Blackthorne organizes a ledge rescue to save Yabu

John Blackthorne organizes a ledge rescue to save Yabu when the incoming tide leaves Yabu and the unconscious Rodrigues stranded below a cliff. With no route along the shore and the water rising over the rocks, Blackthorne rejects what seems an inevitable death: he finds a narrow foothold, improvises a rope from clothing, and persuades the samurai to help. Yabu then risks himself to keep Rodrigues alive until the party can haul them up. The episode makes rescue a test of courage and changes the antagonistic regard between Yabu and Blackthorne into reluctant respect.

The Tide Closes the Escape

The danger becomes unmistakable as the tide rushes in. It is already encroaching on the rock where Yabu sits, while the sea blocks the shore and covers the intervening stones. The tide mark on the cliff stands more than a man’s height above its base, but that offers no escape: Blackthorne sees no climbable way up, no sheltering rocks or caves, and no reachable outcrops. He cannot swim, and there is nothing available to serve as a raft. The skiff is near the ship, but the ropes being fetched will not arrive in time.

Yabu has apparently accepted that he will die. He turns away, settles himself on the rock, and finds composure in the clarity of what he takes to be his last moments. He thinks of composing the poem-song customarily made before death. To the samurai around him, there is no escape to be found; his stillness appears a dignified preparation for death. Blackthorne, however, sees Yabu’s resignation as an obstacle to saving both him and Rodrigues. He shouts for the samurai to look for a ledge, even as they stand in his way and regard his urgency as madness.

A Rope Made from Clothing

Blackthorne cannot search freely. When he tries to approach the cliff edge, the samurai stop him; they fear the same deadly drop that he is trying to inspect. He understands their concern, but he also knows that Rodrigues must be saved if Yabu is to be saved. A stone hurled toward Yabu falls unnoticed into the water. Then Blackthorne recognizes that the party has one resource the rising tide cannot take away: their clothing.

He tears strips from Yabu’s kimono and tests their strength. The silk holds. Taking off his own shirt, he orders the samurai to make a rope, and they understand: they untie their sashes, remove their kimonos, and knot the material together. While they finish, Blackthorne lies down and inches toward the edge, asking two men to hold his ankles. He does not need their help to keep his balance, but uses it to reassure them as he searches. He scans the cliff methodically, as he would search at sea, using the edges of his vision as well as its center.

At first he sees nothing. Then, just above the tide line, a crack or shadow catches his attention. He shifts position as the sea covers more of the rocks and points out what he believes may be a ledge. One samurai follows his gesture but sees nothing; Blackthorne uses his hands to show the width of the shelf and a person standing on it with another person across his shoulders. When the others finally recognize the ledge, they shout to Yabu, but he remains motionless, as if he cannot hear them.

Yabu Risks Himself for Rodrigues

One of the samurai briefly confers with the others. They nod and bow to one another; he returns the bow, shouts, and throws himself from the cliff. The samurai’s body falls below and is already being carried away by the sea when Blackthorne sees it. The act jolts Yabu out of his trance. The scene leaves Blackthorne struggling to understand whether the man’s deliberate death was courage or madness, but its immediate consequence is clear: Yabu gets up and moves.

Blackthorne expects Yabu to scramble to safety without Rodrigues. Instead, Yabu half crawls and half slides through the surf-disturbed shallows, dragging the unconscious man toward the cliff. The ledge is barely a foot wide. Yabu pushes Rodrigues onto it, nearly losing him, then hauls himself up. The improvised rope is twenty feet too short. The samurai add their loincloths, extending it just enough that Yabu can reach its end if he stands.

The waiting becomes another ordeal. Waves nearly engulf Yabu half a dozen times, and Rodrigues slips away from him twice. Each time Yabu drags him back and holds his head above the water. For almost an hour, Yabu continues against the sea and his own failing body. Blackthorne’s first impression of Yabu’s earlier descent had been that it was bravado; watching him struggle now, he recognizes both skill and endurance. His admiration does not erase his hatred. It exists beside it, making the rescue’s change in their relationship deliberately uneasy rather than simple.

Rescue and Recognition

At dusk, Takatashi returns with the ropes. The men make a cradle and descend the cliff with a skill Blackthorne has never seen on land. They bring Rodrigues up first. A doctor examines his broken leg, and, while a samurai holds Rodrigues’s shoulders, resets the bone and binds it to a splint. He then wraps herbs around the wound. Yabu is brought up afterward.

Yabu refuses assistance, waves the doctor back to Rodrigues, and sits down to wait. Blackthorne and Yabu look at one another. Blackthorne thanks him for saving Rodrigues’s life and bows deliberately; Yabu returns the bow stiffly. The formal exchange does not dissolve their enmity, but it gives their recognition a visible form. Blackthorne’s gratitude is directed at the courage he has just witnessed, even while his private judgment of Yabu remains hostile. Yabu, for his part, smiles inwardly. The rescue thus binds together actions neither man can dismiss: Blackthorne’s refusal to abandon Yabu, Yabu’s refusal to abandon Rodrigues, and the samurai’s dangerous cooperation in making an escape possible.