Shōgun is a 1975 novel by James Clavell, fictionalizing incidents and personages in 17th century feudal Japan effecting the Edo period's advent. It is also the third published novel and the first chronologically placed book in Clavell's six-volume Asian Saga. By 1980, the novel had sold six million copies worldwide. Shōgun has been adapted into two TV miniseries (1980 and 2024) and a stage musical, as well as a board game and three video games.
At the end of a long voyage claiming many lives, including its captain, the Erasmus—secretly sent to plunder and forge military alliances to disrupt and take over Portugal's lucrative East Asian trade—is marooned in Izu's peninsular harbor.
The first Northern Europeans to reach Japan, the surviving Dutch crew and English pilot Blackthorne are imprisoned by Izu's daimyō Yabu who seizes the "barbarian" ship's records, armaments and coin for himself. A spy reports the ship to Yabu's liege Toranaga, Lord of the Kantō and president of the Council of Regents. Seeing the ship as an advantage against Lord Ishido, his chief rival in the factional Council, Toranaga dispatches his commander-in-chief General Toda "Iron Fist" Hiro-matsu via galley to claim the ship and its contents. Of the Erasmus' crew, only Blackthorne is aboard for Hiro-matsu's return to Osaka.
In Osaka Toranaga questions Blackthorne while a Portuguese Jesuit dutifully and accurately translates despite the Protestant revealing that Catholic Portugal and Elizabethan England are at war. As Toranaga realizes the hidden extent of Christian divisions, Ishido unexpectedly arrives to see the barbarian he was not to know of. The interview ends quickly.
Toranaga imprisons Blackthorne to sequester him from Ishido. In confinement a Franciscan friar, also an inmate, teaches Blackthorne rudimentary Japanese and Japan's current political dynamics, revealing how collusions between Portuguese traders and Jesuits, including fomenting of violent agitations inside Japan, have worked to sustain huge profits for the Portuguese Crown at Japan’s expense from the silk trade. While in transit to be executed at the prodding of the two Catholic Regents, Toranaga’s men rescue and deliver Blackthorne to their lord.
Toranaga's subsequent questioning of Blackthorne is translated by Lady Toda Mariko, a Catholic educated by Jesuits but loyal only to Toranaga; not her church. She faithfully translates as Blackthorne tells an alarmed Toranaga that by treaty the Pope had assigned Portugal colonial rights to Japan and East Asia. Portugal promised in return to replace all non-Catholic Japanese rulers, which included Toranaga, with only those of the faith loyal to Portugal and Rome. He adds that the Jesuits had Catholic Ronin mercenaries, without being discovered as such, invade Japan from their secret base. Toranaga reacts to the revelations by refusing to let Portugal’s trading ship set sail for Europe. For the Portuguese this marks Blackthorne as an even more dangerous and costly obstacle.
The night before the Council of Regents meets, a mysterious rampaging assassin seeded in Toranaga's household for years as a maid fails to kill her target Blackthorne. The Council does meet, but it goes badly for Toranaga who resigns to avoid a Council's order to commit seppuku. Still unsafe, Toranaga and a handful of his court secretly escape with the critical aid of some antics from Blackthorne. To clear Osaka's blockaded harbor, Toranaga reluctantly surrenders Blackthorne to the Jesuits in return for the Portuguese firing canon. However, a Portuguese pilot owing Blackthorne for saving his life during their earlier voyage to Osaka, throws him overboard to swim and board Toranaga's galley then safely en route to Anjiro.
In Anjiro Blackthorne’s Japanese improves as does his knowledge and appreciation of the culture, which the Japanese, to a degree, come in time to recognize and esteem. Still, the Japanese are conflicted: Blackthorne is disparaged as a leader of a filthy, uncouth and disgraceful European rabble. Regardless, he continues to advance in stature, in part due to his knowledge of how to fire canons more accurately than the Japanese could imagine, and partly due to Blackthorne post-earthquake pulling Toranaga from underneath rubble. He becomes elevated to samurai and hatamoto – the latter of which accords him rights of direct audience. Blackthorne’s prolonged contact with Toranaga raises his regard for him; the same occurs with Mariko, with whom he has a secret affair. A chance encounter with his old crew highlights his immersion. They are mutually revolted: the Dutchmen for his Japanese ways, and he for the European character of their coarseness.
