Shōgun (novel)

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Shōgun is a 1975 novel by

Shogun opens in a 1600 feudal Japan when for nearly three decades there was no Shogun (central ruler) and in a chaotic state rent by dynastic clashes as well as competing martial and religious factions; both domestic and from Portugal, as well as the newly appearing Holland. The story occurs mostly in the months before the Battle of Sekigahara and ends in its immediate aftermath. Clavell's based his fictionalized actors and events on those that consequentially shaped the Edo period's formation in 1603 defined by the attendant Tokugawa shogunate's in the new seat of government Tokyo, a move Clavell details the origins of.

Plot

At the end of a long voyage claiming many lives, including its captain, the Erasmus—secretly sent on behalf of Holland 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

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, making Toranaga realize the previously hidden extent of Christian divisions.

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. After the two Catholic Regents insist on beheading Blackthorne, he is rescued in transit to his execution by Toranaga's men.

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. This marks Blackthorne for assassination.

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, with the aid of some antics from Blackthorne, escapes with him and some of his court 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 cannons 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. Blackthorne stops the ninjas from kidnapping Mariko, and along with Yabu and Toranaga's consorts, lock themselves in a storehouse. However, when the ninjas set explosives to blow open the door, Mariko willingly stands in front of the door and sacrifices herself in an act of defiance. 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]

• John 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 – 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)
• Martin Alvito – João Rodrigues (1561/1562–1633/1634)
• Johann Vinck – Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn (1556?–1623)
• Spillbergen – Jacob Quaeckernaeck (?–1606)
• Father 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.^[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]

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.^[3] Carrier pigeons, used extensively by Toranaga, were unknown in Japan at the time.^[4]

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."^[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

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

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.

On August 3, 2018, it was announced that FX would be adapting the novel into a miniseries.^[14] The 2024 miniseries stars Hiroyuki Sanada, who also served as co-producer, Cosmo Jarvis, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Takehiro Hira, Tommy Bastow and Fumi Nikaido.^[15] The trailer was released in late 2023 and the first two episodes premiered on February 27, 2024.^[16] 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.^[17]

Stage musical

A stage musical adaptation was produced in 1990.

Games

There have been three computer games based on the Shōgun novel. Two

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

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Shōgun (novel).

• Shogun at FactBehindFiction.com

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