Mura

Mura is the headman of Anjiro, responsible for a village caught between powerful lords and the prospect of renewed war. He prepares its people for Toranaga’s arrival, but also secretly stockpiles supplies and weapons. His actions join practical leadership to a larger conviction: villagers, too, have a claim to take part in war and to preserve the ordinary work of living through it.

Identity and Village Authority

Mura’s authority is rooted in inheritance as well as office: he is headman, as his father was before him. In the village’s public hierarchy, however, that authority is precarious. When Igurashi, Yabu’s chief lieutenant, dismisses him, Mura does not answer; he nods deferentially with his eyes lowered. The exchange sets the limits of his position beside samurai power, even as the village’s readiness depends on his leadership.

That leadership is visible on the foreshore before the galley arrives. The villagers kneel in orderly rows, exhausted but silent; everyone except those confined to bed has come in their best clothes. The village has been swept, the people scrubbed, the fishing boats marshaled, nets tidied, ropes coiled, and even the beach raked. The thorough preparation makes the arrival a collective undertaking, not merely a formal reception. Mura is present among the men organizing and overseeing the scene, where the village’s careful appearance answers the threat that any failure might bring severe punishment.

Preparation for War

Mura’s preparations extend beyond the public welcome. On his orders, thirty koku of rice have been stolen from the samurai commissariat over several days and hidden around the village with other stores, equipment, and weapons. When Uo objects specifically to taking weapons, Mura insists that nothing is anywhere and that nothing exists. The evasive language protects a secret on which their preparations depend.

Mura explains the choice to gather arms as a rare opportunity: the samurai, he argues, will suspect other samurai of the theft, since they have come from across Izu and do not trust one another. He urges his companions to take every available knife, arrow, spear, sword, musket, shield, and bow, framing the effort as a recovery of the villagers’ right to make war. His appeal draws on their experience: his father died in battle, and Ninjin and Uo have fought in many battles. Uo’s recollection that he served with the Taikō before the Taikō changed reinforces the contrast between an earlier time when the ruler was simply a man and the authority he later came to embody. Uo ultimately backs Mura’s order, invoking both Mura’s office and his father’s example.

As he kneels in the sun awaiting the galley, Mura feels sure he has acted correctly. He imagines the war lasting indefinitely, but not erasing the village: boats and some villagers will remain, because everyone, from peasants and samurai to the Eta, must eat, and fish remain in the sea. In his vision, villagers who become soldiers will periodically leave the fighting to launch their boats. War and subsistence are not alternatives in this outlook; fishing is the means by which a community can endure war’s recurrence.

Mura and Blackthorne

After Blackthorne’s rebirth, Blackthorne sends for Mura when Mariko arrives. Through Mariko, he asks Mura to help him join the village school so that he can learn to speak with children. Mariko points out that the village has no school. The exchange does not establish what Mura does in response, but it brings him into Blackthorne’s attempt to begin again through contact with village life. Mura’s earlier role as organizer of Anjiro’s collective preparations thus has a quieter counterpart: he is the person Blackthorne turns to when seeking a place among the villagers and a way to learn from them.