Q 01/05

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

A) Arthur Golden

B) James Clavell

C) Eric Van Lustbader

D) James Michener

Answer · why

B) James Clavell

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...

Q 02/05

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

A) A hereditary emperor

B) A military commander

C) A Buddhist high priest

D) A merchant-guild chief

Answer · why

B) A military commander

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

Q 03/05

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

A) Tom Hardy

B) Cosmo Jarvis

C) Jack Lowden

D) Aidan Turner

Answer · why

B) Cosmo Jarvis

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.

Q 04/05

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

A) Karen Fukuhara

B) Rinko Kikuchi

C) Sonoya Mizuno

D) Anna Sawai

Answer · why

D) Anna Sawai

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.

Q 05/05

In Shōgun, which faith does the translator Mariko follow?

A) Shinto

B) Zen Buddhism

C) Catholicism

D) Pure Land Buddhism

Answer · why

C) Catholicism

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 mos...