Loosely based on actual events and figures, Shōgun narrates how European interests and internal conflicts within Japan brought about the Shogunate restoration.
Portugal had profited as Japan’s exclusive European trading partner for more than 50 years, but it became uneasy when the newly arrived Protestant Dutch threatened their monopoly.
[1] The clandestine mission of the Dutch ship Erasmus was to compete with Portugal for Japan and the rest of the lucrative far East Asian trade.
After much of its crew, including its captain, dies, it ends up marooned in Izu Harbor, the survivors thereby becoming the first Protestants to set foot in Japan.
Toranaga has the ship’s navigator Blackthorne brought to him in Osaka, knowing that the Erasmus could be a source of advantages against Lord Ishido, his chief rival in the Council.
Toranaga's meeting with Blackthorne is faithfully translated by a Portuguese Jesuit, Father Alvito, despite revelations of war between Catholic Portugal and Elizabethan England.
In Anjiro, Blackthorne threatens to commit seppuku after Yabu says he will burn down the village if the Englishman doesn't learn Japanese fast enough.
At the book's end, Toranaga in soliloquy says he sank the Erasmus to form alliances with the Catholic lords, who in return agreed not to kill Blackthorne.
Clavell based each character on a historical figure, but changed their names in order to add narrative deniability to the story.
He achieved high status managing commercial activities for Tokugawa's shogunate, though much of the interaction between the various characters in the novel was invented.
[5] The New York Times's Webster Schott wrote, "I can't remember when a novel has seized my mind like this one [...] It's almost impossible not to continue to read Shōgun once having opened it".
[8] In addition to becoming a best-seller, with more than six million copies of the novel in 14 hardcover and 38 paperback printings by 1980, Shōgun had great impact on westerners' knowledge of, and interest in, Japanese history and culture.
Henry Smith, editor of Learning from Shōgun: Japanese History and Western Fantasy (1980), estimated that 20 to 50% of all students in American college-level courses about Japan had read the novel.
"[12] He reported that the ruler of a Middle Eastern petrostate offered him a full oil tanker for a novel that would do for his country what Shōgun did for Japan.
Clavell and Bercovici decided to simplify the story for an American television audience by omitting one of the two major plot lines of the novel, the struggle between Toranaga and the other warlords, and focusing on the adventures of Blackthorne and his romance with Mariko.
[3] This nine-hour television miniseries aired in 1980, starring Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, Yoko Shimada, and John Rhys-Davies.
[15] The 2024 series stars Hiroyuki Sanada, who also served as co-producer, Cosmo Jarvis, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Takehiro Hira, Tommy Bastow and Fumi Nikaido.
A unique graphical adventure game, Shōgun, was also produced for systems including the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and IBM PC by Lee & Mathias and released by Virgin Entertainment in 1986.