“Do not be fooled by our politeness. Our bows, our maze of rituals.  Beneath it all, we could be a great distance away,” Mariko said to Blacktorne after she explained what the Eightfold Fence is, but by the end of the episode, Mariko is not lost in the depths of her mind.  Mariko is well rooted in the present moment after Cannons have been fired on Jozen’s men and Jozen is decapitated by Nagakado.  Mariko vocalizes the inevitable and what is known to all, “it is war.”

The eightfold fence is the titled name for Episode 4 of the FX series Shogun.  The eightfold fence is a means to escape reality.  To be present but distant.  Lost in one’s mind almost as if they are in a dream but awake.  

The eightfold fence is a dichotomy of two worlds wrapped around each other, like how Japanese and western culture are fusing together in the episode.  Blackthorne is a tornado of emotions raging, kicking, and storming off in the rain when he learns that he must stay in Japan for six months and serve Toranaga.  

At the same time, Fuji is ordered to be Blackthorne’s consort while she is grieving for her dead husband and child.  She is asked to take up her husband’s service by serving in his place. Fuji follows Blackthorne everywhere he goes, she oversees his affairs and finances but what she does is give Blackthorne’s title of Hatamoto weight since it’s his job to train Yabushige’s men in western war tactics.  

Fuji’s importance is made clear to Blackthorne when Yabushige’s men want to take away Blackthorne pistols.  Blackthorne stands with both his pistols cocked and Yabushige’s men have their swords unshielded, and Fuji extinguishes the situation when she gets Blackthorne to hand over a pistol and aims it at Yabushige’s men.  Fuji serves through her willingness to lay down her life for a barbarian.  Fuji is born into a noble family and killing her would have dire consequences for Yabushige and his men.  

Fuji’s heroism defuses the situation and Blackthorne’s anger and the episode shifts, flipping the balance between tranquility and war.  The balance of tranquility and war is flipped through the lessons taught and learned by the characters in the episode.

Blackthorne continues to learn about Japanese custom, cuisine, and the language while Yabushige learns about how accurately cannons can reign destruction and death on adversaries.  

Blackthorne gifts Fuji a pistol and Fuji gifts Blackthorne her father’s swords.  Mariko encourages Blackthorne to wear the swords as a sign of respect to Fuji’s lineage and to Fuji in her role as consort.  The exchange of gifts tilts the perspective each has of each other and begins the process of stripping away at the apprehension both feel about each other and their situation.  

Meanwhile there are plans of treachery in Yabushige’s camp as Yabushige tries to keep his deceit of Toranaga hidden.  Yabushige’s deceit opens the door for his nephew-Omi-to lay the groundwork for his own deceit of Yabushige. 

 Mariko and Blackthorne become romantically involved and Nagakado is manipulated by Omi to act against Ajiro leading to Ajiro’s death. 

In all these instances we see the balance between love and war, honor and betrayal.  Yabushige has to hide his deceit from Toranaga but Tornaga’s escape leads to Ishido sending Jozen to Yabushige’s village in Ajiro to inform Yabushige that he is to return to Osaka. 

 A return to Osaka means that Yabushige will have to commit Seppuku. Yabushige must convince Jozen that Yabushige has fealty to Ishido instead of Toranaga. 

Yabushige convinces Jozen to spend the night so that Yabushige can demonstrate the force of the cannons. He makes the case that the cannons will be used against Toranaga and that Ajiro must witness their destruction and return to Osaka with a full detail of the weapon and its capabilities.  

The decision to wait until the next day puts the audience in a precarious situation because Jozen interrupts Blackstone as he is about to do a demonstration.  Blackstone is preparing the cannons for a lesson, but Yabushige convinces Jozen to stay and quells Nagakado’s request that Yabushige demonstrate his loyalty to Toranaga by getting rid of Ajiro and his men.  

Sunrise will expose Yabushige’s betrayal before he is ready to make his move against Toranaga but Omi-Yabushige’s nephew-is able to coerce Nagakado to act against Jozen before his uncle is exposed.  

Omi’s manipulation of Nagakado is influenced by Omi being manipulated by the courtesan Kiku who whispers the idea of Omi being in charge instead of Yabushige into Omi’s ear.  

Kiku does not illicit the feelings of love from the audience as she does from Omi.  Kiku is highly skilled and appears to be pulling the strings of Omi for her own benefit or for an unknown Daimyo.  

The following morning on the training ground, the sound of cannons echoes through the air as cannon balls rip through Jozen’s men.  Nagakado and his men are not on the field but far in the distance firing the cannons in the direction of Blackstone, Mariko, Yabushige and Jozen as they enter the training ground. Bodies and limbs are shattered with accuracy as the cannon balls hit Jozen and his men.  

Yabushige can disguise his treachery but the death of Jozen while he was a guest of Yabushige and Taranga’s escape while hiding amongst Yabushige’s party has pulled him closer to Toranaga and farther from Ishido.  Omi’s actions appear to be placing Yabushige in a position where he might end up being a ronin with no allegiance to any Daimyo.   Yabushige’s treachery has surrounded him with enemies.  

At the heart of the episode and beyond the politics is the influence that cultures have on each other.  The eightfold fence serves as the calm within the storm and the storm is constant.  Fuji is stoic on the outside but there is torment within.  The eightfold fence allows her to do her duty, to honor her husband, son and family lineage and the only reason why Blackthorne knows anything about Fuji’s chaos is because Mariko tells him.  

Blackthorne learns about how Mariko and Fuji can carry on and move in silence while he teaches the men how to rip men from limbs.  He teaches them how to cut down armies. 

Ajari’s death brings the dichotomy of adopting war tactics.  Ajari is willing to witness what the new weapon can do because of the promise that it can be used on his enemies but when it’s used on him and he is lying in the battlefield, he protests that this death is not an honorable death.  It is not an honorable death because it was an ambush and not a battle.  An honorable death is a warrior’s death, a death on the battlefield.  

Nagakado utilizes what he learned but also builds on the knowledge of how to fire the cannons by using an ambush as a tactic.  

Blackthorne lessons are pulling Japan away from its customs and rituals as Japan’s lessons on him are pulling him closer to them.  

Japan is learning to apply total war by any means necessary and Nagakado learned that in his thirst for power and to show his value, it is better to live by killing with dishonor than to die with honor.