Shogun

Shogun is a 1975 novel by American author James Clavell. It is one of six books in Clavell’s Asian Saga, which chronicles the ways Europeans interacted with countries in Asia from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The novel tells the story of English ship pilot John Blackthorne, loosely based on the real life navigator William Adams, who becomes intimately involved in the rise to power of Yoshi Toranaga, a fictionalized version of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun, or military dictator, of the islands, credited with unifying them into one country.

Shogun received critical acclaim, and was an enormously successful bestseller upon its release, introducing Japanese history and culture to the US. It was twice adapted for TV, in 1980 and in 2018. Please note that the book contains acts of and references to seppuku, which is a form of ritual suicide originally practiced by samurai and others in feudal Japan.

Plot Summary

When the book begins, one year has passed since the death of the taiko, the Japanese ruler. The taiko’s son Yaemon is the rightful heir, but he is not old enough to assume command, so when the taiko died, the leadership formed a Council of Regents.