Igurashi

Igurashi, Yabu’s chief lieutenant, is a practical and vigilant retainer who helps prepare Yabu’s forces while navigating the danger of divided loyalties. His brief appearances mark the pressures closing around Yabu: military preparation depends on secrecy, but the arrival of an opposing mission makes secrecy seem already compromised.

Position and Duties

Igurashi arrives in Yedo with the first contingent of samurai and specific instructions. He has been there since the previous day when he confronts Mura over preparations for the galley’s arrival, warning that any failure could cost Mura his position as headman. His bloodshot eye, attributed to lack of sleep, and his sour manner present him as an exacting officer under strain. Mura answers deferentially, while the gathered villagers wait in their best clothes on a carefully cleaned and ordered foreshore.

His responsibilities also extend to Yabu’s secret military preparations. Yabu orders Igurashi to choose men for the force, while reserving the right to approve each one personally. The secrecy is deliberate: the recruits are not to know Yabu’s overall strategy for the musket regiment. Igurashi is thus entrusted with selecting personnel for a plan whose full purpose is withheld even from those being assembled.

Secrecy and the Plum Tree Plan

The concealed strategy carries a sharper danger than ordinary military training. Yabu says that Toranaga’s men will have five assistant officers, responsible for killing Toranaga if necessary, and names “Plum Tree” as the code for killing him and all the outlanders. Igurashi is told to choose the men the following day. The episode places him inside a conspiracy built on layers of secrecy: he is to help staff the force, while its ultimate purpose remains hidden from the recruits.

Jozen’s Mission and the Threat of Exposure

When Jozen and his armed escort depart, Yabu erupts in anger and asks who betrayed him. Igurashi signals the guards to move out of earshot before answering that the leak must have come from Yedo, since security here is perfect. His assessment turns Yabu’s outrage into a wider political crisis: Yabu concludes that he has been betrayed and that Izu and Kwanto are isolated, with Ishido having gained the advantage.

Igurashi agrees with Omi that Yabu should align with Toranaga, but he cautions against killing Jozen, reasoning that the act would be dangerous and irreversible. He considers the possibility that Jozen’s messengers might disappear, then notices two panniers of carrier pigeons on Jozen’s pack horses. The discovery makes the threat of exposure concrete: even if a messenger could be intercepted, the birds could carry news onward. Omi proposes poisoning them, but the evidence leaves Igurashi’s subsequent role in that plan unstated.