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lafiametta · 27 days

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As much as I'd like Shōgun to return to the dynamic pacing that characterized the first part of the show (have we really spent the last four episodes in Ajiro?), slowing the action down has allowed for some fascinating explorations of character and theme.

One that featured heavily in this week's episode (as well as in the previous one) is the idea of myth-making and story.

Toranaga, of course, is the center of one such myth. The “boy warlord,” he won his first battle at age twelve and then served as second to his defeated enemy, taking off his head with one blow. This is the story that Saeki Nobutatsu tells at dinner, a tale that delights his young, impressionable nephew. Nagakato, who wants to prove himself to his father, takes such story as truth and wants to emulate him by riding off to battle, where he will likely be killed, but as a glorious end that will be told and retold. (“Will we die with blood on our swords?” he asks, which is the only honorable way to die.)

Lady Ochiba is surrounded by her own legends. Whereas Toranaga's exploits are the stuff of dinner party entertainment, she literally watches her own life be made into drama. The play performed at the Noh theater depicts her courtship by the Taikō, a courteous affair where her character does not speak, an frozen mask covering any expression she might make. (“Dear Lady Ochiba,” the fictionalized Taikō tells her, “if we have a son, prestige will spread in every direction...”)

(Mariko is also haunted by a story, that of her father's actions against Kuroda. But unlike Toranaga and Ochiba, she has no desire to disillusion herself. In her mind, her father died a hero, the man he killed a tyrant, and for fourteen years she has suffered by not being able to fulfill her duty to him by joining him in death.)

But what Shōgun is also trying to tell us is that life is nothing like the myth. A glorious death, the honor of one's family, the prestige of bearing the Taikō's only son, these require far more of us that we can ever imagine, pain and horror laced through every act.

The true story is one we never want to tell. It is being drugged and assaulted on a nightly basis by your consort and his wife, all in the hopes that you will give them a child. It is hacking at the bloody neck of your defeated enemy, until the ninth blow finally severs his head. It is attempting to kill your uncle in the darkened garden of a tea house, only to slip on a wet stone and dash your brains against the rocks, not a single drop of blood on your sword.

#shōgun #shogun #shogun 2024 #shogun fx #fx shogun #shogun spoilers #1x06 #1x07 #yoshii toranaga #yoshii nagakato #lady ochiba #toda mariko #meta

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maxanor · 19 days

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FUMI NIKAIDO as OCHIBA NO KATA in SHŌGUN (2024–) Chapter Eight: The Abyss of Life

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ariadnethedragon · 14 days

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SHŌGUN (2024)

Chapter 9: Crimson Sky

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cinematic-phosphenes · 1 month

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Are you with me, Nilu (edited) + Shōgun

"Your duty is what endures. There is nothing more."

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redsamuraiii · 24 days

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Lady Ochiba Costume Design by Carlos Rosario

Lady Ochiba was all about power and wealth. The number of layers, her cotton tabis and her luxurious fabrics determined her higher rank.

#shogun #shogun 2024 #shogun fx #lady ochiba #ochiba no kata #fumi nikaido #nikaido fumi #kimono #japanese culture #japan #period drama #costume design #japanese tradition #jidaigeki

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meikuree · 5 days

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it’s insane to me that mariko and ochiba no kata/ruri are explicitly said by the creators and the characters themselves to have grown up very close, ‘like sisters’, and it’s implied they were closer than ochiba was to her actual blood sister (which was normal in terms of family dynamics and given their circumstances, I know, but still). their relationship might just be the most Homoerotic thing in the show, by pure accident, because it’s so intense and Fated that even the absence of any hint of romantic/sexual feeling ironically just magnifies how much their bond is too big to be captured by any conventional framework or labels. and I like this invention of their backstory from the original novel, it’s given ochiba lots more interiority and it’s a grounded and subtle means of saying More about them without having to spell it out. I really appreciate that their history is staged as an Entirely Platonic and Sisterly dynamic but one that had a deep formative influence on both of them, that lasted through all their years apart, right through to the tragic culmination of them as rivals.

the scene where Mariko walks into a room full of men baying for the blood of her lord/her by extension and is instead 100% focused on ochiba no kata, the only other woman in the room, whom she trusts to recognise the challenge she’s trying to pose, sent chills through me. their bond is the hidden fulcrum of the political machinations the show dwells on, more so than any number of the show’s political marriages or more conventional and visible means of politicking the many men in Shogun have, and the creators have touched on that in a similar register.

#shogun #shogun spoilers #toda mariko #ochiba no kata #mariko #shōgun #my meta #fellas is it gay to grow up like a sworn sister to another woman.#lady ochiba #shogun 2024

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aquitainequeen · 1 month

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Reactors watching Ochiba tell Ishido that from now on, the Council of Regents will answer to her: But how does she have so much power?!?!

Me: She's one of the widows of the de facto ruler of Japan, the mother of the future de facto ruler of Japan, and while I am asexual even I can tell Ishido desires her. Next.

