Shōgun by James Clavell

I originally read this book in 1980, after watching the famous TV mini-series adaptation. It sparked an interest in Japanese culture and history that has persisted to this day, and is one of the reasons for my love of Iaido as a practice. Seeing that there was a new adaptation, I picked up the book to see if it held up in my memories of reading it originally.

The plot is loosely based on the true story of the English sailor William Adams who made landfall in Japan in 1600 with the last surviving ship, and a handful of sailors, of an expedition across the Pacific Ocean. He became a confidant and advisor to Tokugawa Ieyesu who would go on to found the Tokugawa shōgunate and set the destiny of Japan for hundreds of years to come.

In the book, Adams is replaced by John Blackthorne and Tokugawa by Toranaga, and introduces various other characters based on historical counterparts in a story of political intrigue about the succession to position of Taiko - the de-facto ruler of the country in the service of the Emperor. One critical character is Mariko, a convert to Catholic Christianity, and an interpreter between Toranaga and the Jesuit priests and Portuguese merchants who had a lucrative monopoly on trade between Japan and the rest of the world.

The plot involves a romance between Blackthorn and Mariko (downplayed somewhat in the new TV series) and explores Blackthorn's gradual adaptation to life in Japan as he learns the language and customs. Of course, both of them are caught up in the storm of events around Toranaga's inevitable rise to power. 

Re-reading it showed that it generally held up, although there are quite a few historical errors and odd uses of Japanese language. Clavell has a habit of describing a scene and then later revisiting it to explain what the protagonist was thinking at the time. The pace is also fairly slow for most of the book, up until the end when the crucial battle of Sekigahara is glossed over in a single paragraph. I think perhaps it could have benefited from being tightened up and hewing closer to the actual timeline of events, but as it stands it's still a good read.