‘Ladies of the Willow World’

“Women of the Willow World” is now streaming on Hulu forward of its premiere on FX tonight at 10 p.m.

So far, it’s been straightforward to learn Shōgun as a narrative about highly effective males making essential choices. “Women of the Willow World,” nevertheless, invitations us to reckon with how the present’s ladies have handled the ramifications of those choices. This angle shift is rooted in a gap flashback to a younger Mariko being launched to Ruri, the daughter of the lord that Mariko’s samurai father, Akechi (Yutaka Takeuchi), now serves. The 2 ladies forge a bond as they develop up collectively, working via bamboo groves and strolling via the fort halls whereas their fathers argue in personal chambers.

However when Mariko is married off to Buntaro to kind an alliance with the Toda clan (one she considers nugatory), the 2 younger ladies are separated. By way of the stress on this family, their friendship was the place each of them may discover refuge, sharing a mattress at night time when their fathers’ tempers boiled over. With their assist system now fractured, it’s no marvel that neither lady has been capable of finding peace in her new life.

It doesn’t assist that Ruri’s father is the corrupt and brutal chief that Mariko’s father assassinated. Along with his demise, Ruri loses her royal standing and has to start out anew as a concubine to the Taikō, renamed Woman Ochiba. Mariko’s father’s demise (after being pressured to execute his family) additionally stains her household title and leaves a generational scar. The assassination’s ripple impact has formed these two ladies in reverse methods: Whereas Mariko has withdrawn additional inside her eightfold fence annually she’s denied the suitable to avenge her father, Woman Ochiba has grow to be vengeful, livid at what she needed to endure to reclaim her standing.

And the person on the middle of the choice that fractured the lives of those ladies? You guessed it: Toranaga. As Akechi’s confidante, Toranaga discovered that marrying Mariko off was meant to protect his household lineage so she may proceed his battle. On the similar time, Woman Ochiba is for certain that Toranaga was behind the assassination plot, and her hatred of him seethes onscreen. And but Toranaga nonetheless can’t assist however meddle in these ladies’s lives. He outright kidnapped Woman Ochiba as collateral for his preliminary go to to Osaka Fort in the pilot (“simply visiting her pregnant sister,” my ass), and in his demand to have Mariko translate Blackthorne for him, he’s utterly railroaded her marriage to Buntaro (not that there was a lot happiness there to lose).

This makes it much more troublesome when, at the start of “Women of the Willow World,” Toranaga forbids Buntaro from seeing Mariko for seven days after which instantly afterward instructions Mariko to take Blackthorne to a brothel to have interaction a courtesan who will “settle his thoughts.” Blackthorne has simply been named chief admiral and common of the cannon regiment for saving Toranaga’s life throughout the earthquake, however his request to be given again his ship so he can sail towards the Portuguese is scoffed at by Mariko. She is nonetheless Catholic, bear in mind, and Toranaga can’t afford to lose a possible ally — particularly one as rich because the Portuguese. Having Mariko escort Blackthorne to the tea home covers quite a lot of bases for Toranago, who can see the apparent pressure between these two members of his clan: It’s punishment for jeopardizing his plans, but it surely additionally supplies good cowl for his or her affair — if Blackthorne is seen leaving the brothel within the firm of the village’s best courtesan, prying eyes is perhaps directed elsewhere. And there are certainly prying eyes in Ajiro: “I’ve heard you and the Anjin are by no means seen aside,” notes teahouse proprietor Gin (Yûko Miyamoto) as she negotiates a worth with Mariko.

Whereas Mariko is caught enacting Toranaga’s newest plot, Woman Ochiba is performing some plotting of her personal. Underneath her new alliance with Ishido, Osaka fort has been locked down below a false risk towards the inheritor’s life, and the regents are all being held hostage. However now that she’s again at Osaka Fort, she’s additionally resumed her lifetime of taking care of her son and attending royal gatherings, like a nōh efficiency within the fort’s courtyard. The actors’ portrayal of the Taikō slaying Akechi after which wooing a masked model of herself provides Woman Ochiba violent flashbacks to the Taikō’s spouse, Woman Iyo (Ako), taking her in and telling her that “a girl might lose the whole lot she’s ever had — however she might also take it again.” There’s a worth for this return to energy, nevertheless. We watch as Woman Ochiba is drugged with bitter herbs and compelled into mattress with the Taikō for the only real function of conceiving a male inheritor. The brutality of her flashbacks clashes with the stylized romance taking part in out on the stage, which is additional exacerbated when the true function of this scene involves gentle: The actor portraying the Taikō, Lord Ito, is to be recruited because the fifth regent. To actual her revenge on Toranaga, Woman Ochiba should as soon as once more flip to the Taikō for energy — or no less than somebody who performs him onstage.

Even with the fort on lockdown, Hiromatsu manages to flee to Toranaga’s camp to share the information of the regents being held hostage. In a gathering of Toranaga’s vassals, he broaches the opportunity of enacting Crimson Sky: “A single, violent rush on Osaka Fort. We might eradicate the council and kind a brand new authorities. With Toranaga as sole regent.” Nagakado appropriately identifies this transfer as a restoration of the Minowara line to the title of shōgun, the last word army chief of all of Japan. It’s a drastic transfer, one that virtually everybody save the ever-eager Nagakado acknowledges as sure to fail. Toranaga, nonetheless claiming he doesn’t want the title of shōgun, appears extra inclined to Omi’s suggestion of making an attempt to purchase extra time — maybe being held hostage will flip the opposite regents to his aspect. If Sugiyama, Ohno, Kiyama, and the Portuguese all lose religion in Ishido, perhaps Toranaga gained’t must go to conflict in any respect.

