Yabushige is such a Starscream. Constantly trying to get one over in checkers, when the people around him are playing chess.

About the garderner, just a minor book spoiler: he had been troubled by great pains in the recent time and was not able to perform his work duties to his standards, so he volunteered to get rid of the bird, knowing that it would mean his death. He was given the honour of being executed by a Samurai, which usually is reserved only for other Samurai. If you noticed in an earlier episode Blackthorne tries to say Uegiro-san, with the "san" being added to anyone's name who is of equal class to yourself, and "sama" to anyone higher or if you just want to be extra respectful, but Uegiro protests and makes it clear Blackthorne shouldn't say "san" to him. So he's considered lower class, and considers himself to be lower class, which makes the honour of being executed by a Samurai, given a Samurai's death even, that much more deeper.

Blackthorne's method of preparing the pheasant works in the UK. Game birds become more flavourful if you let them hang for about 5 days, they don't rot and get covered in flies. They do however stink. The humidity in Japan however might be a bigger issue though.

Mariko: “There is no use dwelling on what cannot be undone. We live and we die, we control nothing else.” John: “How can you believe that?!” Earthquake: Shows exactly how a person can believe that. Brilliant writing and execution

Blackthorne gives Toranaga the "worthless swords" because he realized that what Mariko said, "Your words gave it meaning" is true. The swords maybe considered of little value to some, but by Fuji giving them to Blackthorne, they gained value. And now by Blackthorne giving them to Toranaga, they have even more value. The swords are important because they are meaningful gifts.

I love this episode, when Blackthorne realizes the weight of his words, the cultural difference.

There are a couple of reasons why mariko doesn't flinch when buntaro fires the arrows past her face and it has little to do with honor or social conventions. The first is she is fully confident in his abilities. The second is that she knows he would never do anything that could put her life in jeopardy as she wants to die and he wants her to live. Third, in her own way of fighting buntaro, she literally refuses to respond emotionally to anything he does regardless if it's kindness or cruelty.

It might be fun to subvert expectations, in a situation where an enemy has every right to expect a head in a basket, send the veiled basket but with a cake inside instead. Keep them guessing.

Game was routinely prepared like that in Northern Europe at the time and still is today for some more tradional game hunters. It's a form of food preservation as well as making some of the more tougher gamier meats easier and better to eat. Typically it was done for 3 days up to 8 depending really on the weather. Meat consumption in Japan during this period was also essentially not a thing / seen as "dirty" possibly because of the ways needed to preserve meat during that period. It wasn't until much later on that the Japanese people starting consuming meat with any form of regularity.

The only series wherein a man moving a stone can make people cry.

This was a really challenging and complex episode! Maple, you being overcome with emotion near the end of it was shared by all of us. I teared up because you did, because it's a lot! These characters and their hearts and minds are so nuanced. I love it. I completed the show early on across several watch parties with friends, but thank you both for sharing your viewing experience, because I look forward to revisiting each episode as you publish! The depth of dialogue in this show is like a balm to the psyche. It's so stimulating, so elegant, so charged and riveting, so poetic and articulate. It really _actually_ feels like a show that wants us to be better for it. There is so much beauty and intelligence in the dialogue between characters, that it just often has me feeling so full, but somehow hungry for more at the same time.

I haven't read the book, but the screenplay to this show has been absolutely remarkable. It helps that they have genius actors, brilliant production (costumes, setting, makeup), and so one and so on. Even the editing made that candle lit sake scene one of the most intense things I've seen on film/TV in years. Jesus.

This episode is so fire on every level. Him fixing the garden and showing he cares for Fuji is indicating he's buying in. He may claim he wants to leave but he really doesn't

The scene with the swords is incredibly important. First Toronaga must have swords as a symbol of his station, gifting him the swords protects him from the dishonor of being disarmed. Two, the family swords from Fuji are legitimized because Toronaga accepted them as his armament. Blackthorn honors himself as Hatamoto by aiding Toronaga, legitimizing his promotion and status

Maple almost had me crying. This is a great show.

I love how Toranaga wasn't a prisoner, but his leaving is seen as him escaping.

The dialogue is so beautiful for this show! Great reactions all!

