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This is James Clavell's tour-de-force; an epic saga of one Pilot-Major John Blackthorne, and his integration into the struggles and strife of feudal Japan. Both entertaining and incisive, SHOGUN is a stunningly dramatic re-creation of a very different world.Starting with his shipwreck on this most alien of shores, the novel charts Blackthorne's rise from the status of reviled foreigner up to the hights of trusted advisor and eventually, Samurai. All as civil war looms over the fragile country. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Shogun: A Novel of Japan
I would love to review this item for you, but alas I can not.It never arrived.When it started taking me more time and work to track down why something you should have shipped me didn't arrive, I threw in the towel. Interesting how a company can lose a great customer over a small satisfaction issue.

meh...
I really looked forward to reading this book for months, so I brought it with me on a trip to Japan and read it in the first ten days of my trip.

As the other reviewers have pointed out, this work of fiction contains very detailed character descriptions.Some of the details are superfluous (the excessive talk of men's 'lavish yangs', the Japanese women speaking of said men's yangs and pillow toys, silly conversations and daydreams, distracted mental wanderings of various characters, the repetition of the word "karma", etc.) and having just finished I wish I had stuck with the movie or found an abridged version of the book.At points tedium drove me to speedreading.

Aside from the few grammatical mistakes in the English narration (the use of compound verbs) there are some bizarre language conventions the author incorporates in the text.

Spanish:
If it's intended to be Spanish (and not Portuguese), then "¡Qué va! should be written as such, the rules of Spanish grammar being written in 1493, so not much should have changed since the time period of the narrative.However, the vernacular of that time was different from the 20th century when the book was written, so terms like "Qué va!" and "Leche" while used in Spain today, may not have been so common five centuries ago.Moreover, sailor's have their own speech which is often quite different from the language of landlubbers.

English:

Grog is an incorrect term for what the sailors drank or wanted to drink in the book, as grog wasn't conceived of until the 1700s or perhaps even the mid 1600s.

Ropes.There are no "ropes" on boats.Sailors use "lines".

Bosun can be written, but since the author used terms like Captain (instead of "Cap'n") perhaps it would have been more uniform to use "Boatswain".

Japanese:

Seppuku means "cut stomach", so to refer to it as a woman's suicide act is absolutely incorrect since female samurai slit their throats (jigai) and men cut their stomach (seppuku)."Jigai" is a preferable term for suicide for females in Japanese language instead of "seppuku".

The term "pillowing" is not correct.A translation such as "sharing the pillow" is more appropriate.There are also some odd spelling conventions (Yedo instead of Edo, Kwampaku instead of Kampaku, Kwanto instead of Kanto). My wife and mother-in-law had a hard time figuring out some of the other Japanese translations.

The terms samurai and ninja are used frequently in the novel.Why is ninja always italicized but not samurai?It's odd.

Another historical inconsistency: The village "Yokohama" was called "Yokohama Mura" up until the end of the Edo period (the 1800s).

The author uses Japanese, but as my wife and mother-in-law point out, the Japanese in the book is not appropriate for the time period.It would be better to just use English rather than to mislead readers into thinking they're using some correct historical Japanese.For example, try reading Shakespeare: it is still English, but the morphology and lexicon is different than modern English; languages change over time.


Italian: Little used in the text, but what's there looks fine.

Latin: The "thee" and "thou" bit is very sappy and wearing in Shógun.The subject pronoun "Tu" (translated "thou" or "you") was not, and still is not, commonly used in Latin, just as "kimi" and "anata" or any subject pronouns are NOT used in everyday Japanese speech."Te" ("thee") may have been used more commonly in informal speech in the 1600s, as is even used informally today in various Italian dialects descended from Latin.

It would have been rare (and even insulting) for a woman to learn Latin as the Lady Mariko did.Latin was a language for educated men, but since Mariko was special, and it is fiction we can give the author a pass here....

Ultimately, this is the sort of soap opera fiction with a thousand convenient coincidences (like in Harry Potter stories, the Kite Runner, Tom Clancy [who presents plenty of research in his novels], Ayn Rand [whom Clavell greatly admired], and so on) that I enjoyed as a teen but now would just prefer to get over with in a two or three hour movie.It was really disingenuous all the writing about how disgusting the women found the Anjin-san.As soon as I started reading that it was just a matter of counting pages until you knew the women would end up in bed with him. Then there were the penitential periods and well-timed earthquakes.In one soundbyte: Ugh.


