The funeral and the wharf

Blackthorne wakes in the donjon after a day and a night, with Ochiba and Kiri in mourning white at his bedside. Dressed in a winged overmantle, he rides in the funeral procession to the square, where the pyre stands within four white linen gates, exactly as Mariko described at Hakoné, "the soul must have a choice". Saruji, trembling, lights the fire; Blackthorne throws camphor wood into the flames and murmurs a Latin blessing. He wakes to find his Grays gone and Brother Michael at the door with a pass. Facing the contemptuous Captain Saigo, he declares himself hatamoto and shames the ronin into a humble bow. Michael, who detested Rome, walks him past a fish market, where he eats prawns and has no money, to the Mission. On the wharf a stake waits; Ferriera's bayonets close in until dell'Aqua threatens excommunication, and Kiyama's archers kill Pesaro. Then Ferriera laughs: a tidal wave has burned the Erasmus.

The funeral and the wharf. Clavell writes the cremation from Mariko's own lesson at Hakoné, so that her explanation becomes her rite. Facing down Captain Saigo as hatamoto is the pilot's first win by manners alone. The stake on the wharf and dell'Aqua's excommunication threat make the Jesuits the ones who save him.