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Shōgun

1st edition
Author	James Clavell
Cover artist	Ed Vebell (illustrated edition only)
Language	English
Series	Asian Saga
Genre	Historical fiction
Publisher	Delacorte Press (US) Hodder & Stoughton (UK)
Publication date	1975
Publication place	United States, United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	1152 pp (first edition, paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 044008721X (US) - ISBN 0340203161 (UK) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
OCLC	9326267
Dewey Decimal	823/.914 19
LC Class	PS3553.L365 S5 1975
Preceded by	first book of series
Followed by	Tai-Pan

Shōgun is a 1975 novel by James Clavell. It is the first novel (by internal chronology) of the author's Asian Saga. Beginning in 1600 in feudal Japan, some months before the critical battle of Sekigahara, it gives an account of the rise of the daimyo "Toranaga" (based upon the actual Tokugawa Ieyasu) of the Shogunate, seen through the eyes of an English sailor whose fictional heroics are loosely based on William Adams's exploits.

Plot summary

John Blackthorne, an Englishman of the Dutch warship Erasmus, is shipwrecked on the coast of Japan. He and the few survivors of his Dutch crew are taken captive under the direction of the local samurai Kasigi Omi and confined to a pit for a few days, until, in the eyes of their captors, they begin to act like "civilized men," that is, when they stop complaining, demanding their freedom, shouting, etc. Omi's daimyo, Kasigi Yabu, arrives and executes a randomly-chosen sailor by having him boiled alive. At Omi's suggestion, Yabu plans to keep the guns and money recovered from Blackthorne's ship to increase his own influence, but he is betrayed by a samurai who has informed Yabu's later lord, Toranaga, of the ship's arrival; and Yabu is obligated to turn Blackthorne, the ship, and its contents over to him.

While in the household, Blackthorne is given the title Anjin, meaning "pilot," by the Japanese because they can't pronounce his name. Blackthorne insists that Omi-san apply the honorary suffix -san as if he were a samurai worthy of respect, and so Blackthorne is henceforth known as Anjin-san. (In actual history, William Adams was called Anjin-sama, a higher honorific.)

Blackthorne is interviewed by Toranaga, with a Jesuit priest serving as translator. Blackthorne, an Englishman and a Protestant, attempts to turn Toranaga against the Jesuits. In doing so, he reveals to a surprised Toranaga that the Christian faith is divided and that other European countries intend to sail the Asian waters because the Spanish Armada has been defeated. The interview ends when Toranaga's principal rival, Ishido, enters, curious about the 'barbarian' Blackthorne. Toranaga has Blackthorne thrown in prison for piracy to keep him from Ishido. In prison, Blackthorne is befriended by a Franciscan monk, who reveals further details about Jesuit conquests and the "Black Ship" trade. Japan needs Chinese silk, but cannot deal with the Chinese directly. The Portuguese act as an intermediary, shipping the merchandise in their Black Ship at great profit. With the priest's help, Blackthorne begins to learn basic Japanese.

After four days of captivity, Blackthorne is taken out of prison by Ishido's men, but Toranaga intervenes, "capturing" Blackthorne from his rival's men. In their next interview, Toranaga has a different translator, the Lady Mariko, a convert to Christianity who is torn between her new faith and her loyalty to being a samurai and to Toranaga.

As this is going on, the regent Toranaga is threatened with forced seppuku by the council of regents. To escape the order, he must get out of Osaka Castle, which he does by taking the place of a woman in a litter with a train of travelers leaving the castle. Blackthorne inadvertently spots the exchange and, when Ishido shows up at the gate of the castle and nearly discovers Toranaga, Blackthorne saves Toranaga by creating a diversion. In this way, he gradually gains the trust of and enters the service of Toranaga, a powerful feudal warlord who rules over the "Kwanto" (the real-life Kantō region) plain, the site Edo and of modern-day Tokyo.

Despite a rocky start, Blackthorne slowly builds his Japanese-language skills and gains an understanding of the Japanese people and their culture, eventually learning to respect it deeply. The Japanese, in turn, are torn over Blackthorne's presence; he is an outsider, a leader of a disgracefully filthy and uncouth rabble (his ship's crew); but he is also a formidable sailor and navigator. As such, he is both beneath their contempt and incalculably valuable. A turning point in this perception is Blackthorne's attempt at seppuku to redress an insult. He demonstrates his willingness to commit suicide with honour, which deeply impresses the Japanese, but is stopped as he is far more valuable alive than dead. The Japanese grow to respect the "barbarian" in turn, and he is eventually granted the status of samurai and hatamoto. As they spend more time together, Blackthorne comes to deeply admire Mariko.

