Everyone Must Choose a Side

Everyone Must Choose a Side names the moment when neutrality and delay cease to be comfortable options in Toranaga’s political struggle. The phrase gains force through repetition: first as Yabu’s own argument, which Toranaga uses to expose the cost of Yabu’s decision; later as a demand directed at Christian leaders who plead that they cannot command other powerful lords.

Meaning and First Use

After Yabu asks whether he could have avoided accepting a message, Toranaga tells him he could have delayed negotiations for a day, weeks, or longer. Instead, Yabu is committed. Toranaga recalls Yabu’s earlier maxim, “The sooner everyone chooses sides the better,” turning it back on him. The words are no longer an abstract preference for decisiveness: they make Yabu answer for the choice he has already made and the consequences that follow from it.

Toranaga’s response is deliberately sharp. He is described as maliciously delighted that Yabu’s own stupidity has put him on the hook, while remaining unconcerned about whatever bribery, cajolery, flattery, or intimidation may have influenced him. The expression therefore carries both political pressure and personal rebuke: Yabu cannot invoke urgency as a principle and then claim that he had no alternative.

Repetition as Political Pressure

The phrase returns when Tsukku-san apologizes and explains that the Christian leaders cannot order Lord Kiyama or Lord Onoshi to do anything. Toranaga replies, “Now everyone has to choose a side.” The repetition broadens the demand beyond Yabu. In the first exchange, Toranaga holds an individual to his own words; in the second, he confronts an institution that offers sympathy and suggestions but cannot deliver the urgent assistance he seeks.

Toranaga immediately follows the rebuke by asserting that he can order his Christian. The exchange makes the distinction between professed allegiance and usable power explicit: claiming to be on Toranaga’s side is not the same as being able or willing to act for him. The line turns a plea for support into a test of what that support means in practice.

Dramatic Function

Across these two uses, choosing a side is presented as an action with consequences, not simply a declaration of loyalty. Yabu’s earlier words become a trap once Toranaga points out that he could have waited; Tsukku-san’s appeal to limited authority, meanwhile, fails to satisfy Toranaga’s demand for urgent help. The repeated wording makes the pressure accumulate, linking a private reckoning with Yabu to the larger contest over political and religious support.

The first confrontation leads into a deliberately arranged evening meal and entertainment. Toranaga invites Yabu and Omi to join him, and Kiku performs before the assembled company. Against that formal, composed setting, the phrase’s coercive edge remains present: the demand to choose has already been made, even as the gathering proceeds.