68 Fun Facts About Shogun TV Series

The 2024 series Shōgun is based on a 1975 novel by which author?

James Clavell. He spent three years as a prisoner of the Japanese in the Second World War, an ordeal he later called his university, then set his most famous novel in Japan.

In feudal Japan, the title shōgun belonged to what kind of leader?

A military commander. For centuries the shōguns, not the emperors who formally appointed them, usually held the real power in Japan.

Which British actor plays the shipwrecked pilot John Blackthorne in Shōgun (2024)?

Cosmo Jarvis. He has said he borrowed Blackthorne's way of speaking from his father, a merchant seaman, who also suggested the depth-sounding scene.

Which actress plays the translator Lady Toda Mariko in Shōgun (2024)?

Anna Sawai. Born in New Zealand, she found fame in Japan as a singer in the girl group Faky, then left it in 2018 to go back to acting.

In Shōgun, which faith does the translator Mariko follow?

Catholicism. Mariko is modelled on Hosokawa Gracia, a real noblewoman and convert who died when her husband's enemies came to take her hostage, by most accounts at a retainer's hand.

Shōgun's creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks are what to each other?

Husband and wife. Shōgun was their first project together, and the five-plus years it took spanned a pandemic, a move to Maui and the births of both their children.

Blackthorne is loosely based on which real English navigator who became a samurai?

William Adams. He built Japan's ruler two Western-style ships and was rewarded with an estate, and when he was finally free to sail home in 1613, he chose to stay.

Which real Japanese ruler is the model for Lord Toranaga?

Tokugawa Ieyasu. His shogunate ruled Japan for over 250 years, and after his death he was worshipped as a god, with a lavish shrine at Nikkō that his grandson enlarged.

Which series was the first non-English-language nominee for the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy, before Shōgun?

Squid Game. The Korean thriller lost the 2022 prize to Succession, but its star Lee Jung-jae still became the first Asian winner of the Emmy for lead actor in a drama.

Rather than Japan, where was principal photography for Shōgun's first season based?

Vancouver, British Columbia. To pass Canada's coast off as 1600 Japan, the crew imported fabrics, swords and ropes and planted a Japanese pine on set, later donated to a nearby city.

Shōgun co-composer Atticus Ross won two Oscars working with which rock frontman?

Trent Reznor. For Shōgun, Ross worked instead with his brother Leopold and Nick Chuba, recording Japanese court music and then warping it electronically into the score.

Which video game designer likened Shōgun to "a Game of Thrones set in 17th-century Japan"?

Hideo Kojima. The Metal Gear creator wrote that the Shōgun he had been "so crazy about" 42 years earlier was back, and said even people new to the story would be captivated.

Which Shōgun star opened his Golden Globes acceptance speech with "Maybe you don't know me"?

Tadanobu Asano. He went on, "I'm an actor from Japan", though Marvel fans had met him before, as the warrior Hogun in the Thor films.

Lord Toranaga is first seen in Shōgun's premiere pursuing which pastime?

Falconry. Watching his bird hunt, he praises how she hides against the sun and saves her strength for a single strike, which is how he goes on to deal with his rivals.

What is the name of the Dutch ship that carries Blackthorne to Japan?

Erasmus. The name comes from history: the real ship that reached Japan in 1600, the Liefde, had also been known as Erasmus and carried a statue of the Dutch scholar on its stern.

What name do the Japanese give Blackthorne, meaning "pilot"?

Anjin. His captors find the English name a mouthful, so they call him by his job instead, and the real navigator who inspired the character went by the same word.

Shōgun is set in 1600, during which English monarch's reign?

Elizabeth I. Her Protestant England was allied with the Dutch against the Catholic empires, which is why an English pilot was sailing with a Dutch fleet sent to raid and trade in seas those empires claimed.

Ajiro, the fishing village where Blackthorne's ship makes landfall, lies in which province?

Izu. The novel moved the landfall: the real ship that inspired the story drifted ashore in 1600 at Usuki, far away on the southern island of Kyushu.

