That played out pretty much along the lines I predicted based on episode 8. It seems like we’re setting up for a kind of quintessential read the manga ending here, given how obviously what we’re seeing play out is basically the prologue. But given how unlikely it was that Oooku was ever going to get an adaptation in the first place, we’re probably going to have to be grateful for that. And at the very least Oooku’s structure does lend itself to giving each arc a sense of completion.
It would take more than this to make me feel much sympathy for Kasuga – and I didn’t. She’s basically a pretty terrible person, but there’s no denying she was the key figure of this arc in more ways than not. Trying to keep the old order together was a fruitless cause but it’s remarkable she managed to keep up appearances as well as she did for as long as she did. Now, dying of old age (65 was really old in this age), being ignored by Yajime the wet nurse who never wanted any part of taking care of her, she must rely on Arikoto to see to her daily needs. She refuses her meds on the basis of the pledge she made after Iemitsu’s father died, and waits for the end with an air of resignation.
Kasuga is lucky that Arikoto is as kind as he is, but that applies to pretty much everybody. As I’ve said before he walks the walk – Arikoto is no hypocrite. And when the red-face smallpox comes to the palace, striking Sutezou and his servants, Arikoto winds up taking them under his care (in Kasuga’s sickroom) too. Sutezou certainly has a pretty cursed existence after blundering into fathering a princess, and going out this way seems fitting somehow. Despite there being no risk to her, Iemitsu not even coming to see him one last time doesn’t respect especially well on her.
Kasuga isn’t far behind him. She despatches her son to keep writing the journal he was keeping for her benefit, and to call it “Chronicle of the Dying Day”. She orders Arikoto to take over the administration of the Oooku, which he was always fated to do. And with her passing, the council of six finally admits what was obvious – the facade has collapsed. It’s time for female daimyou and what’s more, for the secret about Iemitsu herself to be revealed. If Japan is to survive (and we know from the premiere that it will), it can no longer do so pretending the the old world still exists. But acknowledging that reality is one thing – how does a nation survive when women outnumber men five-to-one?
