro states that “Heroism is for the dead and stories are for children.†Blackthorne isn’t satisfied. “War. Talk. You,†he demands in Japanese and mimics drawing back a bow. This is Blackthorne’s second botched attempt at speaking a new language, and while the consequences won’t be as dire, the resulting scene is fantastically tense. A precarious bow demonstration from Buntaro nearly claims Mariko’s life, arrows whizzing by her face in slow motion over Blackthorne and Fuji’s protests. Blackthorne says that, while Mariko is Buntaro’s property and he can do whatever he wants, personally, he thinks Buntaro should show her more respect. To heighten things, this statement gets almost an exact word-for-word translation from Mariko.
“Tell him about the disgusting, filthy line you come from,†Buntaro demands in response, and now it’s time for viewers to learn the full Mariko backstory we’ve been getting flashes of all season. Blackthorne tries to talk her out of it, saying Buntaro wouldn’t understand what she tells him in Portuguese, but at this point their casual relationship is too on display, so she tells Blackthorne anyway: Her father assassinated the corrupt leader who was in charge before the TaikÅ, and as punishment, he was forced to execute his wife, his sons, and his daughters, before committing seppuku. Only Mariko was spared, as she was recently married to Buntaro. Every year, however, on the anniversary of this tragedy, she asks Buntaro to allow her to correct this injustice by joining her family in honorable death, but Buntaro orders her to live. This is the core of her character. Mariko wants nothing more than to fight for her family’s honor, and she’s forever denied it. This not only speaks to her motivations in helping Toranaga, who as mentioned in the last episode will grant her what she’s been after all these years in exchange for her service, it links her to Fuji as survivors given new purpose through Toranaga’s orders.
Later that night, Buntaro beats Mariko so loudly that it wakes up the entire household. Blackthorne fights his way past Fuji to check in on Mariko, but she’s ashamed to let him see her bleeding and bruised. So Blackthorne chases Buntaro out into the village, pistol in hand, but Buntaro surrenders his katana and bows in shame, blaming too much sake as the reason for his actions. That’s twice in one episode that too much sake has taken the blame for violent decisions.
The next day, Blackthorne finds Mariko by the sea and tries to convince her to leave Buntaro and live her own life, freely. Unmoved by his argument and frustrated that Blackthorne has still absorbed so little about this culture, she reveals that the ceremonial swords Fuji gave to Blackthorne weren’t actually earned in battle and that Fuji’s father died begging for his life. However, everyone plays along that they’re honorable swords because that’s what Fuji merits. “I will give my husband nothing. Not even my hatred. Because that is what he merits,†she tells Blackthorne, once again employing her eightfold fence. But Blackthorne isn’t buying her argument, either — he considers the eightfold fence a prison, to which Mariko counters that his constant pursuit of freedom is a prison. She then gives him an ultimatum: Unless she is translating for him, she will not speak another word to him.
Snow has fallen in Ajro as Blackthorne returns home, and the entire town seems to be in mourning. It’s the gardener, who buried the pheasant, and because of Blackthorne’s statement, was put to death. When Fuji demands he take her life, too, for her part in disturbing the household, Blackthorne is devastated, immediately seeking an audience with Toranaga to be set free to leave Japan.
Toranaga is already in a conversation, though, telling Mariko that, while Buntaro can do whatever he wants with his wife, Toranaga needs his translator unharmed. He’s similarly dismissive of Blackthorne’s despair over Uejirou the gardener (Junichi Tajiri). “He will stop acting like a child,†he declares, and Mariko must break her promise never to speak to Blackthorne by explaining what happened. Apparently, the stench of the pheasant was creating a disturbance, and the village council held a meeting about it. Blackthorne’s household was then beholden to keep the peace in the village while upholding his strict orders, so Uejirou volunteered to take down the pheasant and suffer the consequences, as he was old and feeling ill. Blackthorne protests that what he said was just words, but Mariko counters that when he spoke them he gave them meaning. “I killed him. Lord forgive me I killed the old man,†Blackthorne states, finally realizing the gravity of his own words and actions as they relate to the social rules of Japan.
