Shogun

Shogun – by James Clavell

“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.”

James Clavell’s Shogun is one of those rare books that manages to suck you directly into the pages of the story. At times, you don’t feel you're reading about the alien country of Japan in the year 1600, but you feel as though you’re actually there experiencing the history, the politics, the geography and these strange, unfamiliar people.  I use words such as ‘strange’, ‘alien’ and ‘unfamiliar’, because from a European perspective in 1600, such a land may as well have been on another planet.

John Blackthorne is a Dutch captain of a trading ship that is the first from his country to attempt to sail to Japan. His goal is to reap the commerce of Asia. The ship is swallowed up by a storm and wrecks off the shore of Japan, and he and his remaining crew are taken prisoner by these strange indigenous people.  It seems as though the Japanese don’t welcome such foreigners on their land – regardless of the reason. Immediately the crew goes through various degrees of captivity and torture.  It is soon discovered, though, that John Blackthorne just might be smart and educated enough to serve the Japanese and their broader purpose.

It’s here that the book reveals the main storyline.  The Japanese people are quite barbaric, and there is an unending quest for power and domination amongst the different habitants. Through the bizarre system, the country is essentially divided into two loyalties. One, is Lord Toranaga, the president of the Council of Regents. The other, his rival on the council, named Ishido. Both Toranaga and Ishido have the goal of becoming the ultimate leader in Japan, the Shogun. Toranaga has a bit of a disadvantage, yet slowly starts to see how this ‘barbarian’ Blackthrone (called ‘Anjin-san’ by the Japanese, as they can’t pronounce his real name) can aid him get the upper hand with this lifelong struggle. So Blackthorne becomes a very valuable pawn for Toranaga in a bloody, brutal, never-ending chess game.

I’ve basically described the plot, but there is oh so much more here. The paperback edition clocks in at over 1,200 pages. In addition to love, betrayal, religious schisms, lots of suicide (called ‘seppeku’), and ongoing manipulation, we’re exposed to what makes Japan such a strange, baffling country. Blackthorne simply can’t understand many of these brutal customs. At one point, his translator-friend-lover Mariko explains to him that ‘love’ as he knows it simply doesn’t exist for her and her people.  In 16^th century Japan, there is honor, loyalty, duty, and subjugation, but nothing that closely resembles love. Of course, the sentiment goes the other way as well.  The Japanese can’t comprehend European thought either. Example: it’s a sacrilege to them that a European would go for a week (or in the case of these characters, several years) without bathing.  They also can’t fathom how Blackthorne can actually eat something as hideous as ‘meat’ in his diet.  When he tries to explain to his kitchen staff how to prepare a pheasant for cooking, several of the natives run out of the kitchen to be sick.

So in addition to the political cat-and-mouse story going back and forth, we also see Blackthorne slowly becoming ‘Japanese’, and his companion Mariko starts to slowly become westernized as well.  When I finished this book, I couldn’t help but reflect that this wasn’t exactly a book chock-filled with adventure. Nor did the story seem to take place over a long period of time. You might expect this to be the case with a 1,200-page book, but most of what was in these pages was slow-moving reflections, careful dialog, and the ability for the reader to comfortably let the time and place of Japan slowly be absorbed into their veins. 

There are a few other European characters scattered about the story – mostly Portuguese Jesuits that have their own agenda, but there are a ton of different Japanese characters. It’s a bit difficult to keep track of who is who. We also have instances where many of the main characters are only referred to in the book as opposed to actually showing up in the story. I found myself having to constantly ask “Who is this guy again?” Fortunately, this never took away from my overall enjoyment of the story.  In fact, as someone who tries to read 40-50 books per year, I can honestly say this book easily catapulted itself into my top 10 (or maybe top 5) of all time.  This book was master storytelling.