Toranaga-sama promised Blackthorne a fief near Kanagawa, worth 600 koku (24000 dry gallons of rice). Kanagawa is a province that currently includes the city of Yokohama as well as the Joint Japanese-American Naval base of Yokosuka, south of Edo or Modern day Tokyo.
Tameshigiri is the Japanese art of target test cutting. This technique involves cutting the sword on animals, bamboo, or sometimes cadavers to assess the sword's sharpness, efficiency, and cutting ability. A very specialized case of Tameshigiri is called Tsujigiri, or "crossroads killing," the act of killing a random person as to test one's skills or sword. The two-body- and three-body-blade categories were determined by tests on actual human targets. But these targets were criminals convicted by the judicial authority, not innocent peasants chosen on a whim. And they were also already dead by the time the sword was tested. That's how the swordsmiths were able to stack bodies on top of each other in order to perform the test.
A monme is a unit of currency and traditionally equaled a certain weight of silk.
The phrase No Kata, as in Kiri No Kata and Ochiba No Kata, means 'the direction.' or the person who lives there. Moreover, Ochiba means "fallen leaves", therefore her full name is the "Room of the Fallen Leaves".
A naginata is a long pole with a sharp, curved sword blade on one end. It is a traditional Japanese blade and polearm that was originally used by the samurai class of feudal Japan, especially among women. The word "naginata" means "reaping sword" or "mowing down sword". The blade can be 1-3 feet long and is sharpened on one side. The naginata is commonly believed to have evolved from a farming tool used for chopping.