I just recently finished watching the Hulu/FX television series Shogun. For those who haven’t seen it yet, it’s an adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 historical fiction novel of the same name. It tells the story of John Blackthorne, an English navigator who shipwrecks on the Japanese coast in the year 1600 while trying to establish maritime trade with the country, and Yoshii Toranaga, a clever feudal lord (daimyo) trying to navigate an increasingly fraught political landscape. These characters are fictional analogues to historical figures; namely John Blackthorne is a fictional William Adams and Yoshii Toranaga a fictional Tokugawa Ieyasu. I’ve never read James Clavell’s book, nor have I watched the adaptation that was made in 1980, so I came into this series without any real foreknowledge of the story or the real life events that inspired it. After watching this series, I understand why it won all the acclaim and awards that it did (something like 18 Emmys). Put simply, it’s a fantastic show. And it has two more seasons in development.
If you’re still here, all handful of you lovely readers, some other non-spoiler notes. Most of the dialogue is in Japanese, a choice I hope other shows take note of. It seems to be the case that with the rise of streaming and the subsequent accessibility of international shows, the U.S. market has gained a bit more familiarity with, and acceptance of, subtitles. It’s a welcome change to my mind; I don’t see how Shogun could have worked near so well as it did without keeping all of the Japanese. I mean, the story takes place entirely in Japan. With regards to languages beyond Japanese though, namely Portuguese, accommodations were made. John Blackthorne is a Protestant English navigator, but at this point in history it was the Portuguese, the Catholics, who had a stranglehold on Japanese trade. As a result, Portuguese was the lingua franca of the time, the trade language so to speak. Blackthorne knows Portuguese, and as such uses it to converse with the locals and the Portuguese traders and the Jesuit monks. But in the show, while they say they’re speaking Portuguese, they’re speaking English instead; because this is an American production. It works. There was a brief point of confusion in the first episode for me when Blackthorne is speaking English with his shipmates. He talks of speaking Portuguese with their Japanese captors, only to then speak English to the Jesuit monk translating his words ostensibly from Portuguese to Japanese for Yabushige, the local lord of the region where Blackthorne and crew shipwrecked. But after I realized what was going on and got that fixed in my head, there weren’t any subsequent issues. It essentially just amounts to all languages other than Japanese are relegated to English. It felt a fair balance. It still allows for all of the important character work and quirks that derive from being in a foreign country where you don’t know the language and translation is often required, without making things too unfriendly for the general American audience.
But what of other important characters beyond Blackthorne and Toranaga? There are many standouts, and an impressive female cast led by Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko. She serves Lord Toranaga and acts as translator for Blackthorne, given her being a Catholic convert who learned Portuguese from a priest. Her story is brilliantly depicted, tragic in its background and motivation. She is a complex character who does her best to adhere rigorously to feudal era Japan’s idea of honor. She often serves as the sole point of connection between Blackthorne and his surroundings, a translator not just of words but of culture, of the secret heart and self that people bury deep, of hidden ambition, of hidden sorrows, of hidden shame.
Lastly, and this is a heavy topic so feel free to stop here, this show, as my brother further highlighted to me when we talked of it, really explores feudal era Japan’s perspective on death and honor-driven suicide. It’s different than the classical European or American perspective, different from the Christian take that labels suicide a sin. I’m no expert on Japanese culture, so I can’t say for sure on the why of things, but it feels tied to the differing beliefs regarding the afterlife. Ancestor worship in Japan was/is much more prevalent, and along with that the belief that spirits of the dead are tangible and real, existing alongside the living. Whether due to that or the Buddhist beliefs in karma and rebirth, the stigma associated with death, at least for some and in certain ways, feels lessened, though no less tragic. Some characters in the show speak of choosing to die along with their lord, if only to continue in their service, to be with their lord after death. I’m not sure how prevalent that type of action was historically, but I know there are records of it being done. Other times suicide is depicted as the only way to atone for a mistake or damage to one’s honor. It’s a … disturbing take at times, and Blackthorne’s confusion and revulsion is often tangible. Honor is a very human concept; it is complicated and comes in uncountable flavors. And the traps that humanity can lay for itself, the web of responsibilities and lies and truths and expectations, are as myriad and complex as any of humanity’s most impressive technical creations, as the gearing of a watch or the design of a computer’s processing chip. Humanity has ever been good at convincing itself that choice is but an illusion, all too often for tragic or ill-conceived ends. In this show, the strings of ambition and familial bond bind most tightly of all.
All the best,
M. Weald
M. Weald 