As Toranaga trudges toward surrender, his closest allies wonder if the old samurai has really given up the fight.
Season 1, Episode 8: ‘The Abyss of Life’
Lord Toranaga is a sick man. Sick in his heart, grieving the loss of his son Nagakado, who died in a vain fight on his father’s behalf. Sick in his body, having contracted an illness on the long road back to Edo for Nagakado’s burial. The central scene of this week’s “Shogun” — perhaps the scene from the series so far — confronts vassal and viewer alike with an even more troubling question, one that it draws out for minute after excruciating minute: Is Lord Toranaga sick in his mind as well?
Toranaga gathers his vassals in Edo to certify his big decision. He will not authorize Crimson Sky, the plan to attack Osaka and overthrow Lord Ishido and the Council of Regents. Once the customary mourning period is over, he will dutifully march off to his execution, and many of them must join him in marching to theirs. He wants their signatures to this effect.
The vassals are aghast. Lord Yabushige and his nephew Omi are the only ones who sign before protest breaks out. The vassals have a duty to give honest advice, and their advice is that this course of action is madness. To go down without a fight over a charge — that Toranaga is conspiring to kill the Heir — with no basis in reality whatsoever? Surely it’s better to stay in Edo and defend their home turf, where they have the advantage over Ishido’s forces.
No, Toranaga says. That would destroy the city, just as surely as marching on Osaka would destroy the realm. The survival of their clan is secondary to the survival of Japan, he argues.
The vassals’ argument coheres in an impassioned challenge from Hiromatsu, Toranaga’s oldest and closest friend, who begs him to stop “throwing away all we’ve fought for.” Hiromatsu threatens to commit seppuku on the spot if Toranaga persists in his plan to surrender. Minute after tense minute, the two go back and forth, barely stifling their tears in a grim game of chicken — but Toranaga won’t relent.
“So you do believe in pointless death,” Hiromatsu says, seemingly stunned. “Your vassal dies in vain.”
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Source: Television - nytimes.com