Blackthorne is torn between his growing affection for Mariko (who is married to a powerful and dangerous samurai, Buntaro), his increasing loyalty to Toranaga, and his desire to return to the open seas aboard Erasmus to capture the Black Ship. Eventually, he visits the survivors of his original crew, and is so astonished at how far he has ventured from the standard European way of life (personally filthy, dirty, ignorant meat-eaters) and is disgusted by them. Blackthorne's plans to attack the Black Ship are complicated by his respect and friendship for that vessel's Portuguese pilot, Rodrigues.

In parallel with this plot, the novel also details the intense power struggle between Toranaga and Ishido, and the political maneuvering of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly the Jesuits. There is also conflict between Christian daimyos (who are motivated in part by a desire to preserve and expand their Church's power) and the daimyos who oppose the Christians in favor of the native Shinto, Buddhist, and other faiths.

Ishido is holding numerous family members of other daimyos as hostages in Osaka, referring to them as guests. As long as he has these hostages, the other daimyos, including Toranaga, do not dare to attack him. Ishido hopes to lure or force Toranaga into the Castle and, when all the regents are present, obtain an order for Toranaga to commit suicide. To extricate Toranaga from this situation, Mariko volunteers to go to what will be her likely death at Osaka Castle to face down Ishido and obtain the hostages' release. On the lengthy trip to Osaka, Blackthorne and Mariko become lovers.

When at the castle, Mariko (in response to Toranaga's order for her to leave to meet him against Ishido's wishes) defies Ishido and forces him to either dishonor himself by dishonoring Mariko, a lady of the first rank, or to back down. When Mariko tries to leave the castle, a battle ensues between Ishido's samurai and her escort until she is forced to give up. However, she states that since she cannot obey an order from her liege lord, Toranaga, she is disgraced and will commit suicide. As she is about to do so, Ishido gives her the papers to leave the castle the next day. That night, a group of ninjas Ishido has hired slips into Toranaga's section of the castle to kidnap Mariko, with the help of Toranaga's vassal, Yabu. However, she and Blackthorne (who accompanied her but was not aware of Mariko's plot) and the other ladies of Toranaga escape into a locked room. As the ninjas blow the door down, Mariko stands against the door and declares that this is her act of honorable suicide, and implicates Ishido "in this shameful act."

Mariko is killed and Blackthorne injured, but Ishido is forced to let Blackthorne and all the other ladies leave the castle, seriously reducing his influence. Blackthorne discovers that his ship has been burned, ruining his chances of attacking the Black Ship, gaining riches, and sailing home to England. However, Toranaga gives him money and men to start building a new ship. Toranaga orders Yabu to commit suicide for his treachery.

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 to bring them back to his fist, and re-hooding them. The last scene involves Toranaga letting his prize peregrine fly free as he reveals his inner monologue: he himself had ordered Blackthorne's ship burned as a way to placate the Christian daimyos, save Blackthorne's life from them, and bring them to his side against Ishido; he then encourages Blackthorne to build another one, and then will have that one burned too. It is Blackthorne's karma to never leave Japan, Mariko's karma to die for her lord, and his own karma, his true purpose, to become Shogun, the ruling daimyo superseding the Taiko's heir. In the brief epilogue after the final battle of Sekigahara, Ishido is disgracefully captured alive, and Toranaga has him buried up to his neck in the untouchables' village. In fulfilment of a prophecy from earlier in the book (that Ishido would die an old man with his feet firmly planted, the most famous man in the land), passers-by are offered the opportunity to "saw at the most famous neck in the realm with a bamboo saw," and "Ishido lingered three days and died very old."

The book is divided into 6 Books, the 3rd being the longest. It contains extremely intricate plots and counter-plots and straddles the line between historical drama (tinged with romance, sex, courage, and duty) and political drama.

Historical accuracy

As with Clavell's other novels, the setting and many characters are based on actual events, which set the stage for the novel. The main characters in Shōgun are based on historical figures:

• Goroda: Oda Nobunaga
• Nakamura: Toyotomi Hideyoshi
• Toranaga: Tokugawa Ieyasu
• Sudara: Tokugawa Hidetada
• Blackthorne: William Adams
• Ochiba: Yodo-Dono
• Genjiko: Oeyo
• Yaemon: Toyotomi Hideyori
• Ishido: Ishida Mitsunari
• Mariko: Hosokawa Gracia
• Martin Alvito: João Rodrigues
• Akechi Jinsai: Akechi Mitsuhide
• Johann Vinck: Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn
• Swordsmith Murasama: Sengo Muramasa
• Yodoko: Nene
• Paulus Spillbergen: Jacob Quaeckernaeck
• Buntaro: Hosokawa Tadaoki
• Hiromatsu: Hosokawa Fujitaka
• Onoshi: Otani Yoshitsugu
• Kiyama: Kobayakawa Hideaki

The ship's name of Erasmus is most likely taken from the original name of the ship De Liefde, the Dutch ship piloted by William Adams which made landfall on the coast of Japan in 1600. The real Erasmus was renamed to fit in with the names of the other four ships of the expedition leaving Holland in 1598.

