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Shōgun

James Clavell, 1975. Japan in 1600, the months before Sekigahara, seen first through an English pilot's eyes and then increasingly through Japanese ones. A prologue and sixty-one chapters, each with a summary, a short analysis, and the Japanese the book teaches by use — illustrated twice over, once as twilight woodblock and once in ink.

62 chapters · 521 plates

Illustration style

Prologue

  1. The Erasmus alone in the gale
    The Erasmus alone in the gale

    Prologue 10 plates

    The Erasmus spins into the bay

    April 1600. John Blackthorne, English Pilot-Major of a Dutch fleet, stands the night watch on the Erasmus, the one ship left of five that sailed from Rotterdam to raid Spanish and Portugues…

Part One

  1. Waking in the paper-walled room
    Waking in the paper-walled room

    Chapter 1 10 plates

    Waking in Anjiro

    Blackthorne wakes in a clean paper-walled room in the fishing village of Anjiro, on the coast of Izu, fed and mended, his knife and keys gone. A crucifix in the niche warns him this is Port…
  2. The trial in the village square
    The trial in the village square

    Chapter 2 10 plates

    Yabu tries the crew

    Kasigi Yabu, daimyo of Izu, arrives from Yedo and tries the crew in the village square, with Father Sebastio as hostile interpreter and the sick Captain-General Spillbergen lying in the dus…
  3. Yabu in the hot bath
    Yabu in the hot bath

    Chapter 3 10 plates

    Yabu's bath and the Regents

    Yabu soaks in Omi's bath, exultant. The Erasmus has yielded five hundred muskets, twenty cannon, powder, shot and twenty thousand Spanish doubloons, and he orders Igurashi, his one-eyed chi…
  4. The ladder lowered at dusk
    The ladder lowered at dusk

    Chapter 4 10 plates

    Pieterzoon in the cauldron

    Vinck cannot make his legs climb the ladder. The crew fights the samurai in the slime and overpowers one, Masijiro, but three knife-men drop through the trapdoor, Blackthorne is beaten sens…
  5. Kiku awake at first light
    Kiku awake at first light

    Chapter 5 10 plates

    Kiku's dawn, Masijiro's cup

    The screams stop before first light. Kiku lies awake beside the sleeping Yabu, recalling her teacher's rule of the Willow World, to train the mind on sweet things, and the night's pillowing…
  6. The priest calls the pilot up
    The priest calls the pilot up

    Chapter 6 10 plates

    The pilot is named Anjin

    Father Sebastio tells the cellar how Pieterzoon died and calls the pilot up. Blackthorne climbs into the sun, collapses, and forces himself to stand and rage at Omi ("Tell him he's a turd")…
  7. Iron Fist comes down the gangplank
    Iron Fist comes down the gangplank

    Chapter 7 14 plates

    Iron Fist takes the ship

    Toda Hiro-matsu, "Iron Fist", Toranaga's commander-in-chief, walks down the gangplank with his killing sword loose in his hand. Yabu, betrayed by a spy he cannot name, concedes: the ship wa…
  8. Grey noon, two pilots read the sky
    Grey noon, two pilots read the sky

    Chapter 8 10 plates

    Storm on the way to Osaka

    Second day out from Anjiro, Blackthorne and Rodrigues agree a storm will come before sunset. Rodrigues leaves his rutter on the desk as a pilot's test of honour, lets the Englishman stand h…
  9. The cliff path in the gale
    The cliff path in the gale

    Chapter 9 10 plates

    Yabu climbs down the cliff

    Yabu leads the shore party along a cliff path in the gale. They find Rodrigues wedged in a cleft above the surf, sixty sheer feet below. Blackthorne, realising the samurai are guarding rath…

Part Two

  1. Rodrigues wakes in the galley cabin
    Rodrigues wakes in the galley cabin

    Chapter 10 10 plates

    Osaka, and no cannon

    Rodrigues wakes in pain and curses Blackthorne for saving his life. Blackthorne pilots the galley to Osaka from the Portuguese rutter he has copied. In the cabin Rodrigues rambles through f…
  2. Naga's men search the barbarian
    Naga's men search the barbarian

    Chapter 11 10 plates

    Toranaga and the falcon

    Searched by Yoshi Naga, Toranaga's seventeen-year-old fifth son, Blackthorne enters the audience room and, against all custom, sits and stares at the man on the dais, who is imping a broken…
  3. Ishido demands the Council's answer
    Ishido demands the Council's answer

    Chapter 12 3 plates

    Ishido presses; Usagi draws

    Ishido demands Toranaga's answer to the Council on the marriages he has arranged for Naga and two granddaughters into the houses of Masamune, Zataki and Kiyama, all forbidden by the Taikō's…
  4. Toranaga cannot sleep
    Toranaga cannot sleep

