The hero of the series that emptied the streets of New York in the 1980s: Who is John Blackthorne?

The year is 1980. An ordinary September in New York. But the streets are empty. Reason? NBC's series is breaking all ratings records. When the new episode of that series is broadcast, the streets are empty. Because everyone is watching with curiosity what is happening in front of the television. Chatting during the day, TV series at night... I wonder who will die in this episode? No, not Game of Thrones... This is another series that revolutionized the history of television: Shogun.

In the late seventies, many channels, especially NBC, began to try some radical things in television programs. The company gradually began to realize that programs watched by a large number of people were not always very profitable, and realized the importance of the qualified majority during these years. As a result, it became necessary to make changes to the standard program format.

Pilot major John Blackthorne, also known as Anjin-san, is the protagonist of James Clavell's 1975 novel Shōgun. The character is loosely based on the life of the 17th-century English navigator William Adams, who was the first Englishman to visit Japan. The character appears in the 1980 TV miniseries Shōgun, played by Richard Chamberlain, and will be played by Cosmo Jarvis in a new series based on the book, premiering in 2024 on FX.

Shogun is adapted from James Clavell's 1975 novel of the same name. Shogun, the third book of the author's Asian Saga series, which is about Asia and takes place in the same universe, is not actually a new chapter of an ongoing story, like the other books of the series. Asian Saga books tell about Westerners who go to Asia and encounter a foreign culture, but each book is a story that begins and ends within itself.

Shogun, inspired by real events, is inspired by the life of English navigator William Adams, who fell into Japan by a twist of fate in 1600.

John Blackthorne and his friends, the pilot navigator of the ship named Erasmus in a Dutch pirate fleet that set out to plunder the Spanish colonies at the beginning of the 17th century, got into serious trouble as a result of an unsuccessful naval battle and an unpleasant storm that followed. Erasmus and his crew, who tried to reach Asia and the Japanese Islands by passing through the Magellanic Passage and sailing into the great ocean rather than returning to Europe, were stranded off the coast of Japan, where they were not even sure of its existence, after a long period of hunger, thirst and storms.

The people of the Erasmus ship, whose crew was captured in a small fishing village called Anjiro, have only one chance: to make an agreement with the Japanese. However, neither the navigator Blackthorne speaks Japanese nor the Japanese villagers speak English. Our hero's life hangs by a thread consisting of his mind and instincts in the country of these strange people, where he knows neither the language nor the customs.

After this simple opening, Shogun quickly enters into an adventure of love, passion, intrigue, and thirty-two episodes. In essence, we are talking about a story about knights, pirates, samurai, and ninjas. It's obvious that it will be amazing in the right hands. Clavell is also clearly the right hand.

Pirates vs. Samurai

The adventure setting on which the novel is based is related to the time in which it takes place. Blackthorne lands in a politically unstable Japan. Since Taiko's son Yaemon, who recently passed away, is still a child, the control of the country is in the hands of a council consisting of the most powerful daimyos. There is a serious cold war, similar to a fight for the throne, between Toronaga and Ishido, the greatest of these daimyos. The Jesuits, who continue to benefit from the chaos in the environment, control the trade routes between China and Japan. When a state-of-the-art warship and its British navigator are suddenly added to the middle of this equation, things suddenly get complicated. Swords are drawn, heads fly, field battles, naval battles, Ninja assassins, and a terrible love triangle, a quadrangle, even a pentagon, maybe a hexagon...

The novel, which immediately attracted attention the year it was published, became a gateway to Japanese culture, which was not well known in America in the seventies. The Japanese people, known to the American public at the time as "the kamikaze maniacs who blew up our ships in World War II", have a completely different place in their minds, thanks to the Shogun. Of course, it is inevitable for such a culturally influential novel to be turned into a movie.

My Name Is Blackthorne, John Blackthorne

However, Shogun is a 1700-page book. It is quite difficult to turn such a long story into a movie. Despite this, screenwriter Robert Bolt, whom we know from "Lawrance of Arabia" in 1976, starts working feverishly. When the news that a Shogun movie was going to be shot spread around Hollywood, actor Richard Chamberlain, who is a serious fan of the book, approached the producers. The goal is to get the role of Blackthorne before anyone else. However, the names mentioned for the role of Blackthorne at that time were Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, Roger Moore, etc. That being the case, Chamberlain is a bit of an understatement.

To Chamberlain's regret, when Bolt could not come up with a decent movie script despite all his efforts, NBC chose to make a mini-series from the script of Eric Bercovici, who had not done a remarkable job until then, as plan B. However, Clavell, who is also a producer on the project with Bercovici, still has Sean Connery as his first choice for the role of Blackthorne.

Connery, on the other hand, cannot be convinced. The famous actor, who shot "You Only Live Twice" in Japan in 1967, gave a flat refusal when he learned that the entire production would be in Japan. Because Connery's experiences in Japan are quite negative.

Ultimately, Chamberlain gets his way, despite Clavell's objections, and the shooting of the five-episode series begins with Jerry London sitting in the director's chair.

Made In Japan

A series of firsts from the Shogun era. However, perhaps one of the most important features is that the entire series was shot in Japan, at London's insistence. London wants to shoot the series of a book that cares so much about Japanese culture, with the atmosphere of Japan. Otherwise, he thinks, everything will look fake.

However, the extent of the event is not as simple as the location. Shogun is shot in real locations as much as possible, with entirely Japanese set workers. Moreover, the Japanese characters in the story are played by Japanese actors. Considering that most of these actors do not speak English, we can understand more easily that the situation is abnormal even under today's conditions. In this way, we can watch a master actor like Toshiro Mifune in the role of Toronaga. He also puts on a show as Toronaga-sama.

The difficulties of this Japanese expedition are countless. When the American team cannot find a very important decor item in Japan, which they do not carry with them anyway because it says "Made In Japan", they are sure that things will not go as perfectly as they thought. The Japanese make those nails for export. Not for selling…

There is no need for nails when decorating anyway. Japanese set workers carefully reject the modern carpenter tools brought into the country. Did you have a drill before? The movie set is built the same way the grandfather did it. The traditional method from master to apprentice…

Huge houses are built by tying them with tiny threads. One of the biggest shocks London experienced was when he came to the set one morning and saw the village of Anjiro in the book right in front of his eyes. There are two reasons for the shock: Japanese people do not start work early and return home early like Americans. On the contrary, they wake up late in the morning and start work late, but they can also work until the morning. Thus, a village can be built in the morning on the beach, which is empty after work.

But the real problem is that the entire village has been manufactured. Houses do not consist of three walls, as they normally should on movie sets. There are all the walls. There's no room for the camera. Japanese workers were given instructions, and they followed the instructions and built a village, not a set. Director Jerry London has never forgotten how half of the beautiful houses were cut down.

Communication with the set workers was actually one of the biggest problems. Of course, the workers don't speak English. London and his team do not speak Japanese. Then you need a translator. However, the interpreter found is not a man. A strange situation arose because it was not possible to take orders from a woman in Japanese culture. Jerry London gives instructions, the interpreter lady translates, and the workers act as if nothing happened. It's a shame to do what the woman says. Ultimately, the situation is explained by the intervention of James Clavell. “It's not this woman who said these things. Imagine it as if the man was saying it!”