Two brothers at Yokosé

At Yokosé Buntaro has fortified the clearing, penned Zataki's party across the bridge. Toranaga strips the meeting dais of its brocade, orders Buntaro to stay at the inn and "attempt a peace" with his wife. At the Hour of the Goat Zataki reads the Council's "orders" aloud: obeisance at Osaka forthwith. In private the half-brothers trade hatred; Zataki holds their mother hostage at Takato and carries a second scroll, the impeachment and order for seppuku, which Toranaga refuses to receive until tomorrow. Zataki's terms: abdicate to Sudara and die today. At the evening meal Kiku sings; Toranaga recalls Gyoko's proposals for a walled Willow World in Yedo and a new class of "gei-sha". At the Jesuits' inn Brother Joseph refuses the scourge for lying with a whore, renounces the Christian God and walks out with a knife, while Alvito is summoned to Toranaga.

Yokosé is the book's formal centre: two half-brothers, two scrolls, one bridge. Clavell writes the negotiation as etiquette with death inside it, and delays the second scroll a day so that time is a weapon. Gyoko's proposal for a walled pleasure quarter, quietly founds the Yoshiwara.