We are almost at the end of Shogunthe acclaimed FX series and outgoing in Italy on Disney+ which took us to feudal Japan intent on avoiding civil war. The protagonist is the bushō and lord of Kantō Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada)but the events are largely experienced through the “foreign” perspective of the Englishman John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), which in penultimate episode accomplishes a very significant gesture and that he may have teased his future before the finale.
WARNING: Contains spoilers for episode 9 of Shogun
The penultimate episode is entirely dedicated to the sacrifice of Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), interpreter and vassal of Toranaga. In agreement with him, she showed up at Osaka Castle to set a trap for the regent Ishido Kazunari: Pushes him to the limit to prove that the nobles present at the castle are actually hostages, so as to push the houses to rebel against his unjustified rule over Japan. When she is denied her exit, she announces that she is ready to commit suicide.
The episode builds tension until the moment Mariko is ready to commit seppuku, but first we see John Blackthorne perform a seemingly senseless but significant action. In the Zen garden of the castletrace a line in the sand thus destroying the precise lines that had been decorated. It’s not just a gesture of anger: the Zen gardens represent the harmony of the movement and destroying it is a very specific almost political message.
John Blackthorne never truly integrated into the culture and society of feudal Japan: he became Toranaga’s favorite and his hatamotoyes, but he has often demonstrated that do not accept Japanese customs and the way they seem to despise life. She demonstrated this when her gardener was killed for a phrase taken too literally and on other occasions. After that scene he offers himself as second to the noble and Catholic Mariko, to prevent her from committing suicide and her soul from ending up in Hell.
However, his sacrifice at the end combined with that gesture made in the Zen garden seems to establish the definitive break between the English driver and the Japanese customs. The character is inspired by William Adams, a real navigator and advisor to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (on which Toranaga is inspired) capable of ensuring the Netherlands a commercial monopoly after the country was closed to relations with the foreign world (sakoku), but the series could take a different direction.
Toranaga’s plan is in action and will probably lead him to become the shogun announced in the title, but the death of Mariko and the obstinacy of the Japanese in sacrificing themselves in the name of ideals that he considers extreme, could push him to make a definitive break with his ” Gentleman”. Will we see a clash between him and Toranaga in the finale? Will it abandon the coasts of Japan forever? That line in the sand certainly didn’t go unnoticed…
Read also: Shōgun is extremely historically accurate… except for this detail
Photo: Disney+
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Tags: Shogun John Blackthorne strange gesture detail important
