What Happened To Lady Mariko’s Family In Shogun

WARNING: SPOILERS ahead from the Shōgun novel by James Clavell.

Shōgun episode 4 “The Eightfold Fence” reveals new elements of Lady Mariko’s obscure backstory. Following the climatic ending of Shōgun episode 4, Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai), John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), and Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) realize they will face a fierce retaliation from Lord Ishido Kazunari (Takehiro Hira), which means there will be an all-out war. Over the course of the episode, which takes place entirely in the fishing village of Ajiro, Blackthorne gets to know the intelligent and alluring Mariko more personally.

At the end of Shōgun episode 3, Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) had ordered his new Hatamoto Blackthorne to teach Yabushige’s men his “Western battle tactics”. Leaving his ambitious son Yoshii Nagakado (Yuki Kura) in charge alongside the untrustworthy Yabushige, Toranaga’s heir took matters into his own hands with a brutal attack on Ishida’s messengers. Lady Mariko immediately knows the implications of such a rash and deliberate action, which could have been a part of Toranaga’s master plan to take control of feudal Japan.

Lady Mariko’s Family Was Dishonored In Japan Before The Events Of Shogun

In Shōgun episode 4, Mariko begins to tell Blackthorne about her troubling past as the series shows a few brief flashbacks without giving much context. In the scene, Mariko recalls her father’s terrified face and remembers a younger version of herself falling into the snow during a blizzard. She tells Blackthorne that many years before the events of Shōgun, a great injustice stole everything from her which resulted in the end of her family’s established house.

According to the 1980 miniseries and book that inspired the 2024 series, Mariko’s father killed a daimyo in Japan, which automatically led to his entire family being dishonored. Mariko considered committing seppuku but ended up in a forced marriage with Buntaro, who sacrificed himself earlier in the series. As of Shōgun episode 4, the series has not yet delved much further into the truth about Mariko’s family. It’s also unclear how much of her backstory will be integrated into the rest of the season.

Lady Mariko’s Past Loosely Follows The Figure Who Inspired The Shogun Character

Like many characters in Shōgun, Lady Mariko is loosely inspired by a real-life figure involved in the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate at the start of the Edo Period in Japan. Mariko’s real-life inspiration was Hosokawa Gracia, whose father, Akechi Mitsuhide, betrayed and killed his lord, Oda Nobunaga. As a result, Hosokawa Gracia was kept in confinement in Osaka after Nobunaga’s avengers, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (the Taiko) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (Toranaga) defeated Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki. If Shōgun reflects this part of history, then Toranaga is well aware of her father’s great betrayal.