Warning! Major spoilers ahead for Shōgun episode 10.
Shōgun star Hiroyuki Sanada explains the final conversation between Toranaga and Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) in episode 10. After premiering earlier this year, FX’s hit samurai drama concluded the story of John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), Toranaga, and the rest of the Shōgun cast of characters in a moving series finale this week. Episode 9 features Yabushige betraying Toranaga, and episode 10 sees the character pay for this betrayal with his life, but not before the two have a long chat about what brought them to this point and what lies ahead.
In an interview with Screen Rant following the Shōgun series finale, Sanada breaks down the final conversation between Toranaga and Yabushige before the latter character commits seppuku. According to the actor, Toranaga’s dialogue in this scene actually mirrors a Yabushige line from earlier in the series. Check out Sanada’s full explanation of the moment below:
From the Shōgun‘s first episode, it was established that Yabushige had an obsession with death, and exactly what happens in the moments when someone slips from one plane of existence to another. This is made abundantly clear when he boils one of Blackthorne’s fellow sailors alive and pays particularly close attention to the noises the man makes as he goes. This obsession with death extended to himself, in some ways, as he is very quickly ready to end his own life after falling into the ocean and becoming trapped in some rocks.
Yabushige’s intense interest in death certainly set him up to eventually meet his end in the show, but so too did his fickle loyalty. Throughout Shōgun, the character is making and breaking alliances and playing his own political games in the shadow of Toranaga’s larger conflict with the Council of Regents. This culminates with Yabushige making a deal with Ishido (Takehiro Hira) while at Osaka Castle in episode 9, a decision that ultimately culminates in Mariko’s (Anna Sawai) death.
If Yabushige’s fate wasn’t sealed before, Mariko’s death certainly cemented that he would not live through the Shōgun series finale. That he died on such a contemplative and poignant note after a conversation with Toranaga, however, speaks to the deft way the show has handled all character deaths thus far. While Yabushige’s death wasn’t necessarily a surprise in Shōgun, Sanada’s latest comments affirm that there are more layers to the event than initially meets the eye.