Which Portuguese Jesuit priest, nicknamed "Tsuji", translates for Toranaga?

Father Martin Alvito. The real Jesuit behind him was the rulers' favoured interpreter for years, until the English pilot who inspired Blackthorne took over the job.

Who becomes Blackthorne's reluctant consort in Ajiro after her husband and infant son are put to death?

Usami Fuji. Her husband had spoken out of turn before the Council while defending Toranaga, and atoned with his own life and their baby's, ending his family line.

In Shōgun's "The Eightfold Fence", Toranaga's son Nagakado uses what to ambush the envoy Jozen?

Cannons. In the novel Blackthorne drills the men with muskets, but the writers swapped in chain shot because Japan had already had muskets for fifty years.

In Shōgun's "Broken to the Fist", which dead bird costs Blackthorne's gardener Uejiro his life?

A pheasant. Blackthorne hung Toranaga's gift outside and joked that touching it meant death, so when the stench upset the village, the old gardener took it down knowing the price.

What natural disaster strikes Ajiro in Shōgun's "Broken to the Fist", letting Blackthorne save Toranaga's life?

An earthquake. A landslide swallows Toranaga, and Blackthorne digs him out with his bare hands, then offers his own swords to replace the pair lost in the mud.

In Shōgun, Mariko's family is disgraced because her father did what?

Killed Japan's ruler. Akechi Jinsai echoes the real general who turned on his warlord at a Kyoto temple in 1582, only to be crushed soon after by a rival who took the realm himself.

What is the name of Toranaga's secret plan for a decisive strike on Osaka Castle?

Crimson Sky. Billed as a single violent rush on Osaka, it never needs an army: in the finale Toranaga reveals the rush was one person, Mariko, sent to split his enemies.

How does Toranaga slip out of Osaka Castle under his enemies' noses in Shōgun?

Hidden in his wife's litter. He swaps places with her at the last moment, and when a guard moves to look inside, Blackthorne kicks up an indignant fuss about a lady's honour until they are waved through.

In Shōgun's "A Stick of Time", the Council wins over Toranaga's half-brother Saeki with which prize?

The fifth regency. Saeki arrives as an ally, then reveals over dinner that the Council has bought him with the vacant seat and that his brother must answer to Osaka.

How does Toranaga's son Nagakado die in Shōgun?

He slips onto a rock. Sword raised over the uncle who betrayed his father, he loses his footing on wet stones; the accident is the show's invention, as the character survives the original novel.

Which of Toranaga's generals commits seppuku in Shōgun's eighth episode to make his lord's surrender look real?

Toda Hiromatsu. He opens his belly before the assembled vassals, and it falls to his own son to act as second and deliver the finishing stroke.

In Shōgun, Toranaga's surrender is put off for 49 days, a period custom reserves for what?

Mourning the dead. Buddhist custom keeps a family in mourning until the 49th day, and here the delay is a gift: at his son's grave Toranaga vows not to waste the time it has bought him.

In Shōgun's ninth episode, which weapon does Mariko use against the guards who block her way out of Osaka Castle?

A naginata. The long-handled blade was the weapon of choice for women of the samurai class, and Mariko takes on nearly a dozen guards with it before she is forced back.

How does Mariko die at the end of Shōgun's ninth episode?

An explosion at a storehouse door. She chooses it: as attackers set their charges she plants herself against the door, naming herself an Akechi, her father's name, not her husband's.

Which skill does Toranaga insist Blackthorne teach him at the end of Shōgun's third episode?

Diving. It gives the episode its title: when Mariko suggests the lesson could wait a day, Toranaga replies that tomorrow is tomorrow, and that today he will learn how to dive.

In Shōgun's finale, Toranaga admits he had Blackthorne's ship burned for what reason?

To keep the pilot from leaving Japan. Blackthorne blames a bargain with the Church, but Toranaga admits the fire was his own doing, a test of a man he expects never to sail home.

Which Ajiro villager is unmasked in Shōgun as a samurai who has been spying for Toranaga all along?

