Well, if you’ve been living under a rock, you likely haven’t heard of the newly-released Shōgun series on FX/Hulu. But the rest of you probably haven’t been able to avoid seeing something about it. There’s a good reason for this…
IT’S F*CKING AWESOME!!!!
I mean, that’s probably the review. You can stop reading now. But, if you want to get your money’s worth from this post, keep going.
The first episode hooked me quickly. Now, mind you, I’ve never read the novel (don’t @ me, I’ll fix that soon) and I’ve never watched the Richard Chamberlain series, so I have no anchors or concerns. Besides, it stars my favorite actor, Hiroyuki Sanada!!
We open with an interesting exchange between a scurvy-crazed (likely) captain talking with his navigator, John Blackthorne. They’re basically discussing the hopelessness of it all.
Anyway, let’s fast-forward a bit. The remaining crew make landfall… and are captured. One dude is tortured to death (it’s pretty gnarly, too). Then there’s a booby scene, then stuff really gets moving towards the mission. Great setup so far.
Episode Two Turns Up The Volume
Everything about Episode 1 was great, but damn they turned it up a notch for Ep.02! I actually feel like e02 is a better, overall, episode than the first. Now, it wouldn’t be that without e01, but it’s just really good TV. Sanada-san delivers his usual, flawless performance, but what’s really compelling to me is the supporting cast (because I expect Sanada-san to excel). Cosmo Jarvis surprised me delightfully as John Blackthorne (“Anjin”, 按針; Japanese for “pilot”, also the title of e01). Anna Sawai is amazingly enchanting and incredibly beautiful as Lady Mariko, and her performance matches. And I absolutely love how unpredictably cunning & conniving Tadanobu Asano’s character, Kashigi Yabushige, can be — and he plays the role well!
This is a 10/10 for me. Go watch it!
(Mature Audiences for language, gore, torture, nudity, and action violence)
I f*cking love history and fun connections!
So, I’ve been reading Miyamoto Musashi’s writings, as well as the Vagabond manga (a fictionalized version of Musashi’s life). And of course I’ve been watching Shōgun. Here are some really cool things I learned about some connections among them all!
John Blackthorne, the lead Englishman character in Shōgun, is based on a real, historical person William Adams (a navigator). Adams was born 4yrs prior to Miyamoto Musashi, making them contemporaries. But, it’s cooler than just that…
Adams actually did successfully navigate to Japan from the Netherlands. And they went the long way.
The Journey Begins…
Adams was part of an expedition of five ships with a crew of 500 who sailed from Holland to South America, around the tip & into the Pacific. It’s likely these persons came across the then-undiscovered Hawai’i or the Line Islands of Kiribati — officially discovered some 200 years later. According to accounts, a few of the men actually stayed on one of these islands to make a life for themselves.
By the time Adams and company made it to Kyūshū, only one ship remained and twenty-three crewpersons. Of these, nine successfully made it ashore in Japan, alive. I’ve read varying accounts of the final count of survivors, but I’m sticking with this one for now. Mostly because it seems to be the content used in the novel and show (which is historical fiction, I know…).
Now, here’s where things start to get pretty cool…!
The daimyō, Tokugawa Ieyasu, took Adams in as a navigator (or, “pilot”, 按針) and eventually a trade manager & confidant (of sorts). Adams wasn’t allowed to leave Japan, initially, but this changed later (he opted to stay, having fallen in love with the country & peoples).
Eventually, Adams was given a samurai title and in the ceremony William Adams “died” and Miura Anjin now lives. He played a critical role in Japan’s trade industry for the daimyō (now Shōgun) which played a factor in the Japanese civil war known as The Battle of Sekigahara.
Okay, so the stage is set for a big civil war, right? And Anjin’s (neé Adams) role has been laid out.
Miyamoto Musashi [apparently] fought in The Battle of Sekigahara in the east side in opposition to Tokugawa (the daimyō whom Anjin served). Musashi would’ve been 16 years old.
Musashi’s renown & legend grew during this battle, though he never really said much about his time fighting in the battle himself (hence, “apparently”). He may have ignored it in his writings since the east lost & he may not have wanted the notoriety or shame (conjecture on my part), or perhaps there was a death warrant out for opposition soldiers, I dunno. Maybe he just didn’t want to take the “L.”
According to Spanish historians one of the main reasons the east lost, despite having a massively larger set of forces, was due to Anjin’s trade efforts making the west’s forces more well-armed with cannons, guns, and other implements of war (mass defections from east to west helped, too, BTW).
So, Adams/Anjin and Musashi were not only contemporaries, but their paths almost certainly crossed — if not literally, at least experientially in the effects of war. Cool, right??
Now, go watch the show!
I agree it's awesome - I've seen the Richard Chamberlain mini-series quite a few times and read the book twice and it's still a great story. Some liberties in the video, but that's pretty much inevitable. Sanada-san is, indeed, wonderful and it's wonderful to see Anna Sawai (Monarch, Legacy of Monsters) and Nestor Carbonell (The Morning Show) really showing off their abilities! Have only watched the first episode but looking forward to the nest 9!