A Fresh Take on History
Clashing swords. Whistling arrows. The screams and clamors of the battlefield. The fierce civil wars of the Japanese Sengoku (“Warring States”) period and the scramble for power, followed by the peaceful and influential rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate through the Edo period, have served as a gold mine of content for Japanese and Western media#ad alike.
How accurately it’s portrayed on screen, well… that is an entirely different story.
FX’s Shōgun#ad, based on the 1975 historical novel#ad of the same name by English author James Clavell, draws directly from this period of Japanese history. Although Clavell’s characters have fictional names, they are very much based on real-life historical figures that greatly influenced Japan’s history and legacy, most notably Tokugawa Ieyasu#ad, the first shōgun of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Although this historical figure, as well as the time period, has frequently served as the basis of many a historical drama or film in the past, Shōgun brings a refreshingly accurate and excitingly new take on both the genre and the characters, leading to massive popularity among both Western and Japanese viewers.
Made by Japanese People, for Japanese People
Explicitly racist portrayals of Japanese people, such as Mr. Yunioshi of Breakfast at Tiffany’s infamy, have more or less been extinguished from modern media. However, misrepresentation has nevertheless continued into the 21st century. Exaggerated squinty eyes and obscene prosthetic buck teeth may have disappeared from our screens, but the bare minimum has proved insufficient in the modern era.
One such example is Memoirs of a Geisha, a 2005 film about a young girl’s rise to fame in the geisha industry. The film was set in Japan and included notable Japanese actors like Ken Watanabe, but primarily starred Chinese actresses (and a fuckass pair of comically blue contact lenses) in the leading roles.
Hollywood is always eager to fill Asian roles with any Asian people, regardless of nation or ethnicity. It may not matter to Western audiences who see an Asian face and move on to other things, but Asian people across the diaspora have been consistently vocal about assigning Asian roles only to appropriately corresponding Asian actors, a frustratingly easy task that never seems to come to fruition for most Western-made media. This aspect is one of many highlights of Shōgun—made by Japanese people, and starring Japanese people.
All Hail Sanada
Hiroyuki Sanada, who stars as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, also served as producer of the series. According to a Hollywood Reporter feature on Sanada’s work on Shōgun, the Japanese actor only agreed to star as Toranaga if the series would prioritize hiring Japanese actors, crew, and specialists. “We needed to create an authentic script matching for the modern audiences,” the article states, “easy to understand, but not Westernized, not modernized too much. Avoid any stereotypical episodes or words or movement or violence, nudity.”
Sanada’s efforts are evident in the legitimacy of each episode, in every costume, in every word spoken. The series does not feel like a caricature made by the West, yet it carries with it a Hollywood extravagance, a dramatic and powerful atmosphere (and a huge budget) that is not present in Japan-made period dramas. It truly is a harmonious collaboration between East and West, and the final result is accessible for audiences and fans from both sides. As long as you’re capable of reading subtitles, Shōgun is for everyone.
What Does Japan Have to Say?
Shōgun boasts a large following of fans and viewers who closely follow plot and character development as each episode airs, both in the United States and in Japan. With a large portion of the dialogue spoken in Japanese with English subtitles, Japanese fans (mostly young people, surprisingly) have taken an interest in the American-made series. Being easily available to stream on Disney+ here certainly helps.
Overall, the feedback from Japan has been overwhelmingly positive. With familiar faces like Sanada, Anna Sawai, and Tadanobu Asano, to name a few, taking the lead on the big screen, Japanese fans of the actors are tuning in just to see them star in a Hollywood-produced, big-time series. Japanese history fanatics are also watching to see what the hype is all about.
A recent Yahoo! News Japan article sang its praises about Shōgun, claiming that the series “has been lauded by many people with a deep knowledge of Japan’s history, such as Ken Matsudaira, for not compromising any aspect of a proper period drama.” Matsudaira, a famed Japanese jidaigeki, or period drama, actor who portrayed Tokugawa Yoshimune on TV series The Unfettered Shōgun for 25 years, is quoted in the article as praising producer Sanada for his stellar work on Shōgun’s costume design, performance quality, and fight choreography. “I thank him for sharing a truthful representation of jidaigeki with the rest of the world”, he said, “and I support his passion and enthusiasm from the bottom of my heart.”
One fan posted on the platform X (formerly known as Twitter), “It makes me super happy that Japanese-related works, like Shōgun, House of Ninjas, and Godzilla Minus One#ad, are becoming more popular all over the world.”
Pictured: an old jidaigeki film from Director Akira Kurosawa (Source: BFI)
Difficult Material
The same Yahoo! article mentioned that the series is even hooking people that are not typically fans of historical period dramas, people that “shied away from historical material simply because they could not relate to the characters or did not understand the historical background of the time.”
