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Mariko’s childhood memories weave through episode six of Shōgun like the fine silk threading of a kimono. In the time before now, she was still a little girl in the court of Lord Kuroda, whose numerous acts of violence she witnessed despite her father Akechi Jinsai (Yutaka Takeuchi) trying to protect her. We know from Mariko’s speech in Episode 5 (“Broken to the Fist”) that with the counsel of Toranaga, Akechi killed Kuroda for the good of the realm. But here in Episode 6 (“Ladies of the Willow World”), we learn how her husband Toda “Buntaro” Hirokatsu, a Kuroda vassal, cruelly thought she’d be grateful if he spared her, even as her father and family were murdered. And we see how she was raised in the court alongside Kuroda’s daughter, the woman who would become Ochiba no Kata, mother to the heir. Toranaga-sama tells Mariko how, back then, her father married her into the Toda clan to keep her far away from his fight. So that she’d survive. So that she’d one day return to finish the battle. And with Lady Ochiba now making power moves in Osaka, that day beckons. Akechi might’ve been the one to take out Kuroda. But Ochiba blames Toranaga for planning it. And she wants to kill the bushō and everyone in his clan.
“Death is the end of having lived. It is an affirmation of life itself.” The sentiment Toranaga-sama channels after the deaths of thousands in the earthquake is noble, and for saving the lord’s life a second time, John Blackthorne is granted a fief near Kanagawa, a salary of 600 koku, and a new set of swords. But with his army in disarray, Toranaga’s at a serious disadvantage. He needs the Anjin’s nautical and artillery expertise more than ever, and has no patience for what looks very much like a lovers’ quarrel between the foreigner and his married translator. “Seeing as you are my interpreter – and nothing more – I would politely ask you to tell him Portugal is friendly only to their profits,” Blackthorne says. But Toranaga denies his request for a ship to attack Portuguese interests, and instead orders Mariko to arrange for the Anjin a tea house evening with a courtesan. “And join him. As a translator. In case he talks while he pillows.”
Toranaga directly questioned Mariko about her relationship with the Anjin, which she characterized as only words. And yet there are eyes everywhere in a tea house, and their every gesture will be under scrutiny once they attend. Elegant and extremely intelligent in the ways of the willow world, a courtesan like Kiku (Yuka Kouri) comes at a high price. But after Mariko uses her expert haggling skills to navigate the cost with Madam Gin (Yuko Miyamoto), and they join Kiku for the rare and refined art of pouring saké, what follows is another superb example of Shōgun using its expert sense of place and tradition to build palpable emotional tension. As Kiku speaks to the Anjin through Mariko, he looks only at his interpreter. “Settle your eyes on what you desire. My unclothed form. Just as I am, with nothing between us. I ask you into my openness. I ask you to be here with me now.” It’s a terrific scene brimming with both what is forbidden and what is offered, and where the evolving relationship between Mariko and Blackthorne exists on that spectrum.
In Osaka, Lady Ochiba no Kata is consolidating her influence, and not being subtle about it. Self-important priests like Father Visitor Dell’Acqua can scoff at her power, but she still denies them entry to the castle. And though Lord Sugiyama speaks out against her sequestering of the regent council and their family members, it does him no favors – Ishido, as Ochiba’s puppet, has the lord and his clan slaughtered, and blames it on bandits. After a dramatic noh theater performance of her origin story as sacred mother to the heir, a performance Ishido gushes took place in the shadow of their late, beloved Taikō, Ochiba further twists the ambitious, peasant-born warlord around her finger. “Eliminate Toranaga, and it will be your shadow we speak of.” It’s the Lord of the Kantō Ochiba hates, because with the death of her father, she was subjected to physical coercion at the hands of Daiyoin (Ako), the Taikō’s wife who could not conceive, and who today lives as a Buddhist nun. Daiyoin’s methods worked, and Ochiba eventually gave birth to Yaechiyo, the source of her power. But vengeance is a lasting scar. “I became mother to the heir by compelling fate to look at me,” she tells Ishido. “So I could scratch out its eyes.”
General Hiromatsu was able to escape Ishido and Ochiba’s clutches in Osaka, and ride with news of the false basis for Toranaga’s impeachment. “This is lunacy!” Nagakado says, making a decent point for once. “My father has only ever been loyal to the heir. They are the ones who conspire!” With Sugiyama’s death, Ishido has outright control of the council. Toranaga knows this will lead to his false impeachment, and continue Lady Ochiba’s plans for his destruction. Again, he has said he has no interest in ruling the realm as the sole regent, in becoming Shōgun outright. But if pretenders step to the heir, and threaten his life and safety, Lord Yoshii Toranaga cannot let that kind of aggression stand. “Crimson Sky it will be,” he tells them, referencing the longstanding contingency plan for a direct assault on Osaka that will topple the government. The time has come to make a rush for the castle and obliterate their enemies. They forced him into it.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
