Mariko’s Husband Buntaro Comes Back from the Dead in ‘Shōgun’ Episode 5, Immediately Causes Trouble for Blackthorne

Shōgun Episode 5 “Broken to the Fist” opens with quite the sticky revelation for Mariko (Anna Sawai). Turns out that a key character comes back from the dead this week on the FX show, and it’s the one character whose reappearance can put Mariko’s recent tryst with John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) into a dangerous new light.

**Spoilers for Shōgun Episode 5 “Broken to the Fist,” now streaming on Hulu**

When Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) arrives in Ajiro with his vast army, Mariko’s presumed dead husband Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe) is there, alive and sort of well. Buntaro’s back, bitches! The camera zooms in on Mariko’s and the usually unflappable samurai looks legitimately panicked. That’s because by sleeping with Blackthorne in Shōgun Episode 4 “The Eight-fold Fence,” Mariko committed adultery which, uh, has major implications. In fact, Anna Sawai herself told Decider during Winter 2024 TCA that the reason why Mariko succumbed to her desire and went to Blackthorne in the night was because she thought she was widowed.

“I think that obviously having her husband Buntaro die played a big part in her being like, ‘Okay, well, you know, this isn’t completely wrong,’ even though he is a Protestant and even though he is married and has kids,” Sawai said.

If Buntaro discovers his wife’s infidelity, he can kill both Mariko and Blackthorne without impunity, no matter how much Toranaga may or may not value his favorite translator and newest Hatamoto.

So how did Buntaro survive? After all, he was left behind in Osaka by Toranaga in Shōgun Episode 3 “Tomorrow is Tomorrow.” He was basically alone, surrounded by an army of samurai intent on killing him. There was no way anyone could have survived. Except Buntaro did.

As Toranaga explains, a contingent of ronin helped Buntaro fight his way out of the city. They then had to fight their way on foot all the way to Toranaga’s stronghold of Edo. The “ordeal,” as Toranaga puts it, took twenty days and only one other man besides Buntaro survived.

Buntaro is indeed an exceptional warrior. So much so, that he is able to miraculously shoot a post in Blackthorne’s yard twice while howling drunk. However, that feat of prowess puts him firmly on the Anjin’s bad side as he almost kills Mariko during the stunt. Later when Blackthorne discovers that Buntaro has beaten Mariko, he flies into a rage and chases after the samurai. For a tense moment, it appears the two men will fight. However Buntaro then apologizes to Blackthorne.

As Blackthorne learns repeatedly to his horror this week, any “disturbance” in a home, be it a smelly pheasant or loud argument, is considered a dishonor. It’s shameful. Buntaro apologizes for causing Blackthorne distress, waking him up, and disturbing his sleep, but not for beating his wife.

If Buntaro comes across in this episode as a real asshole, that’s because that’s basically how he’s depicted in the book. He’s the only son of Hiromatsu (Tokuma Nishioka), Toranaga’s most-trusted general. Folks in Toranaga’s camp respect Buntaro because of his father and because he is such a damn fine warrior. But as you can tell from how, say, Fuji (Moeka Hoshi) acts around her uncle, he’s also known for his brutish ways and temper.

Shōgun‘s version of Buntaro is ever so slightly softer, sadder than the character in the novel. According to showrunner Justin Marks, that wasn’t the intention in the writers’ room. It was what Japanese actor Shinnosuke “Shin” Abe brought to Buntaro.

“You know, you live with this book for so long, but I think specifically the character of ‘Buntaro,’ Shinnosuke Abe plays him and I think we had ideas in our head,” Marks said during a Q&A Decider attended back in December 2023. “And I was thinking just how different ‘Buntaro’ was in the writers’ room compared to when Shin began to embody that character and change who he was.”

Could FX’s Shōgun pull off the impossible and get people to become actual Buntaro fans? Crazier things have happened, like army-swallowing earthquakes…