Both Toranaga guessed proper concerning the regents protesting or he was by some means capable of plant the thought of their heads. Sugiyama calls out Ishido’s lies whereas voting no on the proposed fifth regent, capping off his speech with a public declaration that the regents are being held hostage. It’s a daring transfer from probably the most milquetoast of the regents, and one which finally will get him killed within the woods by Ishido’s males below the quilt of one other suspicious bandit assault harking back to the one within the second episode.

All’s honest in love and conflict, and whereas Toranaga is planning conflict video games, his love video games play out at Gin’s teahouse within the centerpiece of this episode. After Gin directs Mariko and Blackthorne to a room, Kiku herself comes gliding throughout the backyard in full grace and class. Blackthorne bumbles via complimenting her look and sake pour whereas Mariko is clearly nervous about being watched. Kiku appears to acknowledge what’s bothering the opposite lady, assuring her, “The place we’re is a personal place. Darkish … if one desires it darkish. A lady can’t look away when one other suffers.” Kiku’s gracious provide appears to unlock one thing in Mariko. Exterior of her misplaced friendship with Ruri, Mariko’s relationships with the opposite ladies in her life — particularly Fuji — are formal and strict. However when Kiku presents to elucidate the Willow World to Blackthorne, she and the digicam transfer in order that solely Mariko is in his sightline. As Kiku speaks, it’s seemingly Mariko who describes how the Willow World of the teahouse presents an escape to these looking for not solely bodily pleasure however a refuge from the pressures of the skin world. Contained in the Willow World, there aren’t any expectations however privateness.

As Mariko speaks via Kiku, she and Blackthorne alternate passionate glances, his gaze tracing the perimeters of her kosode. Kiku has not solely discovered a solution to let Mariko and Blackthorne categorical their shared want, she’s additionally discovered a solution to penetrate Mariko’s eightfold fence. Kiku’s speech appears to hook up with Mariko in a method nothing else has, displaying her that the escape supplied by the Willow World is certainly extra than simply bodily pleasure. When the courtesan ends her speech by saying, “I ask you into my openness. I ask you to be right here now,” Mariko shortly flashes again via the traumatic moments of her life. The eightfold fence, it appears, is not any match for the Willow World. However when Kiku invitations Blackthorne to a personal room, asking if Mariko will be part of them, she responds, “It should be solely you,” and Blackthorne and Mariko share a quick, longing contact of the palms as he’s led away.

Later, Mariko is summoned by Toranaga, who inquires about her childhood friendship with Woman Ochiba. “The best way she wars towards us. What may have turned her into the lady she is at present?” he asks, earlier than implying that her techniques pitting the council towards him are dishonorable. Mariko then explains that males have many causes to go to conflict, “However a girl is just at conflict.” It’s a small line that delivers an enormous intestine punch. Whereas the lads of Shōgun are battling to fulfill their ambitions, the ladies are left to battle their very own wishes. It’s right here that Toranaga reveals to Mariko her father’s grand plans for her, creating much more grief that Buntaro has denied her suicide mission yearly. “I’ve failed him,” she says, crushed, however Toranaga assures her, “Your conflict isn’t over.”

Later, at Osaka Fort after Lord Ito’s affirmation fails, Woman Osaka confronts Ishido one final time. He implores her to be affected person, however she tells him they can’t delay going through Toranaga. “You’re playthings. You haven’t any thought the enemy you face …” she reprimands Ishido. She then describes how she believes Toranaga orchestrated her father’s killing, how she was pressured to be the Taikō’s concubine, and the way she ultimately did what no different lady may: bear the Taikō a male inheritor. And does he need to know the way she did it? “By compelling destiny to have a look at me. So I may scratch out its eyes.”

Whereas the episode technically ends with Toranaga declaring Crimson Sky is a go, this episode is actually about Mariko and Woman Ochiba’s overlapping trauma. Each ladies want justice for what occurred of their pasts, however solely Mariko appears to have discovered any quantity of aid in processing her emotions. Possibly Woman Ochiba wants a go to to the Willow World herself. Or perhaps, with all of the chatter about switching allegiances to Toranaga, she feels trapped, able to compel destiny to have a look at her as soon as once more.

• Shōgun will be tough to observe if you happen to don’t have a cursory information of Japanese historical past, like, say, what a shōgun is. This classic video from Invoice Wurtz does job of being each humorous and explaining the political historical past of Japan resulting in the Sengoku interval.

• We’re as much as two on the official Yabushige “I ought to write a brand new will” rely. After surveying the injury achieved to Toranaga’s forces and and not using a peace providing from Ishido, Yabushige appears sure he’s going to fulfill his finish on the battlefield.

• Buntaro is a reasonably pathetic character on this episode. When Toranaga confronts him about his sake-fueled rage within the last episode, he’s completely heartbroken. He refuses to divorce Mariko, even when Toranaga suggests it, and says that in any case these years he hoped she would lastly divulge heart’s contents to him — one thing she’s instantly been capable of do with Blackthorne. We get a greater sense right here than any time beforehand that he’s head over heels in love with Mariko, which is among the the reason why he gained’t honor her demise want.

• Each Anna Sawai and Cosmo Jarvis had further homework assigned to them for this episode by director Hiromi Kamata. On the official podcast, she mentions that she requested Sawai to look at the Wong-kar Wai movie In The Temper for Love and Cosmo Jarvis to look at The Stays of the Day to organize themselves for the stress and restraint within the teahouse scene.