But before the conversation can go any further, a flock of birds erupts from the forest. A massive earthquake hits and Toranaga is swallowed up by the earth. Without hesitation, Blackthorne sprints off the cliffside and scrambles through the mud to find where Toranaga has been buried, digging him out with his bare hands as Nagakado helps. Blackthorne smacks the dirt out of Toranaga’s lungs, literally, and the terrified look on Toranaga’s face as he realizes how close he came to dying is the only time we’ve seen his façade crack.
Unfortunately, the earthquake’s destruction doesn’t end there, spawning a massive landslide that wipes out most of Toranaga’s army in the field and does untold damage to Ajiro. Blackthorne sprints back to his house, relieved to find Fuji injured but alive, placing his hand on hers before he retreats to his garden to reset the large stone Uejirou had been arranging earlier. Moments before the earthquake, Blackthorne was disgusted with Fuji, Mariko, and Toranaga, but in the face of crisis he realizes how much he actually cares for them. Maybe Mariko was right about his fixation on freedom and independence being a prison.
There’s one more revelation to be found in the earthquake’s wake. The real Ajiro spy, prized samurai Tonomoto Akinao — in service to Toranaga disguised as the fisherman Muraji (Yasunari Takeshima), who’s been popping up since the first episode — shares with Omi and Yabushige secret documents that were conveniently found in Uejirou’s hut after the earthquake.There’s another layer to this when you remember a pair of earlier scenes: when Uejirou is complaining about the stench of the pheasant, it’s Akinao he’s talking to; and then in Akinao’s meeting with Toranaga, his lord instructs him to find a patsy to throw Yabushige off the scent. Whatever role Akinao might have played in Uejirou’s death, his cover is safe for now, but he seems troubled by the ordeal. Then again, Toranaga has never shied away from manipulating, even sacrificing, others to protect his edge in this struggle.
Speaking of which: The episode ends with the bookend of the recently released Ochiba arriving in Osaka, where her first order of business is confronting Ishido. “I’m also told the Council was outmaneuvered,†she tells him coldly, over the dark and brooding score. She explains how she fears for her son’s future, that the council is moving too slowly, and that the time for politics has come to an end. “The Council will answer to me,†she says, as the screen fades to black. It seems we have a new villain in town. Maybe Ishido won’t have to face the Christians on his own.
Feudal Gestures
• On the official podcast, showrunner Justin Marks confirms that Mariko and Blackthorne slept together. So even if the show wants to leave things slightly in the literal dark, we at least have confirmation.
• Before the dinner scene, Mariko and Fuji share a meal where Fuji declares them cursed since she has to be consort to a man who literally smells, and Mariko’s husband is back from the dead. On the official podcast, consulting producer Mako Kamitsuna mentions that there’s a Japanese omen that says if the entryway of your home is hit with white arrows, your house is cursed. When Blackthorne finally returns to his house after chasing down Buntaro in the streets, we see two white arrows in his doorway.
• When Toranaga is excavated from the landslide, he’s missing his swords, an important status symbol for him. Blackthorne offers him Fuji’s swords, and he immediately laughs. It’s a fun little moment where, even near death, Toranaga sees the irony of having to accept the swords that were purchased to cover up a coward’s death.
• Interviewed for the official podcast, Cosmo Jarvis revealed that the show built a real cliff out of wood and foam for them to jump down in the earthquake scene, which he says was the most fun he had filming, throwing himself down the mudslide over and over again.
• It’s worth noting that, while Buntaro is an abusive and awful person, he’s a conflicted man when it comes to his wife: Their current relationship status is strained because every year she essentially asks him permission to kill herself, and his denial of her request suggests he cares for her more than he can say aloud.