Blackthorne Requests a Divorce for Mariko from Buntaro

John Blackthorne’s private request that Toranaga arrange for Toda Mariko to divorce Buntaro is a daring appeal made under strict conditions of secrecy. Blackthorne presents it as a favor available to a hatamoto, but the request is personal and unprecedented: he asks for Mariko as his wife without first telling her. Toranaga neither grants nor dismisses the request. He accepts an obligation to consider it while making silence the immediate condition of their exchange.

The Request and Its Setting

Blackthorne waits until he can address Toranaga directly, explaining that he had not wanted to raise the matter in front of Mariko because he feared she might tell the priests. He frames his approach through custom: a hatamoto may sometimes ask his lord for a favor. After asking permission to speak, he makes his request plainly, though in halting Japanese: he knows that a lord can make divorce easy, and asks for Toda Mariko as his wife.

His appeal follows a discussion of military strategy, but Blackthorne explicitly marks the request as personal rather than a matter of war. The shift is abrupt. He calls it one last ask, then, once he has spoken, apologizes for his rudeness. His uncertainty about whether he has overstepped is sharpened by the asymmetry between his frank desire and the formality of the favor he is asking from his lord.

Toranaga’s Response

Toranaga is briefly dumbstruck, then asks whether Mariko agrees. Blackthorne answers that she does not know: he has never told her, and he insists that the request is a secret belonging only to him and Toranaga. His repeated assurances establish that this is not a proposal made with Mariko’s participation, but a confidential appeal for Toranaga to consider on her behalf.

Toranaga calls the request presumptuous for a stranger and unheard of. Yet he does not end the conversation with a refusal. Because Blackthorne is a hatamoto, he says he is duty-bound to consider the request. The status that gives Blackthorne standing to petition his lord therefore opens a narrow possibility, even as Toranaga’s astonishment makes clear how far the request departs from ordinary expectation.

That possibility comes with an immediate prohibition. Toranaga orders Blackthorne not to speak of divorce to Mariko or to Buntaro under any circumstances. He repeats the instruction and requires Blackthorne to confirm that he understands. The exchange thus leaves the request unresolved: Toranaga has agreed to consider it, but has authorized no action and has forbidden Blackthorne to discuss it with either person whose marriage it concerns.

Secrecy and Aftermath

Blackthorne struggles to follow the distinction between having his request considered and being forbidden to speak of it. He asks for clarification, apologizes again for his Japanese, and thanks Toranaga for his patience. At last he bows, and leaves almost as if in a dream. His reaction registers the emotional force of having made the appeal, but the scene provides no answer about whether Toranaga will grant it.

Outside, people watch Blackthorne quizzically. He wants to share his apparent victory with Mariko, but her distracted serenity and the guards’ presence restrain him. He says only that he is sorry to have kept her waiting. The moment closes on the gap between what Blackthorne has disclosed to Toranaga and what he must conceal from Mariko: even the impulse to share his relief cannot overcome the ban that defines the request’s immediate aftermath.

Significance

The scene turns a claim of personal affection into a matter of lordly authority and disciplined silence. Blackthorne seeks a change in Mariko’s marriage through Toranaga, not through a conversation with Mariko herself; Toranaga’s response recognizes Blackthorne’s standing while withholding any decision. The request’s importance lies as much in its unresolved status as in its audacity. It opens the possibility of a marriage, but leaves Blackthorne bound to secrecy and Mariko unaware that he has asked.