Shōgun

Mariko joins Toranaga on a hunt and reports on Blackthorne's progress in training the army. Learning of Jozen's death, Toranaga admonishes his son, Nagakado, for being manipulated into the attack by Yabushige and Omi. The cannon regiment is no longer Nagakado's to command.

In Osaka Castle, a furious Ishido repeatedly tries and fails to pressure the Council of Regents into electing Toranaga's replacement. The Council is hamstrung without a fifth member, but the bitter rivals cannot agree. This series of defeats concludes with the arrival of a bloody gift from Ajiro, Jozen's severed head.

Back in Ajiro, Blackthorne receives the gift of a pheasant from Toranaga and excited by memories of home, he hangs it to dry, jokingly instructing his staff not to touch it under penalty of death. Inside, Fuji greets her menacing uncle, Buntaro, and grows concerned over his palpable disdain for Blackthorne.

<figure class="table" style="width:89.5%;"><table class="ck-table-resized"><colgroup><col style="width:6.18%;"><col style="width:93.82%;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="width:50px;">&nbsp;</td><td>INSIDE THE EPISODE:&nbsp;Kubi-oke, Gift Giving<a href="#historykubioke">LEARN MORE </a>&gt;</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>

Toranaga meets with Yabushige, questioning him about Jozen's death. Yabushige quickly blames Omi and is surprised when Toranaga praises his nephew's cunning, awarding Omi command of the cannon regiment.&nbsp;Enraged and embarrassed by his nephew's rise to power, Yabushige directs his anger at the people of Ajiro. He sets Omi on a hunt for the spy Toranaga has hidden in the village. And always looking for an exit strategy, he sends his general, Igarashi, to Osaka to reaffirm his alliance with Ishido.

Mariko and Fuji attempt to keep the peace during a tense dinner, but Buntaro is jealous, belligerent, and traumatized by his harrowing escape from Osaka and continually insults Blackthorne. The drunken dinner soon devolves into chaos when Buntaro humiliates Mariko by forcing her to reveal her painful past. We learn that her father, Akechi Jinsai, murdered his lord, Kuroda when his tactics crossed into madness. The Taikō caught Akechi Jinsai, and her entire family committed seppuku, but Buntaro forced Mariko to live. Every year she asks to join her family in death, but Buntaro will not allow it.

Later that night, Blackthorne wakes to the sounds of a fight and rushes to intervene, finding Mariko beaten and Buntaro gone. Mariko unravels, furious at Fuji and Blackthorne for invading her privacy. Blackthorne confronts Buntaro, but the samurai apologizes, deescalating the situation. Both men walk away, still simmering with rage.

<figure class="table" style="width:89.5%;"><table class="ck-table-resized"><colgroup><col style="width:6.18%;"><col style="width:93.82%;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="width:50px;">&nbsp;</td><td>INSIDE THE EPISODE:&nbsp;The Honnōji Incident, Samurai Banquet, Tatarigami<a href="#historyhonnoji">LEARN MORE </a>&gt;</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>

The following day, Toranaga meets with his spy, Muraji, revealing that the village headman is actually a samurai in disguise. Concerned about Yabushige's spy hunt, Toranaga instructs Muraji to find someone to take the fall.&nbsp;Fuji begs Blackthorne to take down his rotting pheasant, but he ignores her, intent on reconciling with Mariko. When he finds her, Mariko is forced to face their differences and decides that their relationship must become strictly professional.

Later, Blackthorne is horrified to discover that Uejiro was put to death for taking down the pheasant, and he immediately asks to be released from Toranaga's service. Mariko explains that this had been a complex village decision, as the rotting bird was disturbing the neighbors, and the staff had to obey Blackthorne's orders. Uejiro volunteered to remove the bird since he was very sickly; his death had not been thoughtless.&nbsp;Before the matter can be settled, a terrible earthquake rips through Ajiro, burying Toranaga and decimating his military camp. Blackthorne rushes to rescue him, pulling the great warlord from the earth. When Toranaga's swords can't be recovered, Blackthorne gifts him Fuji's, imbuing them with a new significance.

