The first episode of FX‘s new drama Shōgun drops us in the thick of 1600 Japan. Through the eyes of English navigator John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), we look on at the people of Anjiro, a fictional fishing village in Izo, with a combination of awe and horror. Everything is ultra civilized, clean, and ordered, but, you know, a samurai can still just behead a dude out of nowhere.

**Spoilers for Shōgun Episode 1 “Anjin,” now streaming on Hulu**

Halfway through Shōgun Episode 1 “Anjin,” we discover that Izo’s ruling daimyo Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) has a unique obsession with death and torture. He singles out a surviving member of Blackthorne’s Dutch crew to literally boil alive. The screams of the dying man disturb even the local villagers, but Yabu, as he’s known as, is fixated on listening for the moment a man faces death. “It’s the closest he can get,” Izu’s most prized courtesan Kiku (Yuka Kouri) murmurs right before she meets Yabu. It’s this insight into her customer’s psyche that gives the sex worker and the ensuing scene — Shōgun‘s first sex scene — power.

Shōgun‘s first major sex scene, wherein Kiku quickly figures out the way to please Yabu is to cuckold him, is a stunning introduction for the courtesan. It not only establishes that sex workers are valued in this culture, but the secret reason they truly command respect. Kiku might be empirically beautiful. She might have mastered the graceful ceremonies associated with seduction. She might even know exactly how to slyly smile as she declares it’s her honor to serve and duty to please. However the reason Kiku is so in-demand as a courtesan is because of her talent of reading people. This gives her significant power in a culture where everyone’s dissembling their true motives.
Photo: FX

Maybe, as Rodriguez (Nestor Carbonell) says, the people of Japan have three hearts, but Shōgun Episode 1 “Anjin” establishes that Kiku can cut through all of them.

Shōgun is based on the best-selling James Clavell novel of the same name, but the new FX show shifts the focus of the story early on away from John Blackthorne and onto the many brilliant Japanese characters who go on to play major roles in the book. Political power player Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) has been outmaneuvered by his nemesis Ishido (Takehiro Hira) and is looking for any way to wiggle out of a swiftly approaching death sentence for himself and his vassals. Blackthorne’s arrival becomes that slight edge. Blackthorne’s ship, Erasmus, has valuable canons which can be used in battle. But more importantly, the Protestant Blackthorne offers a wider view of the world than the Catholic Portuguese who have Japan in their chokehold.

However, Toranaga isn’t the first person to see Blackthorne’s worth. As soon as Blackthorne’s ship is discovered on the coast of Anjiro, local samurai Kashigi Omi (Hiroto Kanai) presents Erasmus and her wealth, weapons, and surviving crew as gifts to his uncle Yabu. But that’s not all Omi gives his uncle. He also calls upon Kiku’s services.

Photo: FX
We’re not only told that Kiku is the most revered courtesan in Izu, but shown this through the courtesy every character gives her. Yabu’s young retainer seems dazzled by her. So much so that he not only apologizes for his master’s little stunt with the boiling water, but can’t keep his eyes off her when she’s presented to Yabu. The daimyo seemingly takes more notice of this than Kiku herself. At which point, Kiku draws the young man near, embracing him while looking right at Yabu.

At first, Yabu is confused. Kiku asks simply if she should stop. The answer is to keep going.

Soon, Kiku has undressed both herself and the boy. She leaves a trail of kisses down the young man’s chest before going to work pleasuring him. The whole time she watches Yabu and Yabu, grinning with his drink, watches her. She has unlocked that Yabu is a man who gets off imagining himself in other men’s shoes, be they approaching death, ruling a larger fiefdom, or in the arms of a graceful courtesan.
Photo: FX
Intriguingly, this scene is an ever-so-slight departure from what actually happens in James Clavell’s original novel. Kiku and a boy enter the book version of Yabu’s room, only for him to ask them both to lay next to him, pleasuring and hurting him at the same time. At least, that’s my read on it. Clavell is vague, but it’s clear Yabu’s fetish surprises both Kiku and the boy, not to mention all of Anjiro. There’s gossip that Yabu himself wants to use his teeth to hurt Kiku and she fans these rumors by feigning soreness she doesn’t feel.