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.”

Spoilers follow for Shōgun finale “A Dream of a Dream.” 

Tadanobu Asano’s Lord Yabushige was always good for a laugh, especially when the character’s sarcastic humor met his morbid obsession with death. Amid Shōgun’s threat of impending nationwide war in Japan and the political maneuvering of his liege lord, Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), Yabushige ranking expiry avenues was an absurdist dalliance. When he tells an underling to include a character’s death in “our book,” ranked “lower than boiling, but higher than eaten by dogs,” whatever initial revulsion may be provoked by such dispassionate tabulation is quickly overwhelmed by curiosity about what other demises he’s collected in there, and the certainty that Yabushige would gladly tell you all about them over sake.

But there’s no jocularity in finale “A Dream of a Dream,” when Yabushige is ordered to perform seppuku for his betrayal of Toranaga. 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.

Asano’s ability to deliver a macabre turn of phrase with impish energy made him a scene-stealer and fan favorite, an astonishing turn for a man who begins the season by boiling another alive. 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. In Yabushige and Toranaga’s final scene together, Asano and Sanada drop their characters’s respective masks of braggadocio and staidness for a conversation that reveals each man’s secret heart.

“He could possibly think he’s correct and what he’s doing is right, but then maybe what he’s doing or what he’s thinking may not be suitable to the people around him,” Asano says of Yabushige’s choices. “As a result, he probably is not accepted or he’s probably not liked, but he doesn’t intentionally try to be bad. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want to be loved.”

You’ve said that to prepare for Shōgun, you read episodes first as Yabushige, then from the viewpoint of a different character. How did that change your perspective on Yabushige?
I enjoy that type of preparation time the most. I sit in my room all by myself, and read the script many, many times to explore various different possibilities of how I could possibly perform this character. It’s quite a time-consuming process, but I am really, truly enjoying it. Whether you are able to see it on screen or not, this preparation gets into my acting as it is finally being shot by the director. It includes me thinking about, after capturing a certain scene, what would those two people do? Would they be taking a bath together? Would they be conversing together? With Blackthorne, he and Yabushige may not be able to converse in English, so what would they have done? The relationship between Yabushige and Toranaga — even though Toranaga is thinking that I could be somebody who betrayed him, what about the scene where those two men watch the sunrise together? That imagination time may not be captured in the filming, but it gives you the freedom to really construct this character. Whatever has been provided in the screenplay is exactly the source of my imagination.

What did you think of as Yabushige’s core quality? Not necessarily speaking from the script, but your own idea of his essence?
I find this person full of interest. He’s always curious, almost like a child. He wants to try this and that. A child wants to kill an ant, not really thinking about the consequences — simply because the child is interested. And the same thing can be said for Yabushige. What would happen if you boiled a person in a pot? Simply because he wants to try that and he has the ability to do that, he would end up doing that.

What was your reaction reading about Yabushige’s death in the finale?
In the beginning, I didn’t really know what my life was going to be at the end of the story. Around the time when I was doing the seventh and eighth episodes, I was given the script for the final episode, and after reading the script and finding out that he’s going to die, I was able to accept that. From the opposite perspective, I appreciate the fact that I was able to survive that long!

Was there anything about preparing for the scene that was difficult?
I don’t think that there was any particular difficulty, but I find it quite interesting that I was able to discover some very serious elements of Yabushige. In how he faces his death at the end, I found that he really appreciates the people around him. An example would be Omi, and another example would be Igarashi, who was very close to him, and whose head was delivered to Yabushige. To Omi, he honestly expressed the feeling, Of course I will be dying, but Omi, you have your own life, which is going on. Even the relationship between him and Blackthorne — even though his attitude toward Blackthorne may not have been something that was pleasant, I could imagine if he didn’t die, he might have been able to build a better relationship with him.

What was the atmosphere on set like for your seppuku scene?
I remember the staff around me were all very considerate while watching us. We took the necessary amount of takes, but not in such a way that we had to do it again and again. I remember that scene being very smoothly done, and I was able to die in a very calm environment.

