Shōgun (novel)

James Clavell’s novel Shōgun (1975) is based on events and figures of 1600 Japan as the Azuchi–Momoyama period neared its end as the Edo period was about to begin. The third book published but the first chronologically placed, in Clavell's six-volume Asian Saga, by 1980 it had sold six million copies worldwide. The novel has been adapted into two television miniseries (1980 and 2024), a stage production (Shōgun: The Musical), as well as one board game and three video games.

Premise
Shōgun begins when Japan has had no Shogun (central ruler) for nearly three decades while rent by dynastic clashes, as well as meddled with politically and militarily by Catholic Portugal, their first and sole European trading partner for over 50 years. Further complicating the situation is a newly arrived ship from Protestant Holland tasked to take trade from the Portuguese. Based on events in the months before the Battle of Sekigahara—pivotal to the Shogunate restoration—Shogun ends with the battle's aftermath. The main protagonist is an English Protestant Pilot John Blackthorne.

Plot
The Dutch ship Erasmus has been secretly sent to Japan to take over Portugal's lucrative East Asian trade. After much of its crew, including its captain, had died, it ends up marooned in Izu Harbor; making them the first Protestants to reach Japan.

The ship, its armaments, records, and coin are seized, with the surviving crew held captive by Yabu, Izu's daimyō (lord). Yabu wishes to keep his good fortune a secret, but a spy alerts his liege Toranaga, Lord of the Kantō and President of the Council of Regents, of the ship’s arrival. Seeing the Erasmus as a possible provider of advantages against Lord Ishido, his chief rival in the Council, Toranaga has the navigator Blackthorne brought to him in Osaka.

Toranaga's meeting with Blackthorne is faithfully translated by a Portuguese Jesuit, Father Alvito, despite revelations of war between Catholic Portugal and Elizabethan England. Until then Toranaga was unaware that Christendom was so divided.

To sequester Blackthorne from the other regents, he is imprisoned with a Franciscan friar who teaches Blackthorne rudimentary Japanese and of how the Jesuits' rōnin (mercenaries) invaded Japan and launched violent agitations to profit the Portuguese crown. Before the two Catholic regents, urged on by the Jesuits, can have him executed, Blackthorne is abducted in transit and returned to Toranaga.

Lady Toda Mariko (a Jesuit-educated Catholic loyal to Toranaga, not her church) faithfully translates to Toranaga Blackthorne's account of the Pope granting Portugal colonial rights to Japan and East Asia in return for replacement of all non-Catholic lords, including Toranaga, with those loyal to Portugal and Rome. He also reveals that Catholic rōnin recently invaded Japan from a secret Jesuit base in Macau.

A taken aback Toranaga halts the departure of Portugal's trading ship; upsetting the other regents, who besides once again failing to assassinate Blackthorne, try to force Toranaga to commit seppuku. Instead he resigns from the council and flees Osaka. Aided by Blackthorne’s clownish antics, he, Toranaga, Mariko and others of his court make it to a safer Anjiro.

In Anjiro Blackthorne’s grasp of Japanese speech and customs improves, but he is still disparaged as a leader of uncouth European rabble. Regardless, he advances socially by teaching how to fire cannons with greater accuracy, and by rescuing Toranaga from underneath rubble after an earthquake. A grateful Toranaga elevates him to the high samurai rank of hatamoto. In turn Blackthorne raises his regard for Toranaga and for Mariko, a key part of his inner circle with whom he secretly has an affair. A chance encounter with Blackthorne's old crew finds them revolted by his Japanese ways, and he by the European character of their coarseness.

