it's not only for his people to believe he's given up but for the spies within their ranks to relay the news back to the castle that he's really given up. His closest friend and advisor committed seppuku and he still didn't change his mind.

Make your enemies think that you are weak, when you are strong. Sun Tzu

bruh his own dad gave him away to his enemies, he not trusting nobody lmao

There was no plan for Hiromatsu to kill himself, that wasn't prearranged. Hiromatsu realized that the generals were going to cause a problem by not going along with the, "surrender," and probably lead other people to do the same. He made a decision on the spot to pull the seppuku card in order to short circuit their rebellion. This is why Toranaga had such an emotional reaction, his best friend and life long advisor was sacrificing himself for the plan and Toranaga knew there was no way to stop it.

Hiromatsu was also repairing a mistake from earlier - he had spoken to the other lords after the priest left, saying that Toranaga was obviously pretending to be weak. This is information Toranaga was wanting to keep from his lords, so that they would naturally begin pulling away due to his perceived weakness. The 'show' of Hiromatsu turning against Toranaga, while not discussed beforehand, was a (quite effective) method of forcing their hands and putting the plan back on track. Amazing dedication to the cause from both of them.

You made a great point regarding the time people need to mourn. 👊🏽

I had troubles accepting Toranaga’s decision in this episode here too. However as I reflected on my interpretation and rewatched the scene. I noticed that Hiromatsu only spoke up when the other generals disagreed to sign the surrender notice. Hiromatsu knew that Toranaga needs to make his defeat look real, but losing 3 generals for that was not the play Hiromatsu wished. And so Hiromatsu took it upon himself to make the act look real by having Toranaga lose his most loyal vassal, his old friend. The question of “Then why is Toranaga going through all of this scheming and not just charging into the castle and killing Ishido with all of his men still alive?” And the grand answer is: more than surviving, Toranaga wishes the least death and harm to all of Japan. This means avoiding a total war, this means having to paint the narrative that Ishido was a villain who forced Toranaga’s hand by pressing him into all these ruthless deaths.

Honestly, if they land Episode 10, this might be the rare perfect series. 10/10 Bangers

THANKS for this, Real!!!!

it's been a week but just in case you haven't crossed paths with it, Hiromatsu wasn't supposed to do that, the possibility of loosing some in the room existed and was part of the tapestry being woven, Hiromatsu would have done as told but picked up on it and inserted himself so that the others (multiple?) wouldn't,

Yall gonna trip next episode

Sting would be another person who’s a hero the music he’s created over the years i don’t really listen to it but the fact that he’s making it I respect that

LMAOOO ongod her hands are small af. I noticed that in the next episode but missed it this one.

Just wanna see a reaction to seppuku😅

桃田も博打でつまずいた一人！（一平よりかは全然マシだけど！）

Still with Lady Ochiba.