The book contains several anachronisms. For one thing, the "Banzai" charge cry began to be used after the end of the feudal period, in the Imperial Japanese military, in reference to the Emperor of Japan. Additionally, early on in the book a character is said to practice judo, which had been developed as a sport after the end of the feudal era. However, Japanese martial arts were being referred to as "way of softness" (柔道, jūdō) as early as 1724, but not as a specific reference to a style or a sport, almost two centuries before Kano Jigoro founded the modern art of judo). It is not clear if this is being referred to or if the author was unaware of the history. Another is that Japanese warfare had included mass musketry in ranks since at least 1575 at the Battle of Nagashino rather than having been introduced by Adams.

Tokugawa Ieyasu did not order the expulsion of European traders. Rather he limited the trade with Europeans to Nagasaki. The expulsion of Christian missionaries was ordered by Hideyoshi, who was not a Shogun. Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered audits of traders' expenses put into writing to be delivered to him for the purpose of rooting out foreign influences.

In James Clavell's later novels, it is revealed that, just as in real history, Toranaga eventually besieged Ochiba and Yaemon in their castle, prompting them to commit suicide.

He also referred to Mercator as Dutch, whilst he was Flemish, though in the age of exploration the distinctions were neither clearcut nor widely known.

The Erasmus is said to be steered by a wheel; in fact the ship's wheel was not introduced until nearly a century later, the steering method at that time being a whipstaff (an upright rod engaging with an inboard tiller).

In the novel Vinck goes insane and dies when he realizes that like Blackthorne he is trapped forever in Japan; Van Lodensteijn actually did adapt himself to living in Japan and died of drowning in 1623. Likewise in the novel the Erasmus Ship's Captain dies soon after arrival in Japan; in fact Jacob Quaeckernaeck survived; furthermore in the novel none of Blackthorne's crew is ever allowed to leave Japan; in fact Quaeckernaeck and Melchior van Santvoort were allowed to leave Japan in 1604 (Van Santvoort and another of Adams' shipmates were reportedly living in Nagasaki in 1629). In the book, Blackthorne's ship is burned secretly on Toranaga's orders, while a second to be built by Blackthorne is subsequently burned by Toranaga's orders. In fact Der Liefe was not burned, but rotted away in 1607; Adams did build two ships for Tokugawa—such as the Japanese warship San Buena Ventura—which were used by Tokugawa to send shipwrecked Spanish sailors back home from Japan. Likewise, see the article section "Hosokawa Gracia in popular culture" for the differences between "Mariko" of the novel and the real Hosokawa Gracia.

Adaptations

The novel has been adapted as a groundbreaking television miniseries, a Broadway musical, and several computer games.

The television series, Shōgun (TV miniseries), was shown in 1980. Nine hours long (twelve, including advertisements), it was broadcast over five nights. It starred Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, Yoko Shimada, and John Rhys-Davies. It was also edited into a two-hour theatrical release, and a 5-disc DVD release in 2003.

There have been three computer games based on the Shōgun novel. Two text-based adventure games with sparse graphics were produced for the Amiga and PC, and marketed as James Clavell's Shōgun, by Infocom, and Shōgun (Mastertronic). A unique graphical Virgin Entertainment adventure game, Shōgun, was also produced for the Commodore 64 by "Lee & Mathias" in 1986. None of these games remain available for purchase.

Quotations

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (January 2009)

• "It's a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for the world to see, another in his breast to show to his special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except to himself alone, hidden only God knows where."

• "Karma is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very important. The strong are the patient ones. Patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: Hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don't give way to the seven, you're patient, then you'll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity."

• "He remembered the pride filled glow that had swamped Gyoko's face and he wondered again at the bewildering gullibility of people. How baffling it was that even the most cunning and clever people would frequently see only what they wanted to see, and would rarely look beyond the thinnest of facades. Or they would ignore reality, dismissing it as the facade. And then, when their whole world fell to pieces and they were on their knees slitting their bellies or cutting their throats, or cast out into the freezing world, they would tear their topknots or rend their clothes and bewail their karma, blaming gods or kami or luck or their lords or husbands or vassals—anything or anyone—but never themselves."

References

1. Mol, Serge (2001). Classical Fighting Arts of Japan: A Complete Guide to Koryū Jūjutsu. Tokyo, Japan: Kodansha International Ltd. pp. 24–54. ISBN 4-7700-2619-6.

External links

• Learning from Shōgun: Japanese History and Western Fantasy; ed. Henry Smith (Free PDF)

• Articles with trivia sections from January 2009
• 1975 novels
• Historical novels
• Asian Saga novels