Although Toranaga, with Mariko and Blackthorne, has escaped Osaka, Ishido keeps the other daimyōs underfoot by holding them and their families hostage. For some time Toranaga has feigned acquiescence to Ishido, and has acted accordingly. This allows Mariko to re-enter Osaka. Mariko then openly attempts leaving to lay bare that Ishido is holding noble households hostage. Ishido's men respond with violence until an intentionally unharmed Mariko gives up on leaving. Saying she has been dishonored, Mariko promises to kill herself the next day. She does almost end her life when Ishido grants her request to leave at the last minute in a delaying gambit. That night the duplicitous Yabu lets Ishido’s ninjas slip into Toranaga's compound to kidnap Mariko. Instead, explosives Ninjas set on a barred door kill her. The death of Mariko that Ishido sought to prevent forces him to free his hostages; thus weakening his military alliances greatly. As for Yabu, Toranaga learns of his treachery and orders him to commit seppuku. Yabu complies, giving his prized katana to Blackthorne.
At the book's end, Toranaga in an inner monologue reveals that he destroyed the Erasmus to bring the Catholic daimyōs to his side and to have them agree to not kill Blackthorne, whose karma is to never leave Japan, as Mariko's karma was to die for her lord, and as his karma was to be Japan’s absolutely powerful shogun.
Mariko's will gives Blackthorne enough money to build a new ship, for which Toranaga provides needed craftsmen.
In the brief epilogue, Toranaga captures Ishido at the Battle of Sekigahara and buries him up to his neck until he dies 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 further intrigue to the story.[1]
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.[2] 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.[1]
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."[2]
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.[5]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.[6] However, Shogun was edited lightly in comparison to Clavell's earlier novels.[4]
Themes
The main theme of the novel is the precarious peace of Japan in 1600, a nation consumed by endless civil war and political machinations. The heir to the Taiko (retired Kampaku), the deceased supreme leader of Japan, is too young to rule, and five daimyōs chosen by the late Taiko for their ability to work together hold power as a Council of Regents until the boy comes of age. The novel details the intense power struggle between the two most powerful daimyōs, Toranaga and Ishido, as they both seek to thwart the other's ambitions. As a subtext, there is also the political manoeuvring of the Protestant and Catholic powers in the Far East. This translates an internal conflict in Japan between Christian daimyōs (who are motivated in part by a desire to preserve and expand their religion) and the daimyōs who oppose the Japanese Christians as followers of foreign beliefs and potential traitors whose loyalty is questionable.
Portugal, which holds the sole right to trade with Japan, and the Catholic Church, mainly through the Order of the Jesuits, have gained a religious, economic, and political foothold and seek to extend their power in Japan (as they have done in nearby places such as Goa and Macao). Guns and other modern military capabilities brought to Japan by the Portuguese, and indirectly by Blackthorne, are still a novelty and coveted by powerful lords looking to gain an advantage over their rivals, but are despised by many samurai as a threat to their traditional methods of fighting. In contrast, however, the silk trade is viewed as essential, and the Portuguese traders regularly amass huge profits via their annual "Black Ship" fleets from Macao.
Japanese society is shown to be very insular and xenophobic, with foreigners referred to as "barbarians" and shunned for their arrogance, eating habits, lack of fluency in the Japanese language, and inability to respect Japanese social customs. As a result, there are many internal conflicts between the "Eastern" and "Western" cultures – especially to do with duty, honor, sexuality, cleanliness, diet, obligations, hierarchies, loyalties, and – more particularly – the essence of 'self'. Blackthorne is also torn between his growing affection for Mariko (who is married to a powerful, abusive, and dangerous samurai, Buntaro), his increasing loyalty to Toranaga, his household and consort, a "Willow world" courtesan named Kiku, and his desire to return to the open seas aboard Erasmus so he can intercept the Black Ship before it reaches Japan.