<figure class="table" style="width:89.5%;"><table class="ck-table-resized"><colgroup><col style="width:6.18%;"><col style="width:93.82%;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="width:50px;">&nbsp;</td><td>INSIDE THE EPISODE:&nbsp;Uejiro’s Death, The Earthquake<a href="#historyuejiro">LEARN MORE </a>&gt;</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>

Muraji takes advantage of the chaos and informs Yabushige that he discovered the spy, presenting evidence that it was, in fact, Uejiro. Satisfied that the spy is dead, Yabushige abandons the hunt.&nbsp;Meanwhile, an equally seismic shift occurs in Osaka – Ochiba, the dangerous mother of the young heir, has returned home, and she intends to unite the Council against Toranaga.

<h5 class="ckHeading5">&nbsp;</h5><h5 class="ckHeading5">Kubi-oke</h5>The greatest honor a samurai could achieve on the battlefield was to bring back the head of the enemy general. The severed head was inspected by the warlord and the ikusa bugyō ("battle inspector") in a ceremony called kubi jikken ("inspection of the head"). The inspector identified the head and recorded the result in an official record (kubi-chō, lit. "head register").After inspection, the heads were put on display until they decayed. Sometimes the heads were sent back to the enemy. This was considered an act of respect for the deceased soul of the decapitated warrior. The box in which the head was placed when sent back to the enemy was called kubi-oke (lit. "head bucket").Kubi-okes were made out of sheets of cypress wood that were bent into a circle with a bottom and a lid. They were about 10 inches in diameter and 15-20 inches high. The head, washed and the hair tied in a knot, was wrapped in silk and placed in the bucket with the face facing the seams of the bucket. A white cloth was usually wrapped around the bucket and tied over the lid.According to tradition, both the samurai who passed the kubi-oki to the enemy side and the samurai who received the kubi-oki wore armor. The samurai held an arrow in his right hand, with the arrowhead pointing toward himself, to pay homage to the defeated warrior. In his left hand he held the rope of the bucket.&nbsp;When handing over the bucket, the samurai would kneel down, bow his head, and give the arrow to the enemy with his right hand before handing over the bucket. After this ceremony, the samurai who received the bucket took it to his lord.

<h5 class="ckHeading5">&nbsp;</h5><h5 class="ckHeading5">Gift Giving</h5>Gift-giving was an important practice in medieval Japan. Gifts were needed when samurai visited their lords or each other. Samurai vied for the favor of their lord by giving lavish gifts. Rarities were especially prized. Lords also gave gifts to their samurai as reciprocation, but also to honor their bravery.&nbsp;It was a great honor for the samurai to receive armor or swords, but game of the lord's hunt were also highly valued, since game was the result of the lord's own work. In this way, gift-giving was intended to create a special bond between the samurai and the lord.Gifts from the lord were considered sacred and more precious than a samurai's own life. It had to be protected at all costs. Therefore, when someone in Blackthorne's position jokingly instructs his staff not to touch it on pain of death, it is taken very seriously by his servants. Taking the gift away or even touching it was considered a capital offense anyway.But what to do when Blackthorne hangs the pheasant in front of the house instead of preparing the bird for dinner, as a samurai would do to show his gratitude for this extraordinary honor? Hanging pheasants to enhance the flavor of the game bird was a common practice in England at that time. The problem with doing this in Japan is the hot and humid climate, where the corpse rots very quickly.&nbsp;Here the servants face a dilemma: on the one hand, the defamation of the clan's name due to the disrespect towards the lord and the impurity of the act of hanging a pheasant's corpse in front of the house; on the other hand, the order of the head of the clan not to touch or remove the corpse on pain of death.

