Shogun (novel)

Shōgun is a 1975 novel by James Clavell. It is the first novel (chronologically speaking) in the author's Asian Saga. It is set in feudal Japan in the year 1600 some months before the critical battle of Sekigahara, and gives an account of the rise of the daimyo "Toranaga" (analogous to the real-life Tokugawa Ieyasu) to the Shogunate, seen through the eyes of an English sailor whose fictional heroics are loosely based on William Adams' exploits.

Plot summary

John Blackthorne, an English pilot and acting captain 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 Omi-san 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-san's daimyo, Yabu-san 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 is betrayed by a samurai who has informed Yabu's 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 was a Japanese samurai worthy of respect, and so Blackthorne is henceforth known as Anjin-san.

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 other European countries intend to sail the Asian waters since the Spanish Armada was 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 Dominican priest, who reveals further details about the Jesuits 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 ritual suicide 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 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 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 group of 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 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's 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 and Buddhist 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 to 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. Passerbys are offered the opportunity to "saw at the most famous neck in the realm" with a wooden saw, and "Ishido lasts three days, and dies 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, duty, and religious beliefs) 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 Shogun are based on historical figures:

* Goroda: Oda Nobunaga
* Nakamura: Toyotomi Hideyoshi
* Toranaga: Tokugawa Ieyasu
* Blackthorne: William Adams
* Ochiba: Yodo-Dono
* Genjiko: Oeyo
* Yaemon: Toyotomi Hideyori
* Sudara: Tokugawa Hidetada
* 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
* Paul Spillbergen: Jacob Quaeckernaeck
* Buntaro: Hosokawa Tadaoki
* Hiromatsu: Hosokawa Fujitaka
* Onoshi: Otani Yoshitsugu

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).[1] 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 Blackthorne.

Tokugawa Ieyasu did not order the expulsion of European traders. Rather he limited the trade with Europeans to Nagasaki. The expulsion of Christian missionary 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 outsider 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 mentioned Mercator to be Dutch, whilst he was Flemish, though in the age of exploration the distinctions were neither clearcut nor widely known.

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 {reportably Van Santvoort and another of Adams shipmates were living in Nagasaki in 1629}. Also Blackthorne's ship is burned secretly on Toranaga orders while a second to be built by Blackthorne will also be burned by Toranaga 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 "Hosokawa Gracia in popular culture" for the differences between "Mariko" of the Novel and the real Hosokawa Gracia.

*wikipedia