To deflect suspicions Toranaga feigns to all, except Mariko, acquiescence towards Ishido and professes no desire to do battle. When Toranaga's half-brother Zataki, who has allied with Ishido, arrives, Toranaga apparently surrenders, but he has Mariko re-enter Osaka with the intention to lay bare Ishido’s holding of noble households hostage. When, as planned, Mariko moves to exit Osaka, Ishido's men respond with violence until an intentionally unharmed Mariko gives up on leaving. Saying she has been dishonored, Mariko vows to kill herself the next day. She does almost end her life, but in a delaying gambit, Ishido grants her leave at the last minute. That night Toranaga's duplicitous vassal Yabu lets Ishido's ninjas into Toranaga's compound to kidnap Mariko. Having retreated to a storeroom, Mariko willfully stands in front of a door set to explode and is killed. Her death, which Ishido sought to prevent, forces him to free his noble hostages, thus weakening military alliances. The Jesuits inform Blackthorne that the Erasmus has been sunken. As for Yabu, he confesses to Toranaga and obeys his lord's order to commit seppuku, giving his prized katana to Blackthorne. Mariko wills money to Blackthorne to build a sea-worthy ship for Toranaga’s navy.

At the book's end, Toranaga in soliloquy says he sank the Erasmus to form alliances with the Catholic lords, who in return agreed not to kill Blackthorne. Blackthorne’s karma, Toranaga says, is to never leave Japan, as Mariko's karma was to die for her lord, and as Toranaga's is to become shogun. The book’s epilogue takes place after the Battle of Sekigahara with Toranaga burying a defeated Ishido up to his neck to die; which he does three days later.

Characters
Shogun is a work of historical fiction based upon the power struggle between the successors of Toyotomi Hideyoshi that led to the founding of the Tokugawa shogunate. Clavell based each character on a historical figure, but changed their names in order to add narrative deniability to the story.


 * John "Anjin" Blackthorne – Miura Anjin (William Adams) (1564–1620)
 * Yoshi Toranaga – Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616)
 * Yoshi Sudara – Tokugawa Hidetada (1579–1632)
 * Yoshi Naga – Matsudaira Tadayoshi (1580–1607)
 * Ishido Kazunari – Ishida Mitsunari (1559–1600)
 * Ochiba – Yodo-dono (1569–1615)
 * Yaemon – Toyotomi Hideyori (1593–1615)
 * Onoshi – Otani Yoshitsugu (1558–1600)
 * Harima – Arima Harunobu (1567–1612)
 * Kiyama – Konishi Yukinaga (1555–1600)
 * Sugiyama – Maeda Toshiie (1539–1599)
 * Zataki – Matsudaira Sadakatsu (1560–1624)
 * Toda Mariko – Hosokawa Gracia (1563–1600)
 * Toda Hiro-matsu 'Iron Fist' – Hosokawa Fujitaka (1534–1610)
 * Toda Buntaro – Hosokawa Tadaoki (1563–1646)
 * Toda Saruji – Hosokawa Tadatoshi (1586–1641)
 * Kasigi Yabu – Honda Masanobu (1538–1616)
 * Kasigi Omi – Honda Masazumi (1566–1637)
 * Goroda – Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582)
 * Nakamura – Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598)
 * Akechi Jinsai – Akechi Mitsuhide (1528–1582)
 * Lady Genjiko – Oeyo (1573–1626)
 * Father Martin Alvito – João Rodrigues (1561/1562–1633/1634)
 * Johann Vinck – Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn (1556?–1623)
 * Spillbergen – Jacob Quaeckernaeck (?–1606)
 * Father-Visitor Carlo Dell'Aqua – Alessandro Valignano (1539–1606)
 * Brother Michael – Miguel Chijiwa (1569?–1633)
 * Captain-General Ferriera – Horatio Neretti, captain of the Black Ship in 1600

Historical accuracy
Blackthorne's interactions with Toranaga are closely based upon accounts in the diaries of Adams. However, while Adams served in Tokugawa's army at Sekigahara, he did not become a retainer or a samurai until after the battle.

Adams never met Hosokawa Gracia, in contrast to Blackthorne's intimate relationship with Toda Mariko.

The novel contains numerous Japanese language errors, as well as mistakenly depicting Japanese castles as having portcullises and 17th-century samurai as using socket bayonets. Carrier pigeons, used extensively by Toranaga, were unknown in Japan at the time.

Background
Clavell was an officer in the Royal Artillery during World War II and was a prisoner of war at Changi Prison in Singapore from 1942 to 1945, an experience that formed the basis of his first novel King Rat. Despite this experience, he admired Japan and the Japanese people, and described Shogun as "passionately pro-Japanese."