Muraji. The humble Christian fisherman who interprets for Blackthorne is really a samurai, Tonomoto Akinao, and he protects his cover by pinning the spying on a dead gardener.

Whose seppuku closes Shōgun's first season, with Toranaga himself acting as his second?

Yabushige. Condemned for helping the attack on Osaka Castle, he asks whether Toranaga always meant to rule, gets no answer, and goes to his death above the sea smiling.

Which real battle does Shōgun's finale foresee as Toranaga's coming victory over Ishido?

Sekigahara. Like the novel, the series stops short of the battle and shows only a brief vision of it: the author's daughter recalled that he loved his characters so much he felt the story was already told.

Shōgun's finale opens on old Blackthorne in England, which proves to be what?

A future he imagines. The episode is titled "A Dream of a Dream", and the vision of dying at home clutching a keepsake fades once he lets it sink into the sea.

In Shōgun, Mariko tells Blackthorne that the "eightfold fence" lets a person do what?

Hide their true feelings. She warns him not to be fooled by bows and politeness: beneath them, she says, a person can be a great distance away, "safe and alone".

Which actor won a guest-acting Emmy as Shōgun's rival pilot Rodrigues?

Néstor Carbonell. Best known as the ageless Richard Alpert in Lost, he won for a part that had brought John Rhys-Davies only a nomination in the 1980 miniseries.

In Shōgun's premiere, how is one of Blackthorne's crewmen put to death in his place?

Boiled alive. Blackthorne was the one chosen to die until he stamped on a priest's cross, which so amused the local lord that a crewmate went into the pot instead.

Already its network's costliest series, Shōgun ran a 30-second trailer during which 2024 broadcast?

The Super Bowl. Adweek shrugged at the bill: the show was already the most expensive its network had made, "so what's another $7 million-ish for an ad?"

Which Japanese pop artist said Shōgun's first season was a major influence on a 2024 Gagosian exhibition?

Takashi Murakami. He was struck by how its characters read their death poems before ritual suicide, and answered with paintings of an old Kyoto shaped by brutal political conflict.

Shōgun's Mariko actress was the first Japanese performer to win which Emmy?

Lead Actress in a Drama. She was the first Asian winner in the category's history, and dedicated the award "to all the women who expect nothing and continue to be an example".

Before Shōgun, the actress who plays Mariko played corporate climber Naomi in which Apple TV+ drama?

Pachinko. She took the part, a woman fighting for standing in 1980s corporate Japan, to avoid being typecast as an action star after a Fast & Furious film.

Shōgun's Mariko actress made her acting debut as a child, in the title role of which musical?

Annie. Singing lessons from her mother helped her win the orphan's part, which she shared with another girl in a Tokyo staging that was also broadcast on Nippon TV.

Shōgun's Toranaga actor was the childhood protégé of which Japanese action star?

Sonny Chiba. The boy's first film role, at five, was as the son of Chiba's character, and he then trained at the star's Japan Action Club, learning to fight, ride and do his own stunts.

Shōgun's Toranaga actor played Ujio, the master swordsman who trains an American officer, in which film?

The Last Samurai. He kept correcting its picture of Japan on set, so the director asked him to stay on through post-production, and he has advised Hollywood on Japanese culture ever since.

The actor who plays Blackthorne in Shōgun had a viral 2011 hit with a love song about two what?

Pirates. "Gay Pirates", a jaunty anthem about love on the high seas, came with a costume-epic video he directed himself, a decade before he was cast as a shipwrecked sailor.

Which actor played Blackthorne in the 1980 NBC miniseries of Shōgun?

Richard Chamberlain. The novel's author had wanted Albert Finney, then declared the star he settled for excellent, and the part helped crown Chamberlain "king of the mini-series".

Which legendary Japanese actor played Toranaga in the 1980 Shōgun miniseries?

Toshiro Mifune. By his daughter's account, Kurosawa's great star had turned down Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, fearing it would cheapen the samurai image; Toranaga brought him an Emmy nomination.

Which Hollywood legend is heard as the narrator of the 1980 Shōgun miniseries?

