Bargaining in the great cabin

In the great cabin Toranaga denies any war exists ("a few worthless ronin") and demands the cannon. He dangles a cathedral in Yedo, and takes dell'Aqua's oath before God to deliver Onoshi and Kiyama in forty days. Cannon are useless on a galley without a refit, so Ferriera names his price for carrying Toranaga to Yedo aboard the frigate: next year's Black Ship, fifteen percent, immunity from excommunication, and "the heretic". Below, Mariko and the samurai Kana find Blackthorne drunk and vomiting over a table of roast beef and capon; the bosun Pesaro calls Kana a monkey, offers her copper for a "quickie", and draws pistols when Kana's sword comes out. Rodrigues has Blackthorne slapped awake and thrown overboard, then rowed to the galley with a whispered warning. As the priests go ashore, the galley's drum starts, Toranaga's pennant comes down, and Ferriera orders grape loaded.

The great cabin is the marketplace: cathedral against cannon, Onoshi and Kiyama against forty days. Ferriera's price list makes the Black Ship the novel's economic fact. Clavell then drops Blackthorne, drunk on beef, below decks so that Pesaro's insult to Kana can show what the Portuguese are when no lord watches.