In March 1865, Kichinosuke goes to Kyoto to ask KONOE Tadafusa, Minister of the Interior to ease Sankin Kotai system but it is difficult as long as HITOTSUBASHI Yoshinobu waits upon Emperor Kōmei. At that moment, a letter from IWAKURA Tomomi is delivered to Tadahiro but he pays no attention to it and says his writing is so poor. Then Kichinosuke asks ŌKUBO Ichizō to take him to Iwakura Village where he lives now. Tomomi is from a low-level aristocrat family but formerly serves the emperor closely and arranged the marriage of Kazunomiya, Princess Chikako and TOKUGAWA Iemochi.
Kichinosuke (Ryōhei Suzuki, centre) asks ŌKUBO Ichizō (Eita, left) to make him meet Iwakura Tomomi
Therefore he a powerful figure in Kōbu-gattai movement, reconciliation between the Imperial Court and the shogunate. But he was denounced by some radical aristocrats later and was forced to live in seclusion. As some radical ronins still try to kill him, there are clapper and some traps around his house to catch assassins. However Kichinosuke is not aware of it and is trapped despite the warining of Ichizō and they are trapped together after all. Tomomi invites them in and cooks his meal by himself to avoid being poisoned and shares his meal with the visitors. Kichinosuke shows him his letter delivered to Tadahiro that says there will be no social statues and the period of samurais will end soon.
They are panicked with the traps around the house of Tomomi
The idea is quite alike to that of his former lord SHIMAZU Nariakira but
unlike him, Tommomi always beg for money from whomever he talks about his idea. He who calls himself "yamori (gecko)" (*) then stands up and make some men to prepare a gambling room. As was common at that time, many aristocrats were poor and he offered his residence as gambling house to gamblers and lived on the rent. He also does the same thing here. As Tomomi presses Kichonosuke to join the gambling using two dices (chō-han tobaku), he places a bet but cannot win while a man who covers hie head with cloth wins at play repeatedly. It is KATSURA Kogorō who is a wanted man now.
Iwakura Tomomi (SHŌFUKUTEI Tsurube) begs for money from whomever he talks about his idea
Though he thanks Kichinosuke for having finished the subjucation of Chōshū without fighting, he emphasises that he has no will of making friends with him and refuses the alliance of Satsuma and Chōshū. Besides he defames Satsuma and it makes Ichizō angry. They draw their swords to fight each other (**) but Tomomi appears there and stops them. Especially if Kogorō causes bloodshed, he will be arrested and executed in the worst case. Both Kogorō and Ichizō leave there respectively but Tomomi makes Kichinosuke stay at his home and be his direct servant as he spent much money in the gambling.
Ichizō says abolishing the shogunate is impossible when he leaves there but Tomomi says,
"Only God knows the roll of the dice".
Katsura Kogorō (Tetsuji Tamayama, right) refuses the offer of the alliance of Satsuma and Chōshū
At the same time, two rōjū MATSUDAIRA Munehide and ABE Masato visit Yoshinobu and hand him a letter of Tokugawa Iemochi. Yoshinobu realises that Iemochi plans to make him separate from the emperor and tears the letter. Then he tells them that he will not leave Kyoto. And Fuki is given many foreign goods includes soap from him but she looks depressed. She knows that Yoshinobu takes care of her but he says her look reminds him of that of Kichinosuke so their relationship becomes cold. And in Iwakura Village, Kichinosuke finds kariginu (***) and some letters to the famous people while he cleans Tomomi's house. He reads one of the letters secretly and encourages Tomomi to suggest this idea to the emperor.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu (Shōta Matsuda) reads a letter from Tokugawa Iemochi that urges him to return to Edo
This kariginu and letters prove that Tomomi has not given up on serving the emperor. But he gets desperate. Kichinosuke tells him about his experience as exile and he felt he was made to live then but he never listens to his words and tells him to return. He returns to the residence of Satsuma domain with the letters and is told by Ichizō that they should be read by many people. After that Ichizō visits Tomomi to redeem the debt Kichinosuke owes and says this is his last visit (****). At that time, he hears some men talking outside his house.
Kanemaru (Kōhei Fukuyama, second from the right), second son of Tomomi meets his father and tells him he and his brother were pardoned
They are Kichinosuke and other samurais who serve Satsuma domain who are impressed with the letters and hopes to hear about how Tomomi thinks. But Tomomi who appears in front of them says it's false. At that moment, his second son Kanemaru appears and tells his father that he and his brother were pardoned (*****). Then Tomomi cleans up his behaviour and says loudly towards the Imperial Palace,
"Your Majesty, your vassal Iwakura Tomomi is safe and sound".
And he let the samurais enter the house but he charges admission fee first.
(*) As Tomomi thinks how to earn money to realise his idea at midnight, he compares himself to the nocturnal animal. And the Japansese word yamori means that who guards a house.
(**)
Kogorō is a master of Shindō Munen-ryū,
and Ichizō learned Yakumaru Jiken-ryū.
(***)
everyday clothes of the aristocrats in Heian Period but became a full-dress later.
NAGAO Kagetora (left) wears kariginu in "Fūrin Kazan" set in the 16th century.
(****)
Ichizō seems to hint that Kichinosuke will visit him from next time.
(*****)
Kanemaru and his brother were forced to live in seclusion also.
The images are from the official website of "Segodon" and the DVD series of "Fūrin Kazan".