<h5 class="ckHeading5">&nbsp;</h5><h5 class="ckHeading5">The Honnōji Incident 本能寺の変</h5>&nbsp;The model for Mariko, Hosokawa Gracia, was born as Akechi Tama. &nbsp;Her father, Akechi Mitsuhide (Akechi Jinsai in Shōgun), was one of the trusted generals of Oda Nobunaga, the famous warlord who managed to suppress the incessant wars in the central region around Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan.Although Nobunaga was ruthless in the pursuit of his goals, his vassals recognized these goals as legitimate. &nbsp;Nobunaga's ambitions were expressed in the slogan on his red seal: Tenka fubu天下布武. &nbsp;This means: “Establish military rule in the empire.” &nbsp;Some have interpreted this slogan to mean that Nobunaga wanted to seize power by military force. &nbsp;In fact, the opposite was true.&nbsp;Bu 武, which means military force, originally meant "to stop war." &nbsp;Nobunaga wanted to end the chaos of the Sengoku period and restore peace to the country. &nbsp;Of course, this meant under Nobunaga's iron fist, but the goal itself was a noble one.So when Mitsuhide betrayed Nobunaga and attacked him at Honnōji Temple in Kyoto, resulting in the death of his lord, he was considered a villain, and after his defeat at the hands of Hideyoshi (the Taikō) all the members of the Akechi clan were killed or committed suicide.&nbsp;Tama should have been killed as well, but the Hosokawa clan had refrained from siding with Mitsuhide and had become vassals of Hideyoshi. &nbsp;Still, it was not acceptable for Hosakawa Tadaoki (Buntaro in Shōgun) to have the daughter of a traitor as his official wife, even though he loved her very much. &nbsp;So Tadaoki decided to divorce Tama and hide her in the mountains.When Hideyoshi built his gigantic castle in Osaka, he ordered all the warlords to have their residences around the castle and to have their wives and children live there as his hostages. &nbsp;Seeing that Tadaoki cared for Tama enough to take the risk of hiding her, Hideyoshi gave permission for a second marriage and let Tama live at the Hosokawa residence in Osaka, thus gaining a valuable hostage. &nbsp;Because of Tama's reputation, Tadaoki kept her locked away in the residence.&nbsp;When Tama first appeared in the Jesuit's writings, she was introduced as "the daughter of Akechi who killed Nobunaga." &nbsp;This epithet never left her and caused her many depressions until she met the Christian faith.

<h5 class="ckHeading5">&nbsp;</h5><h5 class="ckHeading5">Samurai Banquet</h5>Samurai liked to invite other samurai to lavish dinners and banquets. On these occasions, the host was expected to provide sumptuous meals. It was common for them to serve several tables per feast.&nbsp;The first table was usually rice with vegetables (most likely pickles). The second table was the main dish, fish or bird. The third table was again fish, whale or wild duck, occasionally swan. Blackthorne's attempt to introduce rabbit stew, however well-intentioned, could only be seen by the others as a violation of etiquette.The samurai often drank saké (Japanese rice wine) intermittently while eating. They usually started drinking at the end of the first table. From then on, writes the Jesuit João Rodrigues (Alvito in Shōgun), saké became the main part of the banquet and the food almost secondary. Although banquets were held to foster closer ties between samurai, the heavy drinking sometimes led to violent clashes and bitter feuds

<h5 class="ckHeading5">&nbsp;</h5><h5 class="ckHeading5">Tatarigami祟り神</h5>It was believed that if one acted disrespectfully toward a deity, he or she would receive a curse. The cursed person would suffer many misfortunes, especially people related to that person would die one by one. If someone approached the haunted house of the person, he would also be cursed. That is why there is fear of tatarigami spirits in the house.The Japanese believed in many supernatural beings, called yōkai. For example, they were afraid of being possessed by the tsuchigumo (giant demon spider), which also sometimes acted as a tatarigami.