Clavell stated that reading a sentence in his daughter's textbook that stated that "in 1600, an Englishman went to Japan and became a samurai" inspired the novel. Shogun was therefore based on an actual series of events involving Adams, who reached Japan in 1600 and became involved with the future shogun Tokugawa. He achieved high status managing commercial activities for Tokugawa's shogunate, though much of the interaction between the various characters in the novel was invented. The first draft was 2,300 pages and Clavell cut it down to 1,700 with the help of his editor, German Gollob. However, Shogun was edited lightly in comparison to Clavell's earlier novels.

Reception
The New York Times's Webster Schott wrote, "I can't remember when a novel has seized my mind like this one [...] It's almost impossible not to continue to read Shōgun once having opened it". In addition to becoming a best-seller, with more than six million copies of the novel in 14 hardcover and 38 paperback printings by 1980, Shōgun had great impact on westerners' knowledge of, and interest in, Japanese history and culture. Henry Smith, editor of Learning from Shōgun: Japanese History and Western Fantasy (1980), estimated that 20 to 50% of all students in American college-level courses about Japan had read the novel. He described the book as "a virtual encyclopedia of Japanese history and culture; somewhere among those half-million words, one can find a brief description of virtually everything one wanted to know about Japan", and stated that "In sheer quantity, Shōgun has probably conveyed more information about Japan to more people than all the combined writings of scholars, journalists, and novelists since the Pacific War". Criticizing inaccuracies in the author's depiction of Japan, Smith wrote in History Today that "Clavell is in effect delivering a sermon on the errant ways of the West", contrasting Blackthorne and other Christian Westerners' barbaric ways to the superior "meditative and fatalistic posture of the Japanese samurai". The author of James Clavell: A Critical Companion called the novel "one of the most effective depictions of cross-cultural encounters ever written", and "Clavell's finest effort".

Clavell said that Shōgun "is B.C. and A.D. It made me. I became a brand name, like Heinz Baked Beans." He reported that the ruler of a Middle Eastern petrostate offered him a full oil tanker for a novel that would do for his country what Shōgun did for Japan.

Television
In 1976 Clavell employed Robert Bolt to write a screenplay. In 1978, he selected Eric Bercovici to write a miniseries for NBC. Clavell and Bercovici decided to simplify the story for an American television audience by omitting one of the two major plot lines of the novel, the struggle between Toranaga and the other warlords, and focusing on the adventures of Blackthorne and his romance with Mariko. Due to the focus on Blackthorne's perspective, most of the Japanese dialogue was not subtitled or dubbed. This nine-hour television miniseries aired in 1980, starring Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, Yoko Shimada, and John Rhys-Davies. This was edited into a two-hour theatrical release. A 5-disc DVD release appeared in 2003 and a 3-disc Blu-ray release in 2014.

On August 3, 2018, it was announced that FX would be adapting the novel into a TV series. The 2024 series stars Hiroyuki Sanada, who also served as co-producer, Cosmo Jarvis, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Takehiro Hira, Tommy Bastow and Fumi Nikaido. The trailer was released in late 2023 and the first two episodes premiered on February 27, 2024. In contrast to the 1980 miniseries, this closely follows both plot lines of the novel and translates the dialogue between the Japanese characters, although several characters' names are changed, for instance, Yabu was changed to Yabushige. The series was met with acclaim, with special praise towards Sanada, Jarvis, Sawai, and Asano's performances. In May 2024, a second and third season were officially announced to be in development.

Stage musical
A stage musical adaptation, Shōgun: The Musical, was produced in 1990.

Games
There have been three video games based on the novel. Two text-based adventure games with sparse graphics were produced for the Amiga and PC, marketed as James Clavell's Shōgun by Infocom and Shōgun by Mastertronic. A unique graphical adventure game, Shōgun, was also produced for systems including the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and IBM PC by Lee & Mathias and released by Virgin Entertainment in 1986.

The tabletop game publisher FASA published James Clavell's Shogun in 1983. This was the third of four boardgame titles based on Clavell novels.