If I'm going to "suspend belief" for fiction, I prefer like the action to be on the big screen for a movie like Star Wars or LOTR. This book is VERY highly fictionalized, but there are still some interesting and accurate cultural tidbits in the book that make it worth reading (the women keeping a hesokuri and maintaining responsibility for household finances, the Japanese not necessarily being inhibited by nudity, the importance of cleanliness in Japan, Shinto in Japan, etc.).Sadly, many readers will not be able to distinguish between stereotypes, the author's impression of Japan based on his experiences as a POW, and the realities of Japanese culture (both past and present).The author's experience as a POW during WWII no-doubt gave him some interesting impressions of Japanese culture which are clearly reflected in the text, though this does not pass for accurate historical research.I'm curious who edited his book and how/why certain inaccuracies were left in place.

There is no plethora of likable characters in the book, which would be OK if the characters showed some growth in the end.Toranaga, the anjin-san and most of the samurai are petulant creeps.Toranaga uses people as some sort of wannabe Machiavellian prince.The big difference between Toranaga and Machiavelli is that the latter always acted for the benefit of the people, seeking to unify the Italian peninsula for the benefit of all; Toranaga is petty, self-serving, and neurotic.At the end of the novel Toranaga says he'll never admit to having a friend... and then calls the anjin his friend.Whaaaaat? At that point, Clavell sums up a few future events and mercifully ends the story.Perhaps Clavell was just fatigued after writing 1100+ pages and missed the contradiction?In any case, Toranaga regresses, Blackthorne submits to his situation and Alvito also ends up in submission not just to the Church, but also to Toranaga.The Lady Mariko is likable, but her behavior is not plausible.

Further commentary about the book can be found here: [...]

That said, if you've got the time and the inspiration go ahead and read it.Enjoy the book!

AbsolutelyAMustRead!
James Clavell has written many books. This book is my favorite. I picked this book up and couldn't put it down. Clavell has a way with words that make it seem as if you are there in Japan with the characters. Be warned though. This book is intense. Once you start it, you will want to finish it. They made a movie out of this book, but it just wasn't the same.
If you have the time, pick up this book and journey to the land and culture of Japan. Learn what it takes to become a Shogun! What a masterpiece.

Shogun
This is an old classic as far as I am concerned. As you read through the book, it gives you an insight into the elegant and committed life style of the Japanese culture. I've read this book at least 4 times and decided to get a copy for keepsake as I lost a previous copy in one of my travels.

THE MASTERPIECE THAT POPULARIZED MEDIEVAL JAPAN TO THE WEST!
This is the novel that introduced the Samurai's bushido, daimyos rivalries and the bakufu Shogunate to the average westerner. Through the eyes of a shipwrecked navigator, Blackthorn, a previously hermetically closed world is revealed.

From battle ethics and sepuku to hygiene and tea ceremonies, the interwoven narrative lines flow harmonically, like carps in a Zen rock garden pool. Beautiful, economical and seamless, Clavell's insights on human nature have produced another Masterpiece.

Like most of James Clavell's novels, SHOGUN is a thinly veiled historical story. There was a "Blackthorn" (English pilot William Adams), as well as a "Torenaga" (Shogun Tokugawa whose dynasty ruled Japan for over 200 years). However, like most James Clavell's novels, the story comes alive in some many ways it is pure enjoyment!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

PS:
There is a 1980 TV mini series based on this book - of comparable merit. Casting Toshiro Mifune and Richard Chamberlain was just the tip of the iceberg. Truly beautiful production. Nevertheless, my advice is to first read the book and only THEN watch the TV version. ... Read more

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James Clavell's Noble House HongKong. Written in German. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Asian Saga, Asian Saga Characters, Asian Saga Novels, Films Directed by James Clavell, Screenplays by James Clavell, the Great Escape, Shōgun, Whirlwind, to Sir, With Love, the Asian Saga, 633 Squadron, Noble House, Struans, the Satan Bug, King Rat, the Fly, Gai-Jin, the Children's Story, John Blackthorne, the Last Valley, Tai-Pan, Dirk Struan, Tyler Brock, Where's Jack?, Gordon Chen, Jin-Qua, Watusi, Tess Struan, Malcolm Struan, Ian Dunross. Excerpt:The Struan family and company (also called the Noble House in Clavell's novels ) is a fictional family featuring heavily in many of the Asian Saga novels by writer James Clavell . The family plays an important role in the novels Tai-Pan , Noble House , Gai-Jin , and Whirlwind .The fictional Struan family is based on the historical Jardine family of Jardine-Matheson fame, and hails from Ayr, Scotland .The Struan family begins its journey with the story of Dirk Struan , a trader of opium and other goods between China and England . Dirk is the founder of the Noble House and plays a major role in establishing Hong Kong .Tai-Pan is the first book about the Struan family, although it is preceded by Sh gun in the Asian saga.Tai-Pans of the Noble House item Dirk Struan (See main article ) item Culum Struan , a character in the novels Tai-Pan and Gai-Jin . He is the son of Dirk Struan, tai-pan of Struan's Trading Company. In the novel, he marries Tess Brock . She is the daughter of Tyler Brock , founder of Brock ... Read more

