Based on a 1975 novel by James Clavell, Shōgun is a sprawling epic set in feudal Japan
Barely ten years after the Spanish Armada, an Englishman washes up on the shores of feudal Japan. This is the inauspicious start to Shōgun, the hotly anticipated period drama from FX and Hulu.
The series is adapted from James Clavell’s 1975 novel of the same name. The action follows English navigator John Blackthorne (a fictional character who loosely based on the 17th-century English navigator William Adams) as he is thrust into a world of warring samurai, where life is cheap and dishonour is worse than death.
The series takes its name from the Japanese rank of shōgun, bestowed on the supreme military leader of Japan on multiple occasions between the 12th and 19th centuries. Though strictly subservient to the Emperor of Japan, a shōgun was more accurately a military dictator.
Shōgun trailers: what to expect
Two trailers for Shōgun have been released, giving a glimpse into the world of the FX series.
Shōgun plot: what is the story about?
The story begins in 1600, with the arrival of the all-but-wrecked ship Erasmus in a small Japanese fishing village. Aboard are the badly malnourished, half-dead remnants of its crew, a dozen Dutchmen and their English navigator, John Blackthorne (played by Cosmo Jarvis).
Blackthorne, who has become the crew’s default commander after scores of losses at sea, finds making it to shore to be just as perilous as being adrift.
Japan is on the edge of civil war. Its ruler, the taiko, is recently deceased, leaving behind a seven-year-old heir and a council of five regents made up of the most powerful daimyo (warlords) in Japan to govern until he comes of age.
Pre-eminent among them is Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), a feared warrior with an ancient lineage. Accused by his fellow regents of wishing to usurp the heir by becoming shōgun – the result of Machiavellian plotting by his chief rival Lord Ishido (Takehiro Hira) – he is on the brink of impeachment and forced suicide by seppuku.
With open conflict between samurai seeming inevitable, Toranaga senses that Blackthorne represents an opportunity – not only in his fight against his fellow regents, but also against the Portuguese. At this time, Portgual is the only European power to have reached Japan, and they both monopolise trade and wield soft power through those among Toranaga’s co-regents who have converted to Christianity.
Toranaga is not Blackthorn’s only concern. As allegiances shift, the ever-ambitious Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) seeks to manipulate the Englishman to his own ends, while the Portuguese move in the shadows to condemn Blackthorne as a pirate, lest he disrupt their best-laid plans.
- Read more | A brief history of samurai warfare
Shōgun release date & where to watch
Episodes 1 and 2 of Shōgun will air on Disney+ on 27 February 2024 in the UK, introducing us to protagonists John Blackthorne and Yoshii Toranaga, and the complex politics of the feudal Japan.
The series comprises 10 episodes, which will air weekly after the double-episode premiere, culminating on 23 April.
Is Shōgun a true story?
Yes – and no. Shōgun is based on the James Clavell’s 1975 novel of the same name, which is very much a work of historical fiction. Yet that novel tells a real historical story from the ‘warring states’ period of Japanese history. The names have been changed, but many of the characters have historical parallels.
Take John Blackthorne, the Englishman through whom we are introduced to feudal Japan. He is based on William Adams, an English navigator who reached Japan in the 17th century and entered the service of a warlord who would later become the shōgun.
That warlord was called Tokugawa Ieyasu, and it is Ieyasu’s life that forms the historical basis for Yoshii Toranaga in Shōgun.
Many of the other major characters likewise have historical counterparts. Toranaga’s chief rival Lord Ishido is paralleled by Ieyasu’s real enemy, Ishida Mitsunari, while the taiko who has put them at odds is based on Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the second of Japan’s ‘great unifiers’.
Blackthorne’s interpreter Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) is an analogue to Hosokawa Gracia, whose actions in both the novel and real-life are pivotal to the outcome of the war to come. And so the list goes on.
- Read more | Yasuke: an African samurai in Japan
Shōgun is available to stream on Disney+ from 27 February, with new episodes airing weekly until 16 April. You can sign up to Disney+ for £7.99 a month or £79.90 a year now.