The Real Captain John Blackthorn of "Shogun"

[Jonathan Randall]

The Real Captain John Blackthorn of "Shogun":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adams_(sailor)

William Adams (September 24, 1564–May 16, 1620), also known in Japanese as Anjin-sama (anjin, "pilot"; sama, a Japanese social title or honorific more or less equivalent to lord) and Miura Anjin (三浦按針: "the pilot of Miura"), was an English navigator who traveled to Japan and is believed to be the first Briton ever to reach that country. He was the inspiration for the character of John Blackthorne in James Clavell's bestselling novel Shogun.
Soon after Adams' arrival in Japan, he became a key advisor to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and built for him Japan's first Western-style ships. Adams was later the key protagonist in the establishment of trading factories by the Netherlands and England. He was also highly involved in Japan's Red Seal Asian trade, chartering and captaining several sailboats to Southeast Asia. He died in Japan at the age of fifty-six, and is recognized to this day as one of the most influential foreigners during Japan's first period of opening to the West.

 

[Hand Sword]

He was real huh? I remember the movie years back. It was a great epic. It used to come on every so often, but, I haven't seen it in years.

 

[Sukerkin]

I'd recommend taking a look at "Samurai William" by Giles Milton if you want to delve deeper into the story behind Shogun.

The history of trade and missionary expeditions to Japan is quite fascinating. Be prepared for a few surprises.

This site:

http://anglosphere.com/weblog/archives/000379.html seems to have an easily read synopsis of the major points.

 

[jdinca]

The book was infinitely better than the movie. If course, that's usually the case.

 

[Xue Sheng]

The Real Captain John Blackthorn of "Shogun":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adams_(sailor)

William Adams (September 24, 1564–May 16, 1620), also known in Japanese as Anjin-sama (anjin, "pilot"; sama, a Japanese social title or honorific more or less equivalent to lord) and Miura Anjin (三浦按針: "the pilot of Miura"), was an English navigator who traveled to Japan and is believed to be the first Briton ever to reach that country. He was the inspiration for the character of John Blackthorne in James Clavell's bestselling novel Shogun.
Soon after Adams' arrival in Japan, he became a key advisor to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and built for him Japan's first Western-style ships. Adams was later the key protagonist in the establishment of trading factories by the Netherlands and England. He was also highly involved in Japan's Red Seal Asian trade, chartering and captaining several sailboats to Southeast Asia. He died in Japan at the age of fifty-six, and is recognized to this day as one of the most influential foreigners during Japan's first period of opening to the West.

A friend of mine and I were just discussing this a couple weeks ago. Pretty interesting stuff actually, he knew much more about it than I though.

 

[jim777]

My favorite thing about Shogun was Yoko Shimada's accented English She didn't speak English at the time, and didn't even know what she was saying.

 

[Laurentkd]

The book was infinitely better than the movie. If course, that's usually the case.

Totally! If you like the movie at all you just HAVE to read the book!!! Japanese culture, ettiquette, martial strategy, the influence of Catholicism during the time period.. man, everything is in this book.
You will be sad when it is over.
(ok, I am showing my true book worm nature with that statement... but it is true!!)

 

[donald]

I whole heartedly agree. The book was better than the movie, but the flick was pretty good too. Well done, and well presented. One of my favorite scenes from the movie. Is the fowl hanging on the line incident. Really introduced the character/audience to the VAST cultural differences.
Another Anglo/Japanese study movie for me. Would be ,"The Challenge", starring among others, Mr.Tadashi Mifune(sp?), and Scott Glen. Probably not a movie for those not interested in the Japanese martial arts. Cause they probably would'nt get into the nuances of some of the situations. If you are into the Japanese martial arts etc.. You would probably get into the flick.

1stJohn1:9