Under each regent are the various Daimyo’s who rule the provinces and the commoners followed by the ETA’s (the untouchables – as they eat Meat). The vivid imagery the authors transports his readers to the land of the Land of the rising sun & it’s society where the SUPREME RULER – THE EMPORER (by lineage of 110 generations) is the figure head of the country and the royal family but devotes himself to the pursuit of knowledge, language, art and poetry leaving all the military and trading decisions on the TAIKO or following him THE COUNCIL of REGENTS (5 warlords who rule their own territory. Only to find himself used as a tool in a power struggle between the 5 regents of Japan for the SHOGUNATE in the aftermath of the death of the TAIKO (Dictator) and the coming of age of his son and heir.

The saga is all told through the eyes of James Blackthorne, an Englishman who while Piloting a Dutch Merchantman trying to find a way to the riches the Orient has to offer, finds himself on the shores of IZU, Japan in the year 1600 and thus comes face to face with the landscapes of feudal JAPAN.

This makes SHOGUN a definitive work and demands respect. Making the readers identify with his varied characters, who are distanced by both time and culture but seem as real as life itself. The author’s genius lies in the fact that instead of using dialogue he takes his readers into the inner thoughts and mind processes of his characters all seemingly Human with human failings and desires, of ego & greed, of Fate & Destiny. Clavell’s writing is different as compared to others - in that he portrays through words striking image patterns and builds a whole world in your imagination transporting you back to the seventeenth century feudal Japan making you live in a historic moment when Japan is in the process of becoming one nation state. It’s a major step forward in understanding the Japanese outlook to life. Shogun’s real appeal to the reader is it’s depiction of the the cross cultural clash of different ideologies & most revealing view on differences that existed and to a certain extent still exists between the EAST & WEST. SHOGUN – James Clavell (first published 1975, Howard & Saughton)

Shogun by james clavell review