Buntaro’s request to kill John Blackthorne turns a private marital grievance into a matter for Toranaga to judge. Buntaro says Blackthorne’s looks toward Mariko and an earlier insult at Anjiro have made the shame unbearable; Toranaga tests whether the accusation extends to Mariko, then separates Buntaro’s demand from the larger duties he must still perform. Blackthorne’s life is not spared as a final reprieve: Toranaga says he needs him alive a little longer.

The request before Toranaga

The confrontation takes place in Toranaga’s presence, with Mariko required to hear the request. Earlier, Buntaro had met her cortege at the castle gate and told her to go to Toranaga at once; Blackthorne, he said, would be sent for later. When Toranaga summons Buntaro into the room, Buntaro enters grim-faced, kneels, and bows. Mariko bows too, numb, but Buntaro does not acknowledge her. The silence between husband and wife is already part of the scene before he names his demand.

Toranaga asks what Buntaro wants. Buntaro asks permission to take Blackthorne’s head. He explains that he dislikes the way Blackthorne looks at his wife, and that Blackthorne insulted him at Anjiro; because of this, he can no longer live with the shame. He has chosen to state the accusation before Mariko and before Toranaga, rather than make the request privately. That choice makes the appeal more than a complaint: it exposes his grievance to the person who controls whether he may act on it.

Jealousy, duty, and shame

Toranaga presses Buntaro on the implication for Mariko. Does he accuse her of encouraging Blackthorne? Buntaro does not answer at once. When Toranaga insists, Buntaro says that if he believed Mariko had betrayed him, duty would require him to take her head immediately. His eyes remain on the tatami as he speaks. He then describes Blackthorne as a constant irritation to his household harmony and a harassment to Toranaga, casting the proposed killing as service as well as personal revenge.

Buntaro also offers to take Mariko away with him that night and go before Toranaga together. The offer sits beside his threat: he treats the fate of his wife as a decision he may carry out, but acknowledges that Toranaga can overrule him. Mariko answers in the language of that hierarchy. He is her husband, she says, and she will do whatever he decides unless Toranaga intervenes; this, she says, is her duty. Her response neither confirms Buntaro’s suspicion nor argues against it. It leaves the judgment with Toranaga, while making clear how little room she claims for her own choice.

Buntaro’s appeal also belongs to a longer burden of shame. In an earlier crisis, he regarded his father’s kneeling to Toranaga’s standard as a betrayal of the oath to Yaemon, the Taikō’s heir; he also counted among his disgraces the killing of men who had served the Taikō’s cause against Toranaga. He believed Mariko and their son were tainted by her father, Akechi Jinsai, and that his own name was befouled through them. The request against Blackthorne is therefore spoken in the immediate terms of jealousy and insult, but it comes from a man already preoccupied with dishonor, family reputation, and obligations that pull in opposing directions.

Toranaga’s judgment and orders

Toranaga looks from husband to wife and gives each a different assignment. Mariko is to leave for Osaka in three days, prepare the way for him, and wait there. Buntaro is to accompany Toranaga as commander of his escort when he departs. Only after Buntaro has acted as Toranaga’s second, the lord says, may Buntaro or one of his men do the same with Blackthorne, with or without Blackthorne’s approval. The answer keeps the killing possible, but postpones it and places it within Toranaga’s timetable.

When Buntaro begins to offer advice, Toranaga rebukes him sharply, warning him not to repeat the impertinence of giving unwanted counsel. The exchange establishes that Buntaro’s military and household authority does not make him free to direct his lord. Toranaga then tells him that Blackthorne’s head may be taken soon, but that he needs it on Blackthorne’s shoulders a little longer. That qualification reveals the immediate limit of Buntaro’s power: Toranaga may recognize the grievance, yet Blackthorne remains useful to his plans.

The conversation then shifts from punishment to a confidential errand. Toranaga orders Buntaro to go at dawn to Mishima and relieve his father for a few days, since his father has asked permission to consult Toranaga. He also instructs Buntaro to travel by way of Takato and deliver a private message to Toranaga’s mother, telling no one of that destination and turning north once clear of the city. The dispatch follows the public humiliation of Buntaro’s request with an assignment that requires secrecy and trust. Toranaga has not simply rejected him or indulged him; he has kept him under command and given him consequential work.

Significance

The scene changes the status of Blackthorne’s danger without resolving it. Buntaro has publicly asked for permission to kill him, and Toranaga leaves open the possibility of a later execution. Yet the decisive condition is political rather than marital: Blackthorne must remain alive while Toranaga still needs him. The threatened violence is thus held in reserve, subject to the lord’s purposes.

The exchange also places the three characters within sharply unequal forms of agency. Buntaro can petition and threaten, but Toranaga sets the schedule and assigns his next movements. Mariko is made to answer for the marriage while declaring her obedience to her husband, unless her lord intervenes. Blackthorne, absent from the request itself, becomes its object and the measure of Toranaga’s continuing need. By allowing the demand to stand while postponing its execution, Toranaga turns a household grievance into another matter governed by command, timing, and political use.