Have you done seppuku onscreen before? How was this scene different?
I have actually experienced quite a number of unique kinds of seppuku. But mine have been quite different from that of Yabushige-san — they didn’t follow the formality of the seppuku. But this time I found myself able to face the seppuku in a very gracious, or maybe I should say gallant, manner.

Before Yabushige dies, he and Toranaga have a long conversation about Toranaga’s secret plan, and Yabushige says to him, “You’re no better than us, in your secret heart.” Did you think about what might have been in Yabushige’s secret heart in those final minutes?
I think he considers himself to be a person who may not necessarily come up with a great or super idea. However, he has a very animal-like instinct. That is the reason why he tells Omi to really seriously think about living. And I think he understands that Blackthorne is a person who is quite different from any other Christian people around at that time, and he probably thinks it’s actually a great idea to incorporate some of the ideas coming not just from Japan, but from the rest of the world.

The series’s writers and costume department have described Yabushige as a “rock star” and have compared him with David Bowie because of his outfits, like his black-swan-feather jinbaori. Did you know about that vision for Yabushige before filming began?
Every time I looked at Yabushige’s costume, I was a bit surprised. Is this my costume? Is that my helmet? I was told, “We want Yabushige to be like a rock star,” and it was fun for me to find that out because I thought, If Yabushige has already been imagined by others in this way, maybe it’s fine for me to enjoy that. If he were to live in current society, I think he would have been a wonderful jam-session performer because he is really able to react to people around him. He is able to get going with whatever vibe is surrounding him.

I would pay to see him in concert. Yabushige’s relationship with Blackthorne really evolves over the course of the season. Is there a scene you and Cosmo Jarvis worked on together that you think went particularly well?
In episode nine, “Crimson Sky,” Yabushige and Blackthorne are going to see Ishido, and  Yabushige introduces Blackthorne as “This is my tribute.” I am fond of that scene. Even though some of the scenes we filmed are not in the episode, through the process of making that scene, I think Cosmo being a musician, as well as myself being a musician, there was some very interesting chemistry between us that we were able to enjoy. I think there is something that we are able to share, both being musicians, and I think there is some side of Cosmo which he may not be able to express with the others, but helped us have a special kind of moment.

Can you talk about those deleted scenes?
Whatever is not necessary has been cut. However, we are filming all that. Even though the scene is not there in the final story, and even though people may not be able to see it, we have gone through the process, which means that it’s still there. Some of the cut scene was the two of us going to see Ishido-sama, and Yabushige is telling Blackthorne, “You should not be stepping on this particular part of the tatami,” and talking and talking to him. That part is not there, but still it’s there in the way that we have gone through the process, and then the next scene follows. I don’t have any sort of scene that I wish had been there. If it’s unnecessary, it should be cut off. But I don’t believe that scene is completely cut off, because it’s still there.

You and Hiroyuki Sanada have appeared in a number of projects together, including 1993’s Nemuranai Machi: Shinjuku Same, 2013’s 47 Ronin, 2020’s Minamata, and 2021’s Mortal Kombat. What do you remember from the first time you worked together, and how would you compare that experience with working together again on Shōgun?
I was 19 when I met him for the very first time for Nemuranai Machi: Shinjuku Same. I was not a well-known actor, but Sanada-san was very generous. He had an ear to listen to my ideas and I was able to completely depend on him. The next one I remember is 47 Ronin, in which the relationship between the two of us is quite similar to that of Shōgun. I was a bad person, but I was able to really express myself simply because Sanada-san was there. But I remember thinking at that time, This is not going to be the end. I still really want to further explore and I want to do even more. Sanada-san started living in the States and he was making a lot of effort to build up his career. And then came Shōgun, and I really wanted to make sure that I was able to 100 percent express myself in this performance, and I think the same was for Sanada-san.

Looking back at the very first time, when I was 19, I once again kind depended on him. But at the same time, I was determined that I would be able to put out everything that I had, and expose myself. And I think, once again, Sanada-san was willing to accept what I was trying to do. The last moments of the finale episode, if it had not been myself and Sanada-san, we may not have been able to create such an atmosphere. I am extremely appreciative of him, and at the same time, I was really happy that I was able to do that with him.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.