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Chapters: James Clavell, James Whale, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, James Connolly, Fred Dibnah, Roy Campbell, Yehuda Amichai, Dennis Nilsen, Donald Crowhurst, Robert Blatchford, Stan Cullis, Chaim Herzog, Alfred Rouse, John Ward, Doug Collins, John Nash, Rayner Hoff, Frank Pullen, Allan Stewart, Rav Wilding, Wolfgang Lotz, Hugh Griffith, William Gamble, Richard William Briginshaw, Mordechai Hod, Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke, Hugh Kingsmill, Edward A. Irving, Alan Mckibbin, Mordechai Maklef, Arthur Mcintyre, Tony Richards, Roy Ward Baker, Sam Kydd, Kit Denton, William Henry Wright, Leonard Webb, Phil O'donnell, Eddie Rutherford, Gerry Hill, Richard Valentine Pitchford, Jim Driscoll, Percy Herbert, Jeffrey Hamm, Andy Aitken, Edward Thomas Chapman, James Wilson, Frank Chester, Richard Felix, Charles Harvey, Bill Millin, Chris Hunter, Torrance Gillick, Connie Green, Randall Swingler, Alan Goodrick, Basil Blackett, Frederick Holbourn, Ted Arison, John Barnard Jenkins, Frank Carney, Jackie Rea, Yehuda Cohen, Joe Glenton, Clive Branson, John May, Shalheveth Freier, Dixie Gilmore, Mick Gould, Ann Mills. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 297. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Frederick "Fred" Dibnah MBE (28 April 1938 6 November 2004), born in Bolton, was an English steeplejack, engineer and eccentric who became a television personality, a cult figure and, latterly, a national institution. Dibnah was born in a country which then relied heavily upon coal to fuel its industry. As a child he was fascinated by the steam engines which powered the many textile mills in Bolton, but he paid particular attention to chimneys, and the men who worked on them. He began his working life as a joiner, before becoming a steeplejack. From age 22 he served for two years in the armed forces, as part of his national s...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=836172 ... Read more

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Chapters: Thomas Paine, James Clavell, Abraham Beame, Gregory Bateson, John Negroponte, Robert Morris, Mark Ronson, Jerry Springer, Henry W. Howgate, George Q. Cannon, James Wilson, Judah P. Benjamin, George Sutherland, Martin Kay, William Richardson Davie, Edward Dickinson Baker, Clive Granger, Frank R. Gooding, Graham Nash, George Greene, David William Thomas, Ian Hancock, John P. Jones, Ernest C. Pollard, Vernon Reid, Theophilus C. Callicot, Lost Colony Dna Project, Brian Quinn, Thomas Birch, Alexander Treadwell, Robert Dale Owen, Abram Belskie, Joseph P. Newsham, Kelefa Sanneh, George West, William Fitzjames Oldham, Robert B. Elliott, Archibald Mcintyre, Terry George, James B. Beck, Benjamin Dean, William Lorimer, D. W. Davis, Norton Strange Townshend, Gilbert Ralston, Arthur Stayner, Samuel Pasco, Bertram William Henry Poole, Martin B. Madden, Lee Mantle, John Mclane, David Archibald Harvey, William Ellis, Edgar Rosenberg, Martin Neil Baily, Ernest Greenwood, William Milnes, Jr., Titus Sheard, Gareth Wigan, Clinton D. Macdougall, Frank Crowther, John G. Campbell, Charles Clayton, William E. Smith, Edward V. Robertson, Sammy Rimington, Richard A. Harrison, Betsy Baker, John Johnston, Charles Slade. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 324. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Thomas Paine (February 9, 1737 June 8, 1809) was an author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Born in Thetford, Norfolk, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 in time to participate in the American Revolution. His principal contributions were the powerful, widely-read pamphlet Common Sense (1776), advocating colonial America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and The American Crisis (17761783), a pro-r...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=30795 ... Read more

