The Caged Heart

Synopsis

Yukimura thinks hard about his life but he still doesn’t know what to do now that he’s lost his life as a warrior.

Meanwhile, Nobuyuki is sent to Uesugi by Ieyasu to tell them their sentence for fighting against the Tokugawa. Which is to send them to Yonezawa and cut their income by three quarters. This is eventually accepted.

Masanori and Kiyomasa discuss how they dislike the fact that Ieyasu took the title of Shogun without first consulting with Hideyori.

Nene visits Yukimura who then tells her that he’s decided to enjoy a peaceful life and live out his days.

During the night a local child has a high fever and with no doctors in the village Yukimura springs into action and forces his way through the soldiers to deliver the child to a doctor at the base of the mountain. He gets there then gives himself up to the pursuing soldiers.

Back with Ieyasu, he gives the title of Shogun to his son Hidetada who is all too thrilled. Meanwhile, Kotaro appears before Hidetada again.

Nobuyuki is concerned that this might spur Toyotomi to move which will drag Yukimura into battle again.

Thoughts

Looks like Nene’s going to be a support background character for a while with yet another short appearance this episode. It’s nice to see her though, she’s acting very much like a mother figure, which is of course who she is for all these youngsters and it’s good to have that.

So, about Yukimura again going into exile. We see more this episode of Ieyasu’s plan of releasing Yukimura now and killing him later because he will rebel again. Main thing being that you can’t expect Yukimura to change his way of life after years of constant fighting. That’s all he knows and it’s also the reason why serviceman go into rehab after they come out of the army. Not that I would know of course, but you can imagine how big of a change it is from the frontlines to a peaceful life. And if he wants to join up with the next battle, it’s not going to be that difficult to break through the defense with these frankly clueless guards who obviously haven’t had any real battle experience, or not much at least.

I was thinking that if Yukimura didn’t get spotted, he could’ve sneaked back into his house by going off road again and then pretend nothing happened. Would’ve been funny seeing the guards trying to explain everything then, mind tricks.

Also, thinking about Nobuyuki and Ieyasu, giving him Ina is surely another plan. No matter what the case, your wife will sway your decision even if it’s by a little, that’s still advantageous. Even if she says she doesn’t care, you’ll still care about her, reminds me of Sun Shang Xiang and Liu Bei.

I’m surprised Kotaro hasn’t done anything this episode. But surely now with Hidetada as the shogun, he can make more impactful moves with manipulation. By the looks of things he doesn’t want peace, understandable, like what I said with Yukimura, many of the warriors will find it difficult to go to a time of peace. He’s probably one of those who wants the war times to continue. So, the big question is, how will he fan the fires of war. He has a pretty influential figure to whisper words to. Most likely, to advance on the Toyotomi.