Toranaga cannot sleep

Toranaga cannot sleep. He turns over Ishido, Onoshi's defection, the priests, Yabu, and the barbarian who came out of the eastern sea just now, landing at the very village where Mura, secret head of his Izu spy network, was planted years ago. One thing is certain: the Anjin-san will never leave Japan. Hiro-matsu gives the night password, reports Usagi's crucifixion done, and asks leave to commit seppuku for the failure; refused. He urges killing Yabu tonight and, in time, war and the Shōgunate, which Toranaga rebukes as treason. Kiri brings cha. He sets his plan moving: Ishido's mother to be "invited" to the Johji Temple at Nagoya, a cipher to his heir Sudara, and by racing pigeon "All is well", the code for Plan Five and, if he is killed or taken, Crimson Sky, the assault on Kyoto. Fujiko, Usagi's widow, is refused permission to die.

The first chapter inside Toranaga's head, and the template for every later one: insomnia, inventory, orders. Clavell plants two loaded facts here, Mura as planted spy and the sentence that the Anjin-san will never leave. The refused seppukus establish that in this book mercy is a form of control.