There’s an inexplicable second within the latest episode of Shōgun that I merely can’t shake. It’s not one of many many historic or political plots—and this scene has nothing to do with some side of seventeenth-century Japanese tradition that my TikTok-warped mind merely can’t comprehend. At this level, I’m well-versed within the Tokugawa shogunate, from its real-life historical past all the way down to the Game of Thrones–esque energy struggles on the brand new FX drama.
But there’s one factor that makes completely no sense: Why did a person die for touching a rotting pheasant?
In episode 5, Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) presents John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) a recreation chicken. Wanting to age the pheasant, Johnny B. hangs it in entrance of his home. He tells everybody that whoever touches it would die…not understanding how actually his home will take these orders. When the pheasant begins to stink, there’s a home assembly to determine who eliminated it—which ends up in the dying of Uejiro, the gardener?!? Blackthorne is pissed when he hears about it. “You put that old man to death?” he yells. “What the hell is wrong with you?” He complains to Toranaga that his tradition is just too unforgiving, however we are able to’t let Blackthorne off the hook for making his home scent rancid. Who is in charge right here? Someone on this room must be the loopy one. Is it Uejiro? Is it Blackthorne? Is it me? Well, I needed to resolve this mess.
Okay, so let’s enhance my nonexistent data about how one can age wild birds. According to Field & Stream, it’s regular to let pheasants mature, untouched, for a pair days in situations of 40 to 50 levels Fahrenheit. The decaying course of not solely makes it simpler to pores and skin and feather the chicken, but it surely additionally tenderizes the meat. Animals expertise rigor mortis within the twenty-four hours after they die, which causes a tightening of the muscle tissues that may result in harder meat. That’s no bueno. Since it’s winter on Shōgun and the chicken was hanging for less than two or three days at most earlier than it was eliminated, I’d say that Blackthorne knew what he was doing. (Yes, these are all sentences that I didn’t assume I’d write once I stepped into the workplace at present.)
There’s only one downside: The chicken stinks! It smells so rattling dangerous that Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe) asks if somebody died in the home. Flies be a part of the get together, and the city is compelled to carry a gathering simply to resolve how one can correctly eliminate the factor. This can’t be good for the poor chicken. Naturally, wildlife consultants agree. When you’re coping with a decaying animal, the feathers ought to act as a pure defend to guard and insulate the pores and skin. If the chicken is stored in the precise setting—similar to a fridge, a chilly basement, or a shed—harmful micro organism received’t spoil the meat. Somehow Blackthorne’s chicken nonetheless reeks. Field & Stream explains: “[If there is] the strong smell of guts coming from it, I get those birds cleaned and rinsed quickly. Otherwise my birds get hung in the garage for anywhere from three to seven days, depending on the temperature outside.”
Maybe Toranaga’s falcon is in charge for killing the pheasant within the first place.
So perhaps Blackthorne didn’t fully know what he was doing in any case? I’d normally give him the it’s the 12 months 1600! cross, however I can’t think about that many individuals would’ve survived E. coli again then. Later within the episode, Mariko (Anna Sawai) tells him that head villager Muraji (Yasunari Takeshima) held a gathering to resolve what to do with the pheasant because it was inflicting such an olfactory disturbance. Muraji, in the event you recall, is the city’s lead fisherman and the carrier-pigeon handler. If you’re telling me that the man who offers with fish and pigeons all day has a difficulty with the scent, then we actually have an issue on our fingers.
Still, it’s fascinating that the city acts with out Blackthorne’s permission. No one strikes a finger on this sequence with out an order from Toranaga—and but they kill a man as a result of some Englishman who barely is aware of Japanese informed them to? “Why in Christ’s name didn’t you ask me?” Blackthorne exclaims after he finds out that Uejiro was killed. Maybe he would’ve modified his thoughts! He clearly didn’t know precisely what he stated. The man barely is aware of to not eat one thing that stinks!
I’m undecided if this story clears up the pheasant fiasco for anybody. It appears, actually, that everybody concerned is certainly insane. Now a minimum of I do know it wasn’t me.
