‘Shōgun’ Star Hiroyuki Sanada Takes Us Behind-the-Scenes of Toranaga and Hiromatsu’s Deadly Episode 8 Showdown

Shōgun Episode 8 “Abyss of Life” somehow manages to hit Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) even harder than he’s ever been before. Sure, he lost his army to a freak earthquake and his immature son Nagakado (Yuki Kura) died by slipping on a wet rock last week, but nothing seems to hurt the ever-aloof, always strategizing Toranaga like this week’s loss.

**MAJOR Spoilers for Shōgun Episode 8 “Abyss of Life,” now streaming on Hulu**

Towards the end of FX‘s Shōgun Episode 8 “Abyss of Life,” a mentally and physically low Toranaga announces to his stunned generals and vassals that he will surrender to Ishido (Takehiro Hira), Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido), and the rest of his enemies in Osaka. The cunning Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) reluctantly goes along with the plan, singing his name on what amounts to Toranaga’s formal surrender, while Omi (Hiroto Kanai) looks visibly despondent sealing his own fate. However, when another general refuses to sign — attempting to call Toranaga out on some 3D chess-level feint — Hiromatsu (Tokuma Nishioka) steps in.

Fans of Shōgun already know that Hiromatsu is Toranaga’s most trusted advisor. We’ve seen flashbacks to when a young warrior version of Hiromatsu stood by a tween Toranaga’s side during his first strategic victory. Hiromatsu’s son Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe) was specifically chosen as Mariko’s (Anna Sawai) husband to keep her under the protection of Toranaga’s camp after her father Akechi Jinsai (Yutaka Takeuchi) assassinated the despotic Kuroda (Eijiro Ozaki). Fuji (Moeka Hoshi) also happens Hiromatsu’s favorite granddaughter, which is why she is not only spared when her husband (and baby) have to die by seppuku, but why she’s given the honor of being Blackthorne’s (Cosmo Jarvis) consort.

All of this is to say that Hiromatsu is Toranaga’s ride or die bestie. He’s the only person Toranaga trusts implicitly with his private plans and Toranaga happily gives Hiromatsu’s most treasured family members plum roles in his camp. So when Hiromatsu calls bullshit on Toranaga’s plan to roll over and surrender for Osaka, it’s a tense, tragic moment even before the elderly general defiantly commits seppuku to show Toranaga the cost of decision.

For a few minutes, the elderly general prods Toranaga, suggesting that he’s not just given up, but proven that he does, in fact, believe death can be in vain. Toranaga refuses to stop Hiromatsu, much to the horror of Omi and the other men present. When Toranaga doesn’t fold, insists on surrender to Osaka, Hiromatsu calls an emotional Buntaro to be his second. After refusing his son the honor of following him to the grave, Hiromatsu commits seppuku in front of his lord and friend…never once dropping eye contact with the devastated daimyo.

“Yeah, it was hard to shoot mentally, physically. You know, our mind is like almost breaking and it’s harder to try to [not] cry in the scene,” Shōgun producer and star Hiroyuki Sanada told Decider during an interview at Winter 2024 TCA. “It was [easier] to cry almost, but they both know what is going to happen if he doesn’t commit seppuku.”

What Sanada is referring to is the fact that Hiromatsu’s death wasn’t all it seemed. As we learn in the following scene, Hiromatsu’s seppuku was all apart of Toranaga’s master plan.

In order for Toranaga’s Crimson Sky plan to work, he needs Osaka to believe he is already defeated. Hiromatsu made sure of that.

“So [Hiromatsu] knew his mission…he knows that he will do it for our future, for the country,” Sanada said. “So yeah, that’s why we’re both acting in front of the other samurais…maybe there is a spy from Osaka. So we had to completely, perfectly pretend, but deeply inside we know each other, looking at each other.”

“Yeah, we had a lot of subtitles with [each other] just watching [each other’s] eyes.”

With everyone — including Toranaga’s own camp — convinced that he is defeated, Toranaga can now move ahead with a far subtler version of Crimson Sky. As he tells Mariko, Blackthorne and Yabushige are both “goshawks.” In Toranaga’s consistent reading of men and women as hawks to train and use, this means he expects them to go to Osaka together…where they can be positioned for the next phase. As Mariko will be.

Like Nagakado’s abrupt death last week, Hiromatsu’s seppuku is another slight departure from James Clavell’s novel. In the book, a few soldiers present for this scene protest Toranaga’s surrender and commit seppuku. Shōgun showrunner Justin Marks explained to Decider that, like Naga, Hiromatsu sort of fades to the background in the latter part of the novel. With Michaela Clavell’s blessing, they transferred the moment to Hiromatsu to hammer home the dramatic tension.

“We just felt like that scene, which is such a wonderful scene in the book with all the generals there, we weren’t invested in those characters. We hadn’t lived with them,” Marks said. “So what more of a heartbreak it would be to put Hiromatsu into that place? It really just came about by going by the gut there.”