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Shōgun’s Tadanobu Asano Had to Consider Every Side of Yabushige
“He would have been a wonderful jam-session performer because he is able to get going with whatever vibe is surrounding him.”
When he uses his death poem to instruct his nephew and heir Omi (Hiroto Kanai) to leave his body in a field for canine consumption, Yabushige’s choice to embrace what he had previously categorized as a lowly demise means his jokes, like his life, have come to an end. The actor establishes such a core of relatable self-preservation for Yabushige that the regret, guilt, and self-destruction the character tumbles into after his treachery leads to Mariko’s death is more pitiable than contemptible. After Toranaga rejects Yabushige’s pleading requests for “a good death … being torn apart by cannon or eaten alive by a school of angry fish,” Asano closes out the character’s arc by replacing his casual confidence and sly caginess with unexpected introspection and melancholy.
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