Orson Welles. The Citizen Kane director is heard, never seen, stepping in now and then to translate the harder Japanese exchanges that the broadcast left without subtitles.

Why did the 1980 Shōgun miniseries leave its Japanese dialogue without subtitles?

Viewers should share Blackthorne's confusion. The whole story was told from his point of view, so what he couldn't follow went untranslated; the 2024 series reverses this and subtitles its mostly Japanese dialogue.

Which replica sailing ship played Blackthorne's vessel in the 1980 Shōgun miniseries?

Golden Hinde. The copy of Drake's galleon sailed from California to Japan for the shoot, then carried on home to England across the Indian Ocean, rounding the globe as the original had.

When it aired in 1980, Shōgun became television's most successful miniseries after which earlier hit?

Roots. About a third of American homes with a television tuned in, giving NBC the best week in its history three years after Roots had shown what a miniseries could do.

Shown over five nights in 1980, Shōgun is often credited with popularising which food in America?

Sushi. The fad was part of a wider craze: one historian reckoned the saga taught more people about daily life in Japan than every scholar, journalist and novelist since the war.

The novel behind Shōgun was written by a former prisoner of war of the Japanese, whose camp years inspired which first novel?

King Rat. Its author spent three years in Japanese camps yet came to admire Japan deeply, and the Asian Saga that this first book began went on to include Shōgun.

Shōgun is set as Japan's age of civil war gives way to which long peace, named after Toranaga's capital?

Edo. The peace lasted from 1603 to 1868, and the fishing village that Toranaga's real counterpart made his base grew into the city now called Tokyo.

In Shōgun, Blackthorne warns Toranaga that the Portuguese keep a secret base, manned by Japanese mercenaries, in which port?

Macao. The base is stocked with guns and staffed by Christian rōnin, and the news changes Blackthorne's standing: from then on Toranaga treats him as an asset, not a pawn.

In Shōgun, the "Willow World" of the sixth episode's title is a polite name for what?

The pleasure quarters. Their Ajiro madam, Gin, trades a discount for a "stick of time" with Toranaga, an audience as long as one incense stick burns, and uses it to ask for a district of her own.

Why did Shōgun need a brand-new story to continue beyond its first ten episodes?

Season one used the whole novel. The next chapter has no book behind it: its makers say it is set ten years after the first and continues as a "historically-inspired saga".

Justin Marks joked that Shōgun was a costly subtitled period piece whose climax revolves around what?

A poetry competition. He said it on the Emmy stage while collecting the award for best drama, telling his backers: "I have no idea why you did that, but thank you for your faith."

In Shōgun, Blackthorne stuns Toranaga by revealing that Portugal has divided the world with which other kingdom?

Spain. Under the bargain, he explains, Japan "belongs" to Portugal, with a mandate to replace its rulers with Catholic ones, and that one word leaves Toranaga incredulous.

Which Shōgun character sweeps back into Osaka Castle and declares, "The Council will answer to me"?

Ochiba no Kata. As mother of the late Taikō's only heir she holds the trump card, like the real consort she is based on, who became her young son's guardian and one of the most powerful women in Japan.

Why did Shōgun's star film one day of footage in 2019, years early?

To keep the rights. The first attempt had stalled, so a single day's shooting of Toranaga on horseback kept the option on the novel alive while the series was rebuilt from scratch.

In a famous Japanese verse about a cuckoo that won't sing, what would the warlord behind Toranaga do?

Wait for it to sing. In the verse the first of Japan's three unifiers would kill the bird and the second would force it to sing; the third simply waits, and he was the one who ended up as shogun.

In Shōgun's finale, Blackthorne's consort is freed from her duties to become what?

A nun. Blackthorne tries to make her stay, then gives way and rows her out to sea, steadying her hand as she scatters the ashes of her husband and son.

In Shōgun, which daily Japanese custom does Blackthorne decline on the grounds that he already did it that week?

Taking a bath. To hosts who prize cleanliness the refusal makes no sense, and the scene turns the tables: here it is the Englishman who looks uncivilised.