Disney’s ‘Shogun’ Has a Lot to Teach the West
James Clavell’s 1975 novel introduced a generation to Japan. Almost 50 years on, the challenges are different for this new big-budget streaming adaptation.
Eita Okuno as Saeki Nobutatsu, Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko and Hiromoto Ida as Kiyama Ukon Sadanaga in Shogun.
Credit: Katie Yu/FX
One of the most famous tales ever set in Japan is back. Walt Disney Co. is spending millions on a glossy new adaptation of the James Clavell saga Shogun, the story of the Englishman who arrives in 1600s Japan and goes on to become a samurai.
First appearing as a beloved novel in 1975, then in a revolutionary 1980 small-screen adaptation that helped it reach a much wider audience, Shogun was the Game of Thrones of its time. The comparison is fair in more ways than one: In the book’s over-the-top depiction, medieval Japan can come across like the Westeros of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic — a confusing land whose brutal customs and palace intrigue are juxtaposed with heroism and codes of honor.