    Chapter 13 10 plates

    Toranaga cannot sleep

    Toranaga cannot sleep. He turns over Ishido, Onoshi's defection, the priests, Yabu, and the barbarian who came out of the eastern sea just now, landing at the very village where Mura, secre…
  5. Dawn gruel in the cell-block
    Dawn gruel in the cell-block

    Chapter 14 10 plates

    The prison and Friar Domingo

    Naked in a packed wooden cell-block on the edge of Osaka, Blackthorne fights a lice-ridden convict for a cup of gruel. Outside the walls, prisoners are lanced on crosses and hacked apart. I…
  6. The friar's grip at the gate
    The friar's grip at the gate

    Chapter 15 10 plates

    Released, ambushed, rescued

    Blackthorne tears free of Friar Domingo's clutching confession and walks out into a cool morning, given kimono and clogs where the other prisoners go naked. Past the crosses and lances he b…
  7. Ishido's apology in the audience room
    Ishido's apology in the audience room

    Chapter 16 10 plates

    Mariko translates the world

    Ishido, having lost face when his Grays were slaughtered and Yabu took the barbarian, apologises to Toranaga. Both know the "bandits" were staged. Ishido reveals that his mother's stay at t…
  8. The nun on the stepping stones
    The nun on the stepping stones

    Chapter 17 10 plates

    Yodoko proposes a marriage

    The nun is Yodoko, the Taikō's widow, sent by Ishido to fetch the Heir. Half-blind and preferring "the mist that surrounds me", she squints at the barbarian, bows to Yaemon as Kwampaku and…
  9. The silk rope on the fortress wall
    The silk rope on the fortress wall

    Chapter 18 10 plates

    The Amida assassin

    An assassin in black scales the fortress by silk rope, garrottes a guard, gives the night's password and knifes two more, then bursts into Toranaga's sleeping room, where Blackthorne, lodge…
  10. Alvito rides down from the castle
    Alvito rides down from the castle

    Chapter 19 10 plates

    Inside the Jesuit Mission

    Father Alvito rides to the Jesuit Mission by the wharves and reports to Carlo dell'Aqua, the towering Neapolitan Father-Visitor, and to Ferriera, Captain-General of this year's Black Ship.…
  11. Saké and the morning maids
    Saké and the morning maids

    Chapter 20 10 plates

    Toranaga learns the hornpipe

    Bathed, Blackthorne is so happy he dances a hornpipe for the maids Rako, Asa and Sono. Toranaga walks in, demands the dance, learns it, strips to his loincloth and dances beside him, then g…
  12. The veiled lady comes down to her litter
    The veiled lady comes down to her litter

    Chapter 21 10 plates

    Kiri's litter at dusk

    At dusk Kiri, cloaked and veiled under a vast hat, comes weeping to her curtained litter; sixty armed Browns wait under Yabu and Buntaro, Mariko's thick-necked, horn-helmeted husband. Ishid…
  13. The cortege through the checkpoints
    The cortege through the checkpoints

    Chapter 22 10 plates

    The madman's dance at the gate

    The cortege crawls through checkpoint after checkpoint, while Blackthorne calculates who else knows. At the last gate Ishido steps out of the shadows with a scroll for "Kiritsubo" to carry…
  14. Saké in the halted column
    Saké in the halted column

    Chapter 23 10 plates

    Latin in the litter; arrows

    Revived with saké, Blackthorne rides in Mariko's litter while she walks beside it. They switch to Latin, once he warns her the captain of Grays understands Portuguese. He calls her brave an…
  15. Ten fugitives in the back alleys
    Ten fugitives in the back alleys

    Chapter 24 10 plates

    Back alleys to the galley

    Toranaga leads ten survivors through Osaka's back alleys. He recalls the plan laid with Hiro-matsu: his formal resignation from the Council, which frees him from his Regent's oath and leave…
  16. Signal fires on the castle walls
    Signal fires on the castle walls

    Chapter 25 10 plates

    Buntaro on the jetty

    The ronin clear the galley and hold a breakwater against the Grays while Toranaga, in armour again, walks aboard. Blackthorne orders the cast-off. Then Buntaro fights his way onto the jetty…
  17. Bottled in the harbour neck
    Bottled in the harbour neck

    Chapter 26 10 plates

    Bottled in Osaka harbour

    Bottled in Osaka harbour by fishing boats full of samurai, Yabu daydreams of taking Toranaga's head for Ishido while Toranaga muses that the pilot never laughs. Asked how to break out, Blac…
  18. Council in the great cabin
    Council in the great cabin

    Chapter 27 10 plates

    Bargaining in the great cabin

    In the great cabin Toranaga denies any war exists ("a few worthless ronin") and demands the cannon. He dangles a cathedral in Yedo, and takes dell'Aqua's oath before God to deliver Onoshi a…
  19. Isogi, the frigate bearing down
    Isogi, the frigate bearing down

    Chapter 28 10 plates

    Alongside the Santa Theresa

    Blackthorne, sobered by the sea and declared "ichