| Shōgun | |
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1st edition |
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| Author(s) | James Clavell |
| Cover artist | Ed Vebell (illustrated edition only) |
| Country | United States, United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Asian Saga |
| Genre(s) | Historical fiction |
| Publisher | Delacorte Press (US) Hodder & Stoughton (UK) |
| Publication date | 1975 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 1152 pp (first edition, paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 044008721X (US) - ISBN 0340203161 (UK) |
| OCLC Number | 9326267 |
| Dewey Decimal | 823/.914 19 |
| LC Classification | 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. A major bestseller, by 1990 the book had sold 15 million copies worldwide. 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.
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Japan in 1600 is a feudal country in a precarious peace. The heir to the Kampaku is young and power rests in a council of regents formed of the most powerful overlords perpetually jostling for power and the title of Shōgun (hereditary military ruler). Japanese society is insular and xenophobic with outsiders greatly distrusted and restricted. The Catholic Church, principally through the Jesuits and other monastic orders, have gained a foothold and seek to extend their power. Guns are little used and despised, making the military capabilities of the Europeans highly desirable but risky.
John Blackthorne, an English pilot serving on the Dutch warship Erasmus, is the first ship from a Protestant country known to reach Japan. It is shipwrecked on the coast. He and the few survivors of his crew are taken captive under the direction of the local samurai Kasigi Omi. Their foreignness, and their conduct (which is seen as barbaric and disrespectful) leads Omi to imprison them in a pit until the arrival of his daimyo (feudal lord), Kasigi Yabu. Yabu orders that one sailor will be executed by boiling alive, and that Blackthorne is to be placed in a household with his crew as hostages for his good behavior. At Omi's suggestion, Yabu plans to use Blackthorne's knowledge and keep the guns and money recovered from the ship, but word reaches his overlord, the powerful regent Toranaga, and Yabu is obligated to turn Blackthorne, the ship, and its contents over to him.
Blackthorne is given the title Anjin, meaning "pilot," (a ship's navigator) by the Japanese because they can't pronounce his name. Blackthorne insists on being addressed respectfully, as Omi is, and is therefore known as Anjin-san ("Honorable Pilot"). Blackthorne is interviewed by Toranaga with the Jesuit Father Alvito and the Japanese Lady Mariko serving as translators. As an English Protestant, Blackthorne 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, as a ruse to keep him from Ishido. In prison, Blackthorne is befriended by a Franciscan monk, who reveals further details about Jesuit conquests and the Portuguese "Black Ship" which each year takes the vast profits from the silk trade back to Europe. He is taught basic Japanese and a little of their culture. Blackthorne is taken from prison by Ishido's men, but Toranaga intervenes, "capturing" Blackthorne from his rival. In their next interview, Toranaga has the Lady Mariko translate. She is a convert to Christianity, torn between her new faith and her loyalty as a samurai's wife and to Toranaga. During a subsequent interview with Blackthorne, Toranaga is secretly shaken when Blackthorne reveals that Japan has been "claimed" as territory by the Portuguese in the name of Catholicism, given right to do so by the Pope.
During his stay at Toranaga's castle, Blackthorne is attacked unsuccessfully by an assassin who is revealed to be a member of the secretive Amida Tong, a group of operatives who train all their lives to be the perfect weapon for one kill. After the assassin is dispatched, Toranaga summons Yabu the next day for questioning, since Hiro-Matsu says Yabu would be the only one who would know how to hire them. Yabu is truthful but evasive in his answers, adding more fuel to Toranaga's distrust of him. It is also hinted that the Jesuits may have hired the assassin to kill Blackthorne to silence what he knows.
As this is going on, Toranaga is threatened with forced seppuku by the council of regents. To escape the order, he escapes by taking the place of his wife in a litter, leaving with a train of travelers. 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. Toranaga resigns from the Council of Regents, paralyzing that body from taking further action since five regents are required to make any decisions and politically a new appointment seems unlikely. Toranaga's party reach the coast but their ship is blockaded by Ishido's boats. At Blackthorne's suggestion the Portuguese ship is asked to lend muskets to blast the boats clear, but in return the Jesuits, seeing the presence of a Protestant pilot in Toranaga's confidence as a grave threat, will only offer aid to Toranaga in return for being given Blackthorne. Toranaga agrees and the ship clears the coast. The Portuguese pilot Rodrigues — whose life was saved by Blackthorne earlier in a storm — repays his debt to Blackthorne by having him thrown overboard to swim back to Toranaga's ship instead.
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, but 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 in accordance with Japanese custom, 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 (a vassal similar to a retainer, with the right of direct audience). As they spend more time together, Blackthorne comes to deeply admire Mariko.
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.
Blackthorne is torn between his growing affection for Mariko (who is married to a powerful, abusive 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 (whom he now sees to be filthy, vulgar and 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.
Ishido holds 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. Unforeseen by Toranaga, a replacement regent has been chosen. Ishido hopes to lure or force Toranaga into the Castle and, when all the regents are present, obtain from them an order for Toranaga to commit seppuku. To extricate Toranaga from this situation, Mariko goes 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.
At the castle, Mariko (in response to Toranaga's orders) defies Ishido and forces him to either dishonor himself by dishonoring Mariko, a samurai, 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 return. However, she states that since she cannot disobey 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. But that night, a group of ninja 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 ninja prepare to blow the door open with explosives, 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 and temporarily deafened, 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, Mariko leaves him money and Toranaga provides him with men to start building a new ship. Toranaga orders Yabu — who he learns helped the attack with the aim of being on the winning side — to commit suicide for his treachery. Yabu gracefully complies, even giving his own prized katana to Blackthorne, saying that no one else deserved the blade.
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 will have that one burned too. It is Blackthorne's karma (destiny) to never leave Japan, Mariko's karma to die gloriously for her lord, and his own karma and purpose to become Shogun. In a brief epilogue after the final Battle of Sekigahara, Ishido is disgracefully captured alive. In deference to an old prophecy that Ishido would "die an old man with his feet firmly planted in the earth, the most famous man in the land", Toranaga has him buried up to his neck by the eta villagers with passers-by offered the opportunity to saw at the most famous neck in the realm with a bamboo saw. The novel states that "Ishido lingered three days and died very old."
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:
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. Catholic missions, discovery, and colonialism took place in the period of the novel, and the treaties of Tordesillas (1494) and Zaragoza (1529) formalized the division between Spain and Portugal of rights to exploit the New World and Asia.
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.[1]
It is not clear if this is being referred to or if the author was unaware of the history. The character is also stated to have studied Karate, this is very unlikely as Karate was not practiced in Japan during the Feudal era but was still developing in Okinawa. 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.
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 De Liefe was not burned, but lost 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. In the novel Izu where Blackthorne is shipwrecked is under the rule of the Kasigi Clan; in fact Izu Province was already under the control of Tokugawa Ieyasu since 1590.
The novel has been adapted as a nine hour television miniseries in 1980, a Broadway musical, and several computer games. The television series starred Richard Chamberlain, Toshirō 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.
Clavell was not the first author to novelize the story of Will Adams, in fact there many earlier less successful attempts.[2] The first was by William Dalton called Will Adams, The First Englishman in Japan: A Romantic Biography published in London 1861.[2] Dalton had never been to Japan and his book accurately reflects romanticized Victorian British notions of the exotic Asian.[2] Richard Blaker's The Needlewatcher (London, 1932) is the least romantic of the novels, he consciously attempted to de-mythologize Adams and write a careful historical work of fiction.[2] James Scherer's Pilot and Shōgun is less a novel than a series of incidents in Adams life.[2] American Robert Lund wrote Daishi-san (New York, 1960).[2] Finally Christopher Nicole's Lord of the Golden Fan was published just two years before Shōgun, in 1973. Adams is portrayed as sexually frustrated by the mores of his time and seeks freedom in the east where he has numerous encounters. The work is considered light pornography.[2]
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