Premise[edit]
Beginning in feudal Japan some months before the critical Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Shōgun gives an account of the rise of the daimyō "Toranaga" (based upon the actual Tokugawa Ieyasu). Toranaga's rise to the shogunate is seen through the eyes of the English sailor John Blackthorne, called Anjin ("Pilot") by the Japanese, whose fictional heroics are loosely based on the historical exploits of William Adams. The book is divided into six sections, preceded by a prologue in which Blackthorne is shipwrecked near Izu, then alternating between locations in Anjiro, Mishima, Osaka, Yedo, and Yokohama.
Plot[edit]
John Blackthorne, an English pilot serving on the Dutch warship Erasmus, is the first Englishman to reach Japan. England (and Holland) seek to disrupt Portuguese-Catholic relations with Japan and establish ties of their own through trade and military alliances.
After Erasmus is blown ashore on the Japanese coast, Blackthorne and ten other survivors are taken captive by local samurai, Kasigi Omi, until his daimyō and uncle, Kasigi Yabu, arrives. Yabu puts Blackthorne and his crew on trial as pirates, using a Jesuit priest to interpret for Blackthorne. Having lost the trial, Blackthorne attacks the Jesuit. His breaking of the priest's crucifix shows that the priest is his enemy. The Japanese, who know only the Catholic version of Christianity, are shocked. Yabu sentences them all to death.
Omi, a clever adviser, convinces Yabu to spare them to learn more about European ways. After a failed rebellion by the Europeans, Blackthorne agrees to submit to Japanese authority. He is placed in a household, while his crew remain hostages. On Omi's advice, Yabu plans to confiscate the rutters, muskets, cannons, and silver coins recovered from Erasmus. Word reaches Toranaga, Lord of the Kwanto and president of the Council of Regents. Toranaga sends his commander in chief, General Toda "Iron Fist" Hiro-matsu, to take the spoils and crew in order to gain an advantage against Toranaga's main rival on the council, Ishido.