Toranaga’s negotiation with the Jesuits turns religious access and commercial privilege into instruments in the struggle against Ishido. He seeks the open support of the Christian daimyos, while offering the Jesuits a privileged position in Japan; Father Alvito, caught between that proposal and his order’s claim to political neutrality, can promise effort but not deliver the alliance. The encounter ends with Toranaga setting a forty-day limit, a deadline that makes the Church’s hesitation part of the approaching war.

Background and Jesuit Strategy

Before Alvito carries the Jesuit response to Toranaga, Alessandro dell’Aqua lays out the problem in starkly practical terms. Blackthorne is dangerous to the Jesuits: if they fail to protect him, he may be killed, risking Toranaga’s disfavor; if they protect him, dell’Aqua believes Blackthorne may eventually kill himself. They might instead assist Toranaga in removing him, or try to convert him. Dell’Aqua favors conversion as the ideal solution, presenting it as both a political remedy and a way to save Blackthorne’s soul. His reasoning treats religious identity as mutable and entangled with national politics: he speculates that English religious allegiance shifts with the faith of the monarch and that hostility toward Catholics may be sharpened by the Armada.

The plan for Toranaga is similarly a mixture of concession and calculation. Dell’Aqua authorizes Alvito to provide maps and explain the division of overseas influence between the Portuguese and their Spanish allies, while asking for time to verify other information in Macao. In the same approach, Alvito is to announce that the Portuguese Black Ship will sail three weeks early with its largest cargo of silks and gold yet, and that at least thirty percent of the cargo will pass through a broker personally appointed by Toranaga. The change of broker challenges the usual arrangement, in which Lords Onoshi, Kiyama, and Harima divide the brokerage. Dell’Aqua nevertheless expects Toranaga to grant sailing clearance for Ferriera in return for the concessions. He presents speed, money, and influence as bargaining tools, while admitting that the Jesuits cannot simply hand Toranaga the Christian daimyos.

The First Approach: Information and Trade

Alvito brings Blackthorne’s rutters to Toranaga and lays them on the floor, explaining their significance. They contain the exact language of orders authorizing the English to land in force and claim territory they reach or discover. Toranaga recognizes them as evidence of piracy and orders a complete translation, made quickly. The documents thus give the negotiation an immediate strategic dimension: Blackthorne is not only a foreign pilot whose presence troubles the Jesuits, but also the bearer of evidence about England’s intentions.

Alvito then reports the maps, the information about spheres of influence, and the arrangements concerning the Portuguese Black Ship as dell’Aqua instructed. Toranaga responds with pleasure and presses him to confirm that the ship will indeed arrive early. Alvito answers firmly. His report makes the Jesuits’ commercial concessions tangible, but it also demonstrates that the Church’s religious representatives are acting as brokers between Toranaga and Portuguese trade. The promised early voyage, cargo, and appointment of Toranaga’s broker are presented as terms under negotiation, not as completed arrangements.

The Political Bargain

When Toranaga later invites Alvito onto the dais, a place to which the priest has never before been admitted, the unusual gesture accompanies a direct declaration that war is coming. Toranaga says that the Christian Lords Onoshi and Kiyama are resisting his wishes, and asks where the Christians’ interests lie as the Empire divides into his camp and Ishido’s. Alvito answers that Christianity serves peace and is a religion rather than a political ideology. Toranaga rejects the comfort of that distinction: if the two lords stand with Ishido, he warns, other Christian daimyos may follow, leaving him outnumbered twenty to one.

Alvito says he will pray for Toranaga’s victory, but Toranaga insists that prayer alone cannot prevent the conflict. He argues that the Christian daimyos’ open support would avert war and permanently curb Ishido’s ambitions; even a revolt by Ishido could then be suppressed by the Regents. To challenge the claim that the Church must remain outside politics, Toranaga recalls that Alvito’s predecessor had offered Christian daimyos from Kyushu and Portuguese ships and soldiers to help the Taikō’s campaigns, including campaigns against Korea and China. Alvito calls that earlier offer unauthorized. Toranaga’s point is less that the Church has already chosen his side than that its history makes absolute political neutrality difficult to sustain.

Toranaga presses Alvito to use his influence and asks whether he would follow Toranaga into death if Toranaga lost. Alvito replies that both his life and death belong to God. Toranaga then names the terms he expects: Onoshi and Kiyama are to commit within forty days, and the Council of Regents is to repeal the Taikō’s Edicts. He also offers a religious concession of exceptional scale. The Jesuits may remain, while the rival barefoot friars are to be forbidden entry to Japan; Toranaga even says their heads may be taken if the Jesuits want them. The offer makes exclusivity, institutional safety, and power in Japan the price and prize of cooperation.

Alvito’s Limits and the Forty-Day Deadline

The proposal tempts Alvito because exclusive standing could protect and strengthen the Church, but he understands that he is not empowered to settle the bargain. He tells Toranaga that he cannot speak for the Father-Visitor or order Onoshi and Kiyama to act. In his private assessment, those lords have reasons to distrust Toranaga: they have secretly obtained Ishido’s written commitment that they may appoint the Heir’s tutors, including a Christian, and have sworn a Holy Oath because they fear Toranaga will betray the Church after defeating Ishido. That knowledge sharpens the mismatch between Toranaga’s demand and Alvito’s actual leverage.

Toranaga also raises his son Naga’s interest in Christianity, leaving Alvito uncertain whether this is an opening for conversion or a warning that Toranaga could forbid it. Alvito answers cautiously, describing Naga as one of several nobles with an open mind rather than treating the question as a secured concession. The negotiation therefore moves beyond church policy and shipping: even a son’s possible conversion becomes part of the uncertain balance between religious opportunity and political pressure.

At last Alvito admits that he needs help and needs it immediately. He promises to do all he can, and Toranaga answers by agreeing to wait forty days. The formal bows at their departure underscore the change in their exchange: Toranaga bows to Alvito with unusual deference, yet the deadline remains his. Alvito leaves hurriedly, carrying a promise rather than a settled alliance. The negotiation has opened a route to Jesuit privilege and Christian support, but it has not secured either; its decisive result is that Toranaga has made the Church’s response urgent and measurable.