Jidaigeki, which have been airing on Japanese television since the 1960s, have explored various historical figures and time periods throughout Japanese history, shown most commonly through a long-running TV drama format but also through films, video games, and anime. The most prominent example of jidaigeki is Japanese TV network NHK’s Taiga drama, a year-long series that changes themes, characters, and casts every year, but whose plots draw from the endless fountain of Japanese history. It’s not uncommon for various dramas to portray the story of the same historical figure over and over again, just with different actors.
In my mind, jidaigeki was something exclusively watched by my obāchan (grandmother) and occasionally my mom; certainly not anyone under the age of 40. Young me thought they were boring, with too much talking and only the occasional sword fight or spurt of violence. The beautiful, intricate kimonos worn by the female actresses were the only thing that really caught my eye, but only because I wished I was the one wearing them.
College me thought the history itself was interesting, but couldn’t keep up with the old-fashioned, period-appropriate language , lost in the overall story as it became jumbled with too-technical terminology and too many important names to remember. English subtitles were nonexistent unless you tried your luck on sketchy fan-made websites.
No Longer Just for Old People
Shōgun is making this fascinating history more accessible not only to younger audiences, but especially to those whose comprehension of the story previously suffered from the language barrier. I may be a native bilingual speaker, but Shakespeare didn’t make much sense to me either on the first read; Japanese is no different. With subtitles that make the story clearer and more concisely written dialogue that progress the plot without dragging it out, Shōgun has made learning about history more captivating than ever.
Jidaigeki is not without its efforts in attempting to reach younger audiences—just last year, Jun Matsumoto of pop boy band “Arashi” fame portrayed Tokugawa Ieyasu#ad, the same historical figure that inspired Yoshii Toranaga in Shōgun. However, Japan’s low budget and (in my opinion, boring) production style have largely deterred the youth from taking an interest. Hollywood’s grand take on Japanese history, with a production budget of massive scale behind it, is seeking to change that through Shōgun.
What About the White Guy?
Ah yes, the age-old question that presents itself in any Hollywood-produced media about Asia: how problematic are the white people in it? Shōgun features one prominent white character, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), an English sailor who shipwrecks off the coast of Ajiro, a region that belongs to Toranaga. Blackthorne’s character is based on William Adams, an English navigator who was in fact the first Englishman in history to reach Japan. Adams later went on to serve as a samurai under Tokugawa Ieyasu, AKA every Japanophile’s dream come true.
Finding himself forced to serve Lord Toranaga, Blackthorne, nicknamed “Anjin” after the word for sea pilot, has no choice but to adapt to his new environment, with its unfamiliar people, language, and customs. The approach to Blackthorne’s discomfort with his new life in Japan is quite well done. Through subtle storytelling, such as his initial refusal to bathe more than once a week or his clumsiness in a kimono, Blackthorne is clearly depicted as an outsider, and rightfully so. Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai), an intelligent noblewoman who serves as interpreter under Toranaga, takes note of his unusual hair and eye color and other Caucasian features, but does not kiss the ground he walks on simply because he is white or foreign.
Not Another Tom Cruise Type
Blackthorne is not an immediate hero. For most of the first three episodes, he is not much more than an angry prisoner, although he proves knowledgeable about Portugues affairs and is quick on his feet when it counts. In the fourth episode, “The Eightfold Fence”, he is instructed to teach combat tactics to Yabushige’s army, but does not have any actual experience to offer; instead, he teaches naval combat.
The Anjin, referred to simply as “the barbarian” by many before being promoted to hatamoto rank by Toranaga, is not given the usual easy praise offered to white people in Asian-centered media. He has to prove himself and earn it, through much trial and error. Better yet, his “progress” is not made at the expense of Japanese people, and Shōgun manages to avoid tropes that emasculate Japanese men and make them seem less than their white counterparts. It’s safe to say that production did their homework when figuring out how to avoid idolizing a white savior type, yet another bonus of having a Japanese-led team behind the creation of the series.
Final Thoughts
At this point in time, Shōgun still has the latter half of its episodes waiting to air, but even from the pilot it is evident that this series has great promise. It’s thrilling and exciting, even when violence and sex are not given center stage the way political dialogue fraught with tension has been so far. It makes a centuries-old history appealing, without the textbook bore and struggle to remember who’s who. The Japanese input in the creation of this story shines through in the attention to detail and historical accuracy. As a Japanese-American, it’s the perfect collision of two very different, but fascinating, worlds.
Photos are property of FX.
Olivia Snyder is a Japanese-American trilingual interpreter and translator from Ohio. She currently lives in Japan working as a Coordinator of International Relations.
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