FX‘s Shōgun ends with the promise that Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) will, in fact, become Shōgun. Mariko’s (Anna Sawai) actions in Shōgun Episode 9 “Crimson Sky” helped solidify support for her beleaguered lord and convinced Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido) to ditch Ishido (Takehiro Hira) for an alliance with Toranaga. We don’t get a climactic battle, nor a ceremony heralding Toranaga’s triumph. Instead, we only learn how Toranaga will eventually win when he divulges his plans to Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) minutes before the shifty lord’s ordered seppuku. It’s a scene in which Toranaga reveals his most secret heart to the doomed traitor.
“Telling a dead man the future is a great way to get out a lot of exposition,”Shōgun showrunner Justin Marks told Decider. “It’s kind of like, confessing to a priest.”
Marks explained that they wanted to honor the way in which James Clavell’s 1975 novel Shōgun ended without veering into corny territory. “In the book, Toranaga reveals a glimpse of his secret heart for the reader and only the reader. Obviously, we didn’t want to play that game of voiceover or whatever else or just, gosh…Could you imagine just if he turns to camera and just says, ‘Hey, glad you’re here,” Marks said.
In the book, Omi (Hiroto Kanai) is the one who seconds his uncle’s seppuku, but Marks decided to shuffle the scene up because otherwise Toranaga’s “just standing around waiting for someone to confess to.” The natural solution was to combine the two sequences.
However, if you were paying close attention, the scene leading up to Yabushige’s seppuku is revealing in more ways than one. Sure, the audience is getting a glimpse of how Toranaga really thinks, but we’re also learning more about what drives Yabushige. According to Marks, he approaches his death with “utter contempt” for all that Toranaga and the “Great Men” of history represent.
“Look, there’s something heroic and very dignified about what Toranaga did and what his goal was and the purpose of his Great Men bullshit,” Marks said. “But let’s be honest: Someone needs to take the position of, ‘Great Men bullshit? I’m sick of it. I’m sick of seeing it.”’
“And who better than to Yabushige, on the verge of death to sort of say, ‘Like, oh, I’m so sick of it. The way you control the wind and everything else’?”
But Yabushige doesn’t just fire back at Toranaga. When his final moment comes, Yabushige smiles at Toranaga, who smiles back. According to Shōgun star and producer Hiroyuki Sanada, this was all Todanobu Asano’s idea.
“Yeah, that was a great idea from Tadanobu Asano. He looked back and smiled. [It’s a] great performance,” Sanada told Decider back during Winter 2024 TCA. “Then, of course, I could keep [a] poker face and keep cold. But I wanted to show the audience how much time we spent together. Even though he betrayed [me] at the end, I wanted to show him my smile. Even a tiny, little smile. Anger with love.”
When we asked Justin Marks about Asano’s choice to smile, he attributed it to a rebellious streak.
“In his mind, he wanted to haunt Toranaga’s dreams for the rest of his life. And that’s what he did in that insertion of rebellion,” Marks said of the smile, before revealing that Asano took control of the scene in yet another way.
“He jumps his cue, stabbing himself with a knife. He was doing that on purpose to sort of say, ‘I want the control. I want that,” he said. “He did it before even the camera could get it. We were shooting that at the end of the day and didn’t have time to do it twice and we were just like, ‘Yeah, screw it. Let’s go with it.’”
“I kind of like how fast it happens. It’s like even the score can’t quite catch up to him.
Whether you want to attribute it to “anger with love” or pure “rebellion,” Tadanobu Asano’s last moments as Yabushige in Shōgun are sure to stay with you long after the credits roll on the hit FX show.
