James Clavell’s ‘Shōgun’ is reimagined for a new generation of TV viewers

By Constantine Nomikos Vaporis

In 1980, when James Clavell’s blockbuster historical novel “Shōgun” was turned into a TV miniseries, some 33% of American households with a television tuned in.

It quickly became one of the most viewed miniseries to date, second only to “Roots”.

I’m a historian of Japan who specializes in the history of the Tokugawa, or early modern era – a period from 1603 to 1868, during which the bulk of the action in “Shōgun” takes place.

As a first-year graduate student, I sat glued to the television for five nights in September 1980, enthralled that someone cared enough to create a series about the period in Japan’s past that had captured my imagination.

I wasn’t alone. In 1982, historian Henry D. Smith estimated that one-fifth to one-half of students enrolled in university courses about Japan at that time had read the novel and became interested in Japan because of it.

He added: “‘Shōgun’ probably conveyed more information about the daily life of Japan to more people than all the combined writings of scholars, journalists, and novelists since the Pacific War.”

Some even credit the series for making sushi trendy in the US.

That 1980 miniseries has now been remade as FX’s “Shōgun,” a 10-episode production that is garnering rave reviews – including a near-100% rating from review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

Both miniseries closely hew to Clavell’s 1975 novel, which is a fictionalized retelling of the story of the first Englishman, Will Adams – the character John Blackthorne in the novel – to set foot in Japan.

And yet there are subtle differences in each series that reveal the zeitgeist of each era, along with America’s shifting attitudes toward Japan.