#Well.#That and I read his character entry on the show's website #The point still stands #ochiba-no-kata #ochiba no kata #Lady Ochiba #ishido kazunari #shogun #shogun 2024 #shogun fx #fx shogun

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littleprincessfawn · 1 month

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I wanna talk about the latest Willow World episode of Shōgun but I'm not ready yet. But holy moly I loved it. It was a very female-centric episode (which I dig) and answered a whole bunch of questions I had, and then made me think up several new ones. You could literally frame this entire series JUST through the lens of both Lady Mariko and Lady Ochiba and have a great show.

#shogun #shōgun #shogun spoilers #shogun fx #lady mariko #lady ochiba

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floater0352 · 2 months

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One of my first (but hopefully not last) contributions to the emerging trivia on Shôgun:

Lady Ochiba / Ruri, the mother of the Taiko's heir Yaechiyo, is based on Lady Yodo/Chacha (1569-1615), niece to Oda Nobunaga and second spouse of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. We see her here as the primary moving force shoring up her son's position and the patron of Toranaga's rival Ishido.

Fumi Nikaido as Lady Ochiba, Shôgun, 2024

What makes the casting of this one very interesting is that Fumi Nikaido has played the actual role of Yodo/Chacha in a similar period production, the 2014 NHK taiga drama Gunshi Kanbei (which was primarily about Kuroda Kanbei, the strategist of Hideyoshi played by Junichi Okada).

Fumi Nikaido as Yodo, Gunshi Kanbei, 2014

While there's enough hype for Toranaga (especially as he is portrayed by public favorite and producer Hiroyuki Sanada--rightfully so), I wish to highlight Fumi Nikaido's return to this role as it does help highlight the differences between how Lady Yodo is portrayed in fiction. (It does help that we have no shortage of it now--even if it's mostly in videogames like Samurai Warriors, Sengoku Basara or the more historically-faithful Nioh).

The material we have of Lady Ochiba so far is of a proud, haughty, even disrespectful woman--and perhaps it's not exactly far off from how Chacha is portrayed even in Japanese media. To some extent, even Gunshi Kanbei conceded to this especially in the episodes I'm referring with this photo--what with it precisely being the moment Yodo is fearing coming to pass. A mother seeking to protect her son's patrimony (and by extension, her agency and regency), it's a universal trope in feudal drama. What Shôgun does not give her yet (but Gunshi Kanbei took pains to establish) is the recognition that she is as much a victim of the warring era, turning her into a self-loathing monster only able to survive trying to make sense of it all, and maybe recover their agency in it. Clavell rightfully gave it to his main focus character, Lady Mariko (played very layered and well by Anna Sawai compared to her more recent outings--herself based on Hosokawa Gracia).

It truly amazes me that 10 years has yet to make much of a difference for Fumi Nikaido and this role. The woman whose position at the top was only made possible by misery and her playing by the cruel game of chaos, she portrays both versions with the edge, anxiety and palpable will of a woman who's lost everything before and is at the doorstep of losing them again.

#shôgun #shogun #samurai #shogun fx #shôgun fx #shôgun 2024 #shogun 2024 #fumi nikaido #chacha #lady yodo #yodo-dono #ochiba no kata #james clavell #lady ochiba

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lafiametta · 4 days

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What's so fascinating about Toranaga's plan to employ Mariko as Crimson Sky is that it was all there right from the beginning.

When Toranaga first arrives in Osaka the regents demand that he release Ochiba, the mother of the Heir, from where she is being held in Edo. Nothing scares Toranaga quite like Ochiba (no doubt why he held her in the first place), and he knows that once she is able to return to Osaka, she's going to do everything she can to destroy him.

Enter Mariko.

Mariko is perfectly placed: she shares a history with Ochiba, a girlhood bond that grew distant due to time and circumstance, but she is completely loyal to Toranaga, willing, in fact, to die for him and his cause. If the time comes for him to have to negotiate with Ochiba — or he has some need to soften her desire for vengeance — Mariko will serve as the crucial middle ground.

Once he realizes Ochiba will soon be free to move against him, Toranaga summons Mariko, requesting that she serve as a translator to the foreign barbarian. But even more important than her role as a translator, Toranaga wants to bring her closer and cement her place in his inner circle of followers. (As a woman, she is easily overlooked, not being a general or a vassal with an army of retainers, but her importance might be even more vital.) He reminds her of his great admiration for her father and acknowledges that for many years she has been robbed of her purpose. What if he could give it back to her? Like Mariko, we assume that her purpose is to serve as a translator, but Toranaga knows it is far larger: to play her part against the regents and serve as a bridge to Ochiba, when the time comes.

Toranaga is a falconer. He knows the value of caring for a bird, feeding it by hand, having it learn to trust you until it sees you as its only master. And as Toranaga describes his falcon, Lady of Steel, he could also be describing his plan for Mariko: “Conceals herself against the sun. Conserving energy, waiting for her moment.”

#shōgun #shogun #shogun 2024 #shogun fx #fx shogun #shogun spoilers #yoshii toranaga #toda mariko #lady ochiba #meta

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maxanor · 1 month

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