Lady Ochiba is holding a grudge against Lord Toranaga in FX’s Shogun that goes back to when she was a young girl.

The historical drama (now streaming on Hulu) has been a political roller coaster, weaving a complicated narrative web across its ten episodes that has thrust audiences back into time to 17th-century Japan.

Throughout the series, its cast has sat in this morally gray area with everyone coming with personal motivations, allegiances, and rivalries – all of which constantly change from episode to episode.

Why Does Ochiba Hate Toranaga in Shogun?

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Since coming back into the fray in Shogun Episode 6, Lady Ochiba (played by Fumi Nikaido) has had it out for Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada).

The character began the series as a captive of Toranaga’s being held in the palatial city of Edo.

However, the Japanese aristocrat makes her way back to the capital of Osaka, taking control of the Lord Regent council and putting pressure on the group to bring the ousted Lord Toranaga to justice.

Since then, the Lady has demonstrated she will not hold anything back in her conquest to take down Toranaga, launching what has amounted to a full-scale assault on the Lord both personally and politically.

The reason for the hate Ochiba has harbored toward Toranagadates back to when she was a young girl.

This is because she believes Toranaga was behind the death of her father and the former Daimyo, Kuroda Nobuhisa.

Throughout the series, it has slowly been revealed that Mariko (Anna Sawai), the close collaborator to Toranaga and translator to John Blackthorne, and Ochiba were once close friends.
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This relationship became strained though as Mariko’s father Akechi Jinsai killed Nobuhisa-sama, something Ochiba believes was orchestrated by Toranaga as he aims to grab power for himself.

With the death of Ochiba’s father, came the revocation of her royal status. This sent the Lady on a quest to reinstate her family name in the annals of Japanese history.

She eventually volunteered to mother Japan’s child heir after the Taiko and his wife were suffering from infertility problems. Since Ochiba gave birth to the eventual heir, she was thrust back into a position of power and will do everything to hold onto it.

Because of this desperation to keep Japan’s political happenings within her clutches, the emergence of Toranaga as a detractor of the current ruling regime sent her into a flurry.

This has seen her pull the strings on the events that include the death of Toranaga’s son, Yoshii Nagakado, an assassination attempt on Lady Mariko, and much more; simply so she can wipe Hiroyuki Sanada’s character off the board.