Shōgun (1975) (edit title/settings)

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Characters edit see section history

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• John Blackthorne (Anjin-san): Protagonist. English Pilot-Major of the Eramus, the last surviving ship of a Dutch trade fleet stranded in 16th century Japan.Based on the real-life explorer William Adams.
• Salamon the mute: crewman of the Erasmus
• Hendrik Specz: third mate of the Erasmus
• Alban Caradoc: Pilot and shipwright, to whom Blackthorn was an apprentice at Trinitiy House. A eunuch.
• Johann Vinck: chief gunner and bosun's mate aboard the Erasmus
• Ginsel: crewman aboard the Erasmus
• Baccus van Nekk: Chief Merchant aboard the Erasmus
• Croocq: crewman of the Erasmus. Only 15 when they are shipwrecked.
• Yoshi Toranaga-noh-Minowara: Japanese military commander and head of his household. Daimyo of the 8 Provinces.
• Paulus Spillbergen: Captain-General aboard the Erasmus. Hurt badly in the initial shipwrecking in Japan.
• Toda Mariko-noh-Buntaro: Nobel Japanese lady, assigned to Blackthorne as his translator.
• Vasco Rodrigues: Portuguese pilot
• Ishido: Japanese military commander, rival to Toranaga. From peasant roots, where Toranaga is from nobility, making Ishido unable to accept the title of Shogun.
• Kasigi Yabu: Lord of Izu. Minor daimyo.Vasal to Toranaga.
• Yoshikawa Fujiko: Samurai. Her husband and son are dead. Not very pretty.
• Kiyama: Christian daimyio.
• Zataki: Toranaga's step brother.
• Father Alvito: One of the main fathers. Is able to speak Japanese fluently and is used as a translator.He's a christian, and also a portuguese.
• Ferriera: Spanish general of the Dark ship.
• Lady Ochiba: Yaemon's mother. Also, the most important concubine of latest taiko.
• Nakamura: Taiko. He is dead.
• Kasigi Omi: Samurai in charge of Anjiro. Nephew of Kasigi Yabu.
• Gyoko: The Mama-san of her own Tea house (read: whore house). Likes sake a little too much, and is very greedy.
• Onoshi: One of the main daimyos; on the council of Regents. Ally to Ishido. A Christian convert and a lepros.
• Michael: Add a description of this character.
• Kiri: The main concubine of Gyoko's house.
• Jan Roper
• Igurashi
• Midori: Wife of Omi-san.
• Sudara: Daimyo.
• Sugiyama
• Yaemon: The Heir to the late Taiko.Son of Ochiba
• Lady Sazuko
• Goroda
• Father Sebastio: Portuguese Jesuit Priest in Izu
• Uraga: A Japanese convert to Christianity. Can speak Portugese.
• Yodoko
• Nekk
• Mura: Headman in the village of Anjiro in Izu, a Japanese Christian Convert
• Buntaro: Husband of Mariko and general for Toranaga's army.

Quotes edit see section history

• “I didn’t know if you wanted his head, or his head on his body seeing he was a barbarian, so I brought the body with the head still on.”

• “How can a man be so brave and so stupid, so gentle and so cruel, so warming and so detestable – all at the same time?”

• “We have a saying that time has no single measure, that time can be like frost or lightning or a tear or siege or storm or sunset, or even like a rock.”

• “Why is it the female hawk, the falcon, is always bigger and faster and stronger than the male, always better than the male?”

• “Listen, if you want peace you must learn to drink cha from an empty cup.”

• “Of what real value is a title? The power is the only important thing”

• “Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don’t give way to the seven, you’re patient, then you’ll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity.’”

  Highlighted by 179 Kindle customers

• ‘Always remember, child,’ her first teacher had impressed on her, ‘that to think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral you down into ever-increasing un-happiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort.

  Highlighted by 106 Kindle customers

• “Patience means restraining yourself. There are seven emotions, neh? Joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear, and hate. If a man doesn’t give way to these, he’s patient.

  Highlighted by 104 Kindle customers

• Look at this sunset, it’s beautiful, neh? This sunset exists. Tomorrow does not exist. There is only now. Please look. It is so beautiful and it will never happen ever again, never, not this sunset, never in all infinity. Lose yourself in it, make yourself one with nature and do not worry about karma, yours, mine, or that of the village.”

  Highlighted by 89 Kindle customers

• ‘Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life.’

  Highlighted by 88 Kindle customers

• How beautiful life is and how sad! How fleeting, with no past and no future, only a limitless now.

  Highlighted by 81 Kindle customers

• How baffling it was that even the most cunning and clever people would frequently see only what they wanted to see, and would rarely look beyond the thinnest of facades. Or they would ignore reality, dismissing it as the facade.

  Highlighted by 70 Kindle customers

• ‘A man’s fate is a man’s fate and life is but an illusion.’”

  Highlighted by 63 Kindle customers

• “Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san. Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal. We have no word for ‘love’ as I understand you to mean it. Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need.”

  Highlighted by 59 Kindle customers

• Never forget Japmen’re six-faced and have three hearts. It’s a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for all the world to see, another in his breast to show his very special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except himself alone, hidden only God knows where.

  Highlighted by 48 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Osaka
• Nagasaki
• Japan
• Anjiro
• Kyushu
• Kyoto
• Yokohama
• Yedo

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Tai-Pan.

Preceded by The Picture of Dorian Gray, and followed by The Day of the Triffids.

Preceded by The Great Train Robbery, and followed by Humboldt's Gift.

Preceded by In the Woods, and followed by Relic.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. James Clavell (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• BBC's Big Read (April 2003, #119)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3553.L365 S5 1975
• Dewey: 823.914

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Action & Adventure

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Learning from Shogun: This book is intended for those who have read James Clavell’s Shogun and who are curious about its educational significance as “A Novel of Japan.”
• Wikipedia page for Shogun (novel)

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Shogun (1980) (IMDb): TV mini-series staring Richard Chamberlain, Toshirô Mifune, and Yôko Shimada

More Books Like This edit see section history