Ochiba no Kata (Fumi Nikaido) is one of the most fascinating (and terrifying) characters in all of FX‘s Shōgun. Not only is she the mother of the Taikō’s heir, but we also learn in Shōgun Episode 6 (“Ladies of the Willow World”) that she and Mariko (Anna Sawai) were childhood best friends…until Mariko’s father killed Ochiba’s father. Ochiba was then forced to endure the advances of her tyrannical father’s successor, the Taikō (Yukijirō Hotaru) himself. The Taikō was a genius general of common birth, and so he was obsessed with producing a male heir who could continue his work uniting the warring factions of Japan. The problem was that no matter how many women the Taikō slept with, none of them, not even his beloved Daiyoin / Lady Iyo (Ako), conceived and bore an heir. None except Ochiba no Kata.
Ochiba no Kata only has power within the world of Shōgun because she is the mother of the Taikō’s heir, Yaemon. Without that child, she’d be one of hundreds of nameless women the Taikō “pillowed with,” as the characters on Shōgun say. Needless to say, a woman would do anything to achieve such honor. Towards the end of Shōgun Episode 6 “Ladies of the Willow World,” Lady Ochiba suggests she did as much to ally Ishido (Takehiro Hira).
“Have you heard what I went through to give the Taikō a son?” She asks Ishido immediately after pointing out his impotency in dealing with Toranaga thus far. “No one else could achieve it. Hundreds of women… consorts… Not Daiyoin…”
“Daiyoin… who drugged me with bitter herbs, forced me to endure unmentionable things in order to conceive. Only I become mother of the Heir. And do you know how?”
Daiyon, of course, was the Taikō’s devoted wife, known as Lady Iyo before her husband’s death. Then she became a Buddhist nun (and Toranaga fan girl) known as Daiyon. (She’s the one in the first episode who tries to convince him to become Shōgun!)
In James Clavell’s book, we do get confirmation that Daiyoin, who was known as Lady Iyo before becoming a Buddhist nun, subjected a young Ochiba to all sorts of disgusting tonics, teas, and treatments to ensure her fertility. In fact, it’s suggested that the book version of this character, known as Yodoko, drugged a 16-year-old Ochiba for the Taikō’s pleasure for at least 24 hours. Nine months later, a boy would be born, but he would soon die.
However, what’s “unmentionable” in the book is what Toranaga suspects Lady Ochiba did herself to give birth to Yaemon, the Taikō’s heir. How did she pull it off?
“By compelling fate to look at me,” Ochiba no Kata tells Ishido. “So I could scratch out its eyes.”
This isn’t just a cool metaphor. It is a call to action. In the subsequent scene, we see Ishido brutally take matters into his own hands by murdering the regent Sugiyama (Toshi Toda) and his entire clan for the insult of not turning on Toranaga. Ochiba’s advice is to stop waiting for fate to hand you win and to take it for yourself by the most violent means necessary.
Although FX’s Shōgun never delves into this, Clavell’s book confirms Toranaga’s suspicions through a late novel Ochiba POV section. Realizing that the Taikō must be sterile, but that her future depended on giving him an heir, Ochiba decided to sleep with a peasant she stumbled upon while on a hawking trip with the Taikō and Toranaga. The peasant reminded her of the Taikō, but young, and the encounter was swift and “dream-like.” When she eventually rejoined the party, Toranaga noticed her kimono was torn and there was bracken on her back. Ochiba shrugs it off by saying her horse threw her and then challenges Toranaga to a race.
“You rutted with a peasant in the dirt to sire a son you needed as desperately as the Taikō to bind him to you. He would have taken another consort, neh?” Ochiba admits to herself in Clavell’s novel.
FX’s version of Shōgun doesn’t bother delving into Yaemon’s paternity. It’s enough that the realm considers him the Taikō’s heir. However this one sequence invites the audience to wonder what Ochiba might mean by scratching out the eyes of fate. Did she win fate’s favor just through force of will or by action? Interpret it as you will, but Ishido certainly takes it to mean action.
