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Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga in Shogun. The FX streaming series focuses the story more on the Japanese characters than the original NBC miniseries. Sanada worked as a producer on the film and advised the cast and crew on period authenticity.
Kurt Iswarlenko/FX
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Kurt Iswarlenko/FX
Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga in Shogun. The FX streaming series focuses the story more on the Japanese characters than the original NBC miniseries. Sanada worked as a producer on the film and advised the cast and crew on period authenticity.
Kurt Iswarlenko/FX
When Shogun, James Clavell’s best-selling novel, was adapted into a powerful NBC miniseries in 1980. The hero of the story was Englishman John Blackthorne.
The people he met when he landed in Japan in search of riches are seen and portrayed as primitive.
In the 2024 Shogun adaptation, the Japanese characters are fully formed. The series elevates the stories of the Japanese characters as much as Blackthorne’s.
That was a deliberate decision on the part of Shogun co-creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks.
In the 1980 version of Shogun, Japan, its culture and its people were portrayed as foreign and remote. What do we lose when stories are told from only one point of view? And what can be gained when we widen the lens?
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This episode was produced by Megan Lim. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.