Naga learns warfare from Blackthorne and seeks his friendship

The relationship between Naga and John Blackthorne begins not as a friendship already formed, but as an order from Toranaga to make one. Toranaga appoints Blackthorne as Naga’s teacher in weapons and warfare, requires Naga to become his friend, and presents the foreigner’s knowledge as valuable to both student and lord. Naga’s reluctant promise to obey gives the arrangement its tension: it is at once military education, a test of discipline, and an attempt to turn two unequal strangers into allies.

The Assignment of a Teacher

Naga’s instruction follows an exchange about bad advice. When he asks to be placed with someone who can teach him not to repeat the mistake, Toranaga directs him to spend part of every day talking with the Anjin-san. The arrangement is therefore specific and sustained: Blackthorne is not merely a source to consult once, but one of Naga’s teachers, with regular conversation built into the prince’s daily routine.

Toranaga defines the curriculum in practical terms. Naga is to learn everything Blackthorne knows about guns, cannon, and warfare, and to become an expert. The assignment gives Blackthorne’s foreign military knowledge a place inside Toranaga’s own household and plans. It also gives Naga a new role: Toranaga expects him to acquire expertise that may serve his father, not simply to collect information for its own sake.

Toranaga makes the value of the teacher unmistakable, comparing Blackthorne’s worth to an immense quantity of raw silk and declaring that his knowledge exceeds what Naga could gain in many lifetimes. The comparison presents the relationship as an exchange across differences in experience and status: Naga is the learner, while Blackthorne possesses a body of knowledge Toranaga considers exceptionally useful. The order to study him is also a judgment on Naga, whose earlier advice has left him needing correction.

Friendship as a Second Command

Military instruction alone does not satisfy Toranaga. He adds a distinct requirement: Naga must become Blackthorne’s friend. When Naga asks how he is supposed to do that, Toranaga refuses to supply a method and tells him to think of one. Friendship is framed as an outcome Naga must actively achieve, not a courtesy that follows automatically from sharing lessons.

That demand gives the teaching arrangement a political and personal dimension. Naga is not only to absorb Blackthorne’s expertise; he is to establish a bond with the man who carries it. Toranaga makes the two aims explicit but separate, first ordering Naga to become an expert and then ordering him to become a friend. The distinction matters: technical knowledge can be assigned and studied, while friendship requires a response from both people. The evidence records Toranaga’s command and Naga’s undertaking, but does not show whether Blackthorne accepts the intended friendship or how their daily conversations unfold.

Toranaga also turns the order into a test of conduct. He invokes “Christian charity” as something Naga should use in trying to befriend Blackthorne. The appeal does not make Naga a Christian or show that he adopts Christian belief. Instead, Toranaga uses the language of charity to demand discipline in how Naga approaches a person he may not naturally welcome.

Naga’s Resistance and Obedience

Naga responds with open frustration. He dismisses what Tsukku-san taught as dogma and nonsense, complains that Christian rules include prohibitions on killing and taking more than one woman, and says that Christianity is for peasants rather than samurai. His objection is not a quiet reservation: he insists that he could become Christian if Toranaga wished it, but could not believe. The distinction between outward compliance and inward conviction is central to his answer.

Even while rejecting the religious framework, Naga does not refuse the assignment. He says he will become Blackthorne’s friend and repeats his promise to obey Toranaga. His response reveals the relationship’s starting condition: obedience can secure Naga’s participation, but it cannot by itself produce belief, ease, or genuine affection. Toranaga’s demand that he use charity presses him toward a form of self-command, while Naga’s anger shows the distance still to be crossed.

A Relationship Still in Prospect

The arrangement places Blackthorne’s knowledge inside a broader political crisis. In a later council scene, Naga is among the people gathered around Toranaga as reports describe the worsening opposition to him, including the Christian Regents Kiyama and Onoshi acting together. Toranaga asks those present for advice because his usual counselors are elsewhere. The scene establishes the urgent political setting in which military expertise has value, but it does not say that Naga speaks, that he applies Blackthorne’s lessons, or that their friendship has developed.

The evidence therefore supports a relationship defined by intention more firmly than by completed action. Toranaga identifies Blackthorne as teacher, makes warfare the subject of Naga’s study, and sets friendship as a further obligation. Naga’s reluctant agreement puts him on the path Toranaga prescribes, but the text provided does not record the eventual result. The pairing is significant precisely because it joins knowledge and personal connection in one command: Blackthorne is to teach Naga how to understand weapons and war, while Naga is expected to find a way to approach Blackthorne as a person.