A recurring motif in the book is Toranaga engaging in falconry. He compares his various birds to his vassals and mulls over his handling of them, flinging them at targets, giving them morsels, and bringing them back to his fist for re-hooding. There are other recurring themes of Eastern values, as opposed to Western values, masculine (patriarchal) values as opposed to human values, etc. Another is the granting of honours and favours to those who display loyalty - including the trading of secrets by a mama-san called Gyoko, which allows Toranaga to gain an upperhand in his power play for the shogunate.
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".[7] 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. The 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".[8] Criticizing inaccuracies in the author's depiction of Japan, History Today wrote that "Clavell is in effect delivering a sermon on the errant ways of the West", contrasting Blackthorn and other Christian Westerners' barbaric ways to the superior "meditative and fatalistic posture of the Japanese samurai".[9] 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".[10]
Clavell said that Shōgun "is B.C. and A.D. It made me. I became a brand name, like Heinz Baked Beans."[11] 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.[12]
Adaptations
Television
In 1976 Clavell employed Robert Bolt to write a screenplay.[13] Later, 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.[2] 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.
The tabletop game publisher FASA published James Clavell's Shogun in 1983. This was the third of four boardgame titles based on Clavell novels.
Related Research Articles
Shogun, officially sei-i taishōgun, was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, although during part of the Kamakura period and Sengoku period, shoguns were themselves figureheads, with real power in the hands of the shikken (執権) of the Hōjō clan and kanrei (管領) of the Hosokawa clan. In addition, Taira no Kiyomori and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were leaders of the warrior class who did not hold the position of shogun, the highest office of the warrior class, but who gained the positions of daijō-daijin and kampaku, the highest offices of the aristocratic class, and ran their governments as de facto rulers.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow Oda subordinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The son of a minor daimyo, Ieyasu once lived as a hostage under daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto on behalf of his father. He later succeeded as daimyo after his father's death, serving as ally, vassal and general of the Oda clan, and building up his strength under Oda Nobunaga.
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the Edo shogunate, was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868.
The Sengoku period is the period in Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. Although the Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467) or Meiō incident (1493) is generally chosen as the Sengoku period's start date, there are many competing historiographies for its end date, ranging from 1568, the date of Oda Nobunaga's march on Kyoto, to the suppression of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1638, deep into what is traditionally considered the Edo period. Regardless of the dates chosen, the Sengoku period overlaps substantially with the Muromachi period (1336–1573).
The Edo period, also known as the Tokugawa period, is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional daimyo. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, a stable population, overall peace, and popular enjoyment of arts and culture, colloquially referred to as Ōedo.
The Battle of Sekigahara was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 in what is now Gifu Prefecture, Japan, at the end of the Sengoku period. This battle was fought by the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu against a coalition of Toyotomi loyalist clans under Ishida Mitsunari, several of which defected before or during the battle, leading to a Tokugawa victory. The Battle of Sekigahara was the largest battle of Japanese feudal history and is often regarded as the most important. Mitsunari's defeat led to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate.
William Adams, better known in Japan as Miura Anjin, was an English navigator who, in 1600, became the first Englishman to reach Japan. He did so on a trading ship called Liefde under the leadership of Jacob Quaeckernaeck; it was the only vessel reaching Japan from a five-ship expedition launched by a company of Rotterdam merchants. Among the few survivors of the expedition who reached Japan, for more than a decade, the authorities did not allow Adams and his second mate Jan Joosten to leave the country. Earlier, they did permit Quaeckernaeck and Melchior van Santvoort to return to the Dutch Republic to establish formal trade relations. Adams and Joosten settled in Japan, and the two men became Western samurai.
Ishida Mitsunari was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the Azuchi–Momoyama period of the 16th century. He is also known by his court title, Jibu-no-shō (治部少輔).
A hatamoto was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa house, and the gokenin were the lower vassals. There was no precise difference between the two in terms of income level, but a hatamoto had the right to an audience with the shogun, whereas gokenin did not. The word hatamoto literally means "origin of the flag", with the sense of 'around the flag', it is described in Japanese as 'those who guard the flag' and is often translated into English as "bannerman". Another term for the Edo-era hatamoto was jikisan hatamoto (直参旗本), sometimes rendered as "direct shogunal hatamoto", which serves to illustrate the difference between them and the preceding generation of hatamoto who served various lords.
