After the performance ends, members of the court bow in respect as Lord Ukyo and his family, including his favorite concubine Lady Renko, are leaving.

His servants are dismissed, and only his young niece, Rio, is left to feed and care for him since his wife died years earlier from sickness.

Flashbacks reveal how Lady Renko had upset senior officials of the court, including Lord Ukyo's chief advisor Minbu Tsuda, by interfering with efforts to reduce unnecessary expenses such as lavish clothes for her and her ladies-in-waiting, insisting that taxes on the clan's farmers be raised even in the midst of a devastating famine, and diverting large sums of money towards the renovation of a decrepit temple controlled by her family.

Hayatonosho Obiya, a senior military commander, is horrified to discover that Lady Renko arranged for the execution of several peasants and the public display of their heads for daring to present Lord Ukyo with a petition to stop collecting taxes.

Tsuda secretly confides in Kanemi that his service as a bodyguard is in fact part of a larger strategy to deal with Obiya, who has become disillusioned with Lord Ukyo's rule and plans to remove him from power and replace him with his own handpicked daimyo.

Another flashback reveals that Tsuda made a promise to Lord Ukyo that once Kanemi had dealt with Obiya, he would see to it that he was executed for Lady Renko's murder.

Lord Ukyo panics and hides as his samurai repeatedly stab Kanemi while he quietly kneels and dies, a look of peace on his face.