Bigger cups are used for drinking — Blackthorne.
The dinnerr party from hell at the “barbarian” John Blackthorne’s house is a highlight of episode 5 of FX’s Shōgun series.
Blackthorne and his housemates — his consort Fuji, his translator (and recent lover) Mariko and her not-dead-after-all husband Bunjaro — gather for a formal dinner and saké . What could go wrong?
“You know where I come from, only women drink from a tiny cup like that,” Blackthorne taunts Buntaro about their small saké cups which escalates into a drinking contest between the two rivals as they down big noodle bowls of the intoxicant.
A drunk Buntaro then decides to show the barbarian that his bow and arrow is faster and more accurate at a greater range than Blackthorne’s cannons, by firing two arrows, one after another, that come dangerously close to his wife Mariko’s face, but hit the intended target.
“Your wife deserves better,” says a stunned Blackthorne, as Buntaro sits down and pours himself another bowl of saké . Buntaro laughs at the idea of treating his wife better and orders Mariko to tell the story of her ““disgusting, filthy line”. Her General father assassinated the former, corrupt ruler of Japan and then had to kill his own family and himself for the crime. Only Mariko was spared because her husband refused her request to join her family in death.
That night, Blackthorne hears Buntaro beating Mariko and runs in to find her bleeding and cowering. He chases after Buntaro , but the samurai surprises him by bowing down to Blackthorne and apologizing for disturbing his home — blaming the saké.
Where was Blackthorne’s house built?
Blackthorne’s house and the whole upper village of Ajiro were built in a RV parking lot at the Swiss Canadian Mountain Range Association Gun Club in Coquitlam.
The Blackthorne house was built [at the Swiss Gun Club] along with all the other houses in the [upper] village. And over the course of the 10 episodes we shot it like crazy. So.that was a practical. house. It wasn’t on the sound stage We were at the mercy of the elements in filming that house so we had snow, we had rain, we had heat, we had cold, we had every possible iteration. I believe when I watch the show now that plays a huge role in creating a real sense of character for that house. — episode 4 director Fred Toye about Helen Jarvis’s production design on the official Shogun podcast.
Blackthorne stinks up the house and the neighbourhood with his dead pheasant that he orders no one to touch on pain of death, in his jokey, blustering way.
This leads to the real death of the gardener, who volunteers to remove it and be punished for it.
“I killed him. Lord forgive me I killed the old man,” Blackthorne laments, realizing that his words and actions carry tremendous weight in Japan’s strict culture. After the earthquake, Blackthorne restores the stone that the gardener had placed.
Shōgun:
Adapted from James Clavell’s bestselling 1975 novel, Shōgun charts the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai.
Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Toranaga, ,Cosmo Jarvis as English pilot John Blackthorne and Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko.
BC filming dates:: September 22 2021 – June 30 2022.
Episodes: 10.
Created by: Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks.
Showrunners: Justin Marks.
Cast: Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis, Anna Sawai,.Moeka Hoshi, Shinnosuke Abe, Tadanobu Asano, Fumi Nikaido, Tokuma Nishioka, Takehiro Hira, Ako, Yasunari Takeshima, Hiroto Kanai, Toshi Toda, Hiro Kanagawa, Nestor Carbonell, Yuki Kura, Tommy Bastow, Yoriko Doguchi, Yuka Kouri
Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Yoshi Toranaga, Cosmo Jarvis as Pilot Major John Blackthorne, Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko, Moeka Hoshi as Usami Fuji, Shinnosuke Abe as Toda Buntaro, Tadanobu Asano as Kashigi Yabu, Fumi Nikaido as Ochiba No Kata (Lady Ochiba), Tokuma Nishioka as Toda Hiromatsu, Takehiro Hira as Ishido Kazunari, Ako as Daiyoin Lady Iyo, Yasunari Takeshima as Mura, Hiroto Kanai as Kashigi Omi, Toshi Toda as Sugiyama, Hiro Kanagawa as Igurashi, Néstor Carbonell as Vasco Rodrigues, Yuki Kura as Yoshi Nagakado, Tommy Bastow as Father Martin Alvito, Yoriko Dōguchi as Kiri No Kata, Yuka Kouri as Kiku, Yuki Kedoin as Takemaru, Mako Fujimoto as Shizu No Kata.
Soundstages: Mammoth Studios in Burnaby.
Producers: Justin Marks, Rachel Kondo, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Michael De Luca, James Clavell’s daughter Michaela Clavell, Tim Van Patten, Hiroyuki Sanada.
Shōgun series airs on FX and streams on Hulu/Disney+.