<h5 class="ckHeading5">&nbsp;</h5><h5 class="ckHeading5">Uejiro’s Death</h5>Blackthorne's servants faced a dilemma. They had to endure the rotting pheasant, causing even whispers about a tatarigami in the house. However, they could not remove the corpse, because Blackthorne had set the death penalty on touching it. The order of the head of the clan was law. No one could challenge that. Asking directly to change the order would mean that the master's order was wrong, which would cause the master to lose face. So that was no option.The only way to get rid of the pheasant was that someone would take it away. By doing so, this person would have committed a capital offense. Uejiro volunteered to do that and was executed according to Blackthorne's order. In this way, the order was made void without face loss for Blackthorne. The disobedience was done by an individual who paid the price by being executed. Law and order was restored.One might think that Fuji was apologizing for Uejiro's death, but that is not the case. She was apologizing for her failure to make the servants obey his orders, and she was offering her life to rectify this situation that Blackthorne was so upset about, but in her heart, she was angry that Blackthorne's unreasonable orders had led to Uejiro's death in the first place.

<h5 class="ckHeading5">&nbsp;</h5><h5 class="ckHeading5">The Earthquake 地震</h5>Earthquakes have played a pivotal role throughout feudal Japanese history.&nbsp;&nbsp;Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. It is said that one in five of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater occur in or around Japan. This is because Japan is located at the intersection of four major continental and oceanic plates. These powerful earthquakes cause enormous damage, and some have even changed history.Take, for example, the great Tenshō earthquake of 1586. After the Honnōji incident, the armies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (the Taikō) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (Yoshii Toranaga in Shōgun) clashed at Komaki and Nagakute. After a stalemate, Hideyoshi was busy preparing an even larger army to finally destroy Ieyasu. The Tenshō earthquake struck just as Hideyoshi was ready to move to the front.The earthquake devastated the areas held by Hideyoshi, while Ieyasu's domain was hardly affected. In particular, the fact that the warehouses full of provisions for Hideyoshi's vast army were destroyed by fires caused by the earthquake was a severe blow to Hideyoshi's plans.&nbsp;Castles near the front line collapsed and many samurai were crushed to death. Hideyoshi had to change his plans and made peace with Ieyasu. Without the Tenshō earthquake, Ieyasu would almost certainly have perished, as he did not have enough troops to resist Hideyoshi's forces.Hideyoshi experienced another devastating earthquake in 1596 (the Keichō earthquake). At the time of the quake, Hideyoshi was at Fushimi Castle near Kyoto. The castle tower, palace and turrets collapsed, killing more than 600 people in the castle, including many of Hideyoshi's concubines. Hideyoshi himself narrowly escaped death by running out into the garden with his child Hideyori (Yaechiyo in Shōgun) in his arms.

A ground that does not waver to man.&nbsp;Host Emily Yoshida and guests break down episode 5 of FX’s Shōgun. Featuring showrunner Justin Marks, actors Cosmo Jarvis "Blackthorne" &amp; Moeki Hoshi "Fuji," and producer Mako Kamitsuna. Creators and cast members discuss that "groundbreaking" earthquake, explore the dark corners of Buntaro's mind, and breakdown the fate of a gardener.

Episode 5 - Broken to the Fist

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Blackthorne and Mariko struggle to contain the secret that could get them both killed. Yabushige searches for the spy who has betrayed his intentions to Lord Toranaga.

Close up of Ishido Kazunari dressed in grey in an Osaka Castle meeting room

Episode 5: Broken to the Fist | FX Shōgun Episode Guide

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Episode 5 - Broken to the Fist

Discover the warriors from Broken to the Fist

Toranaga

Blackthorne

Mariko

Yabushige

Omi

Ishido

Hiromatsu

Nagakado

The Cinematography of Shōgun

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An Unwavering Way of Life.

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The Making of Shōgun – Chapter Five: Expanding the Vision with VFX