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Chapters: James Clavell, Len Deighton, Ken Follett, Daphne Du Maurier, Rafael Sabatini, George Shipway, Baroness Emma Orczy, Valerie Anand, James Leasor, Stephen Hunt, M. M. Kaye, Mary Balogh, Douglas Reeman, Julian Stockwin, Susanna Gregory, Jasper Kent, Katharine Mcmahon, Ronald Welch, Moyra Caldecott, Jane Lane, Tim Willocks, Chris Humphreys, Wallace Breem, John James, Simon Levack, Graham Shelby, Andrew Mollo, David Donachie, Kate Tremayne, Katie Flynn, Hilda Lewis. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 130. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE (13 May 1907 19 April 1989; pronounced ) was an English author and playwright. Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1941, Jamaica Inn, and her short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now. The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Her elder sister was Angela du Maurier, also a writer. Her father was the actor Gerald du Maurier, and her grandfather was the writer George du Maurier. The young Daphne du MaurierDaphne du Maurier was born in London, the second of three daughters of the prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel Beaumont (maternal niece of William Comyns Beaumont). Her grandfather was the author and Punch cartoonist George du Maurier, who created the character of Svengali in the novel Trilby. These connections helped her in establishing her literary career. du Maurier published some of her very early work in Beaumont's Bystander magazine, and her first novel, The Loving Spirit, was published in 1931. Du Maurier was also the cousin of the Llewelyn Davies boys, who served as J.M. Barrie's inspiration for the characters in the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. As a young child sh...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=66877 ... Read more

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Chapters: James D. Watson, Thomas Paine, James Clavell, Justin Timberlake, Olivia de Havilland, Abraham Beame, Ian Mackaye, Sean Lennon, Louis Theroux, Christopher Hitchens, Zachary Taylor, Dave Matthews, Robert Morris, George Q. Cannon, Richard Garriott, Alistair Cooke, James Wilson, John Witherspoon, Mark Burnett, Judah P. Benjamin, Jordan Hasay, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., George Sutherland, Joan Fontaine, Heather Brooke, British American, Nicollette Sheridan, William Richardson Davie, Edward Dickinson Baker, Frank R. Gooding, Steve Gibb, David William Thomas, John P. Jones, Travis Mccoy, Kimberly Dozier, Theophilus C. Callicot, Hugh E. Rodham, Sean Hargreaves, James Gill, Billy Gould, David Eppstein, James J. Davis, Daniel Henney, George W. Campbell, John Densmore, Edward Rutledge, Robert Dale Owen, Robert Roosevelt, Arthur Letts, Gary Mccord, Nijel Binns, Jj Feild, Josh Davis, Godfrey Tearle, Sonya Smith, Melissa Rivers, Joseph P. Newsham, Michael Mann, Hamid Algar, Mark Dawson, George West, Jacki R. Chan, Cliff Drysdale, Natasha Rhodes, Robert B. Elliott, Danielle Eubank, Archibald Mcintyre, Laura Flanders, Phillip R. Bennett, Pamela Tiffin, Remy Ryan, John Thomas Caine, Ronald Podrow, Raymond St. Leger, Ophelia Dahl, William Lorimer, Philip Segal, D. W. Davis, Norton Strange Townshend, John Watson Barr, Bitch, Colin Bates, Samuel Pasco, Paul Hunter, Martin B. Madden, Lee Mantle, John Mclane, Myra Keaton, Michael Bingham, Edgar Rosenberg, Martin Neil Baily, Bryan Fisher, William Milnes, Jr., Ellis E. Williams, Mari Morrow, Heather Corrie, Kyrie Maezumi, Clinton D. Macdougall, Shihab Rattansi, Frank Crowther, John G. Campbell, Charles Clayton, William E. Smith, Vula Malinga, Edward V. Robertson, Benjamin Vaughan, Richard A. Harrison, Adriana Porter, John Johnston, Harry Keaton, Charles Slade, Martin Bunzl, Matthew Rose, Captain Samuel Jarvis, Dave Ingram, Tami Childers, Gerald Spencer. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 556. Not ill...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=16289 ... Read more

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This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: James Clavell, Patrick O'brian, Emilio Salgari, Margit Sandemo, Dorothy Dunnett, Eiji Yoshikawa, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Philippa Gregory, Tim Severin, Susanna Gregory, Mary George, Tim Willocks, Simon Levack, Suzannah Dunn. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Patrick O'Brian, CBE (12 December 1914 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his AubreyMaturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the IrishCatalan physician Stephen Maturin. The 20-novel series is known for its well-researched and highly detailed portrayal of early 19th century life, as well as its authentic and evocative language. A partially-finished twenty-first novel in the series was published posthumously containing facing pages of handwriting and typescript. O'Brian was born Richard Patrick Russ, in Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire and was the son of a physician of German descent and an English mother of Irish descent. The eighth of nine children, he lost his mother at the age of three, and his biographers describe a fairly isolated childhood, with sporadic schooling and long intervals at home with his father and stepmother, during which time his literary career began (see below). In 1934 he underwent a brief period of pilot training with the Royal Air Force but this was not successful, and by 1935 he was living in London, where he married his first wife, Elizabeth, in 1936. They had two children; the second, a daughter, suffered from spina bifida and died in 1942 aged three, by which time Patrick had left the family in their remote country cottage and returned to London, where he worked througho...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=101984 ... Read more