Back alleys to the galley

Toranaga leads ten survivors through Osaka's back alleys. He recalls the plan laid with Hiro-matsu: his formal resignation from the Council, which frees him from his Regent's oath and leaves four enemies who must agree on a fifth. At a gate etched with a fish his ronin-disguised troops fall in. A hundred Grays guard the galley; Yabu proposes firing the street. Toranaga instead sends Mariko and the pilot, with two hidden knives, to babble of an ambush and draw the Grays off, and to feign a faint at the gangway if the ship is safe. Mariko obeys; the galley's mate hails the Anjin-san. She faints on cue. The ronin charge, the Grays on deck turn on the "traitors", Blackthorne kills one with a thrown knife and Mariko tackles another, and the boarders behead the last man over him as he collapses.

Back-alley logistics. Clavell places the political explanation, the resignation from the Council, in Toranaga's head during a street fight so the reader gets strategy and tactics in one movement. The feigned faint at the gangway is the book's first joint performance by Mariko and Blackthorne.