I really hope this show makes people also react to the 1980s series with Richard Chamberlain and Toshiru Mifune. I'm a 70s kid so I watched that growing up. My mom made me close my eyes during some of the goriest scenes when I was little, but obviously I watched it all (several times) when I got older, and I've read the novel probably five times or more over the years. I'm not gonna go into any discussion about which series is better, there are some aspects and scenes in this version that's superior to the 80s one, and as you might guess the visual effects here are just miles ahead, some scenes here are closer to the book etc, buuuut, there are many, many scenes from the 80s version that I actually prefer over their counterpart here. Other scenes are just not in the new version, or they moved them around a bit (not always in a way that makes sense to me). The list could go on. But, yeah, the 80s version is at least equally fantastic, and I think some of the plot lines and everyone's motivations are better explained in it.

I love the meaning of the katanas. Mariko saying that they are worthless and conceal a lie and that's just how things are done in Japan. But then Blackthorn gives them value by giving them to Toranaga. Showing Mariko that sometimes things change but it's only through her actions that things can change. But I feel at this point, Mariko has been abused for so long that she's like a beaten dog that doesn't understand getting petted and affection. For her she's accepted her fate as a traitor's daughter and how Buntaro would've been "the only person in Japan willing to marry such a lowly woman from a disgraced family". I have no doubt that Buntaro does love her with all of his heart. But he clearly never tried to nourish any kind of love between them. She was like a trophy to him and he wanted to keep his trophy to himself locked away in a trophy case if possible. Hell, Buntaro is so worthless at relationships that he doesn't even allow Mariko the joy of being a mother. It's really tragic what women in 1600's Japan had to deal with. In some ways they had more rights than other women in this period. But in many more ways they had fewer rights.

This is my favourite episode of the show, it's all about John discovering that his words and actions have meaning and consequences for other people. This helps him to become less individualistic and is all part of him starting to understand Japanese culture a little more. 1. Buntaro hits Mariko and when John confronts him he blames the sake. The only reason he had drank so much in the first place was because John provoked him into a pissing contest where they went bowl for bowl. 2. John learns that his words have meaning when the gardener sacrifices himself to take down the pheasant. We as an audience also see that his death isn't meaningless as it allowed Toranaga's spy to go undiscovered. 3. John learns from Mariko that the swords Fuji gave him have no real significance or importance but the act of him giving them to Toranaga bestows value upon them.

13:58 You seem confused. He wasn't serving them rotting pheasant. That was a rabbit stew. It was cooked properly, he just substituted a few of the ingredients. He was trying really hard.

Get the boxes of tissues ready, ladies!

I think it occurred to me more in this episode Mariko didn’t want Anjin to leave… that translation delay when first talking about his ship and men seemed like she was saying (no you can’t go now)… maybe I’m stupid took two rewatches to see that really

Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt said something about the inability of understanding a foreign culture (that is to say, foreign by geography, foreign by chronology or both) without immersing oneself in it totally. What Blackthorne is going through seems much to Burckhardt's point. And isn't Toranaga's wisdom verging on clairvoyance? Would we were all so gifted.

It's a bit much to say that John is partly responsible for Buntaro beating Mariko because he made him drink that much sake. He didn't force Buntaro to drink, Buntaro chose to keep up. Even if he did force him to drink, Buntaro still chose to beat his wife. His drunkenness doesn't excuse his actions. He also shows that he can still hit the same spot with two arrows while hammered, so he obviously has some control when he's drunk.

Gonna be needing the tissues from this week onwards, methinks 😂

Such an amazing episode. Your reactions are letting me relive this amazing show, thank you.

Tadanobu Asano (playing Yabushige) was Hogun of the 'Warriors Three' in the Thor films.

This episode was a lot in terms of words

Why is Maples water bottle comically large?

No words...indeed

Diegesis Awesome Video Today!!🔥🐐🐐💎

Yay❤

Pitches

Hanging and aging birds is still a common move. Myself and other hunters age ducks and geese all the time. Old timers used to hang em' till the skin fell off. (Definitely too long)

Without Marikosama. Anjinsama is completely alone in this foreign land.

I find weird Blackthrone saying a wife is property, when at the time England has a Queen.

Y'all are already crying in this episode?. Damn, the last 2 episodes are gonna be really hard for you.

The differences between west and east; west doesn’t care about the impact of words or actions on a community, east worship the community and are conscientious about every word and every action.

Damn RIP Uejirou. Buntaro is a possssssssssssssssssssssss