History in Books the world's story, told by its literature

Chapter 1 Part One

Waking in Anjiro

Christ! They're barbarians! Lunatics!

Summary

Blackthorne wakes in a clean paper-walled room in the fishing village of Anjiro, on the coast of Izu, fed and mended, his knife and keys gone. A crucifix in the niche warns him this is Portuguese ground. He walks the unarmed village and meets the Jesuit Father Sebastio, who calls him a heretic pirate and promises crucifixion. The samurai Kasigi Omi breaks up the scuffle, grants Blackthorne the run of the village while his uncle the daimyo, Kasigi Yabu, is sent for, then beheads a fisherman, Tamazaki, for failing to bow, and hacks the body to pieces. Aboard the Erasmus, samurai bar the sealed companionways ("Kinjiru!") from the rutters that would prove piracy. In the crew's house Vinck, van Nekk, Jan Roper and the boy Croocq quarrel over grog, Papists and blame. That night the headman Mura, once a soldier of the Taikō, drops the raging giant with two blows and carries him to the bath.

Analysis

Clavell's method in one chapter: teach the reader the rules by having Blackthorne break them. Every scene is a lesson with a body count, Tamazaki's beheading being the first. The chapter also seeds the Jesuit line, the sealed rutters and Mura's double life, three threads that run to the last page.

Plates

Illustration style

Waking in the paper-walled room
00 Waking in the paper-walled room
Boots on the garden steps
01 Boots on the garden steps
Anjiro harbour and the Erasmus at anchor
02 Anjiro harbour and the Erasmus at anchor
Father Sebastio raises the crucifix
03 Father Sebastio raises the crucifix
Omi-san stops the street
04 Omi-san stops the street
The fisherman who would not bow
05 The fisherman who would not bow
Sculling out to the Erasmus
06 Sculling out to the Erasmus
Kinjiru — the sealed companionway
07 Kinjiru — the sealed companionway
The crew's house, a guard at the gate
08 The crew's house, a guard at the gate
Mura bows to the fallen giant
09 Mura bows to the fallen giant
Waking in the paper-walled room
00 Waking in the paper-walled room
Boots on the garden steps
01 Boots on the garden steps
Anjiro harbour and the Erasmus at anchor
02 Anjiro harbour and the Erasmus at anchor
Father Sebastio raises the crucifix
03 Father Sebastio raises the crucifix
Omi-san stops the street
04 Omi-san stops the street
The fisherman who would not bow
05 The fisherman who would not bow
Sculling out to the Erasmus
06 Sculling out to the Erasmus
Kinjiru — the sealed companionway
07 Kinjiru — the sealed companionway
The crew's house, a guard at the gate
08 The crew's house, a guard at the gate
Mura bows to the fallen giant
09 Mura bows to the fallen giant

Japanese introduced here

Taikō
Retired Kwampaku — the title by which the dead Nakamura is known throughout the book.
daimyo
A great lord holding a province and its revenue; Toranaga, Ishido and Yabu are all daimyo.
eta
The outcaste class who handle the dead, leather and refuse; Blackthorne's crew are housed among them.
hai
Yes.
kimono
The wrapped robe worn by both sexes.
kinjiru
Forbidden. The first Japanese word Blackthorne learns, shouted at him aboard his own ship.
neh
A tag question closing a sentence — "isn't it?", "don't you agree?". Clavell's most frequent Japanese word.
saké
Rice wine, drunk warm.
samurai
The warrior caste, and the only class permitted the two swords.
shoji
A sliding wall panel of translucent paper on a wooden lattice.
wa
Harmony; the balance of a household or a life, which bad manners destroy.
wakarimasu
To understand — "wakarimasu ka?", do you understand?