Akechi Tama, usually referred to as Hosokawa Gracia, was a member of the aristocratic Akechi family from the Sengoku period. Gracia is best known for her role in the Battle of Sekigahara; she was considered to be a political hostage to the Western army led by Ishida Mitsunari. She retracted from committing suicide (seppuku) because of her Catholic faith, breaking the code of conduct imposed on women of the samurai class.
Gai-Jin is a 1993 novel by James Clavell, chronologically the third book in his Asian Saga, although it was the last to be published. Taking place about 20 years after the events of Tai-Pan, it chronicles the adventures of Malcolm Struan, the son of Culum and Tess Struan, in Japan. The story delves deeply into the political situation in Japan and the hostility Westerners faced there, and is loosely based on the Namamugi Incident and the subsequent Anglo-Satsuma War.
Hiroyuki Sanada is a Japanese actor, singer and martial artist. He began his career in the mid-1960s at the age of six, and gained prominence for his roles in Japanese and Hong Kong action films, later establishing himself as a dramatic actor.
Shōgun is a 1980 American historical drama television miniseries based on James Clavell's 1975 novel of the same name. The series was produced by Paramount Television and first broadcast in the United States on NBC over five nights between September 15 and September 19, 1980. It was written by Eric Bercovici and directed by Jerry London, and stars Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, and Yoko Shimada, with a large supporting cast. Clavell served as executive producer. To date, it is the only American television production to be filmed on-location entirely in Japan, with additional soundstage filming also occurring in Japan at the Toho studio.
James Clavell's Shōgun is an interactive fiction video game written by Dave Lebling and published by Infocom in 1989. It was released for the Amiga, Apple II, DOS, and Macintosh. The game is based on the 1975 novel Shōgun by James Clavell. It is Infocom's thirty-third game.
Yodo-dono (淀殿) or Yodogimi (淀君), also known as Lady Chacha (茶々), was a Japanese historical figure in the late Sengoku period. She was the concubine and the second wife of Japanese ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi. As the mother of his son and successor Hideyori, she actively acted as Hideyori's guardian in the restoration of the Toyotomi clan after the fall of the Council of Five Elders, and alongside her son, led the last anti-Tokugawa shogunate resistance in the siege of Osaka.
Jan Joosten van Lodensteyn, known in Japanese as Yayōsu (耶楊子), was a Dutch navigator and trader.
Melchior van Santvoort was one of the first Dutchmen in Japan, was a purser on the Dutch ship De Liefde, which was stranded in Japan in 1600. Some of his shipmates were Jacob Quaeckernaeck, Jan Joosten, and William Adams. Van Santvoort remained in Japan, where he spent 39 years as a merchant in Nagasaki.
João Rodrigues, distinguished as Tçuzu and also known by other names in China and Korea, was a Portuguese sailor, warrior, and Jesuit interpreter, missionary, priest, and scholar in Japan and China. He is now best known for his linguistic works on the Japanese language, including The Art of the Japanese Language. He was also long erroneously supposed to have been the main compiler of the first Japanese–Portuguese dictionary, published in 1603.
Pilot major John Blackthorne, also known as Anjin, is the protagonist of James Clavell's 1975 novel Shōgun. The character is loosely based on the life of the 17th-century English navigator William Adams, who was the first Englishman to visit Japan. The character appears in the 1980 TV miniseries Shōgun, played by Richard Chamberlain, and by Cosmo Jarvis in a 2024 series based on the book.
Shōgun is an American historical drama television miniseries created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks. It is based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell, which was previously adapted into a 1980 miniseries.
↑ Allemang, John (29 November 1986). "Clavell bullies the bullies now that he's No. 1". The Globe and Mail. p.E.3.
↑ Bernstein, Paul (13 September 1981). "Making of a Literary Shogun". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
↑ Kilday, Gregg (13 September 1976). "Mazursky: Next Stop New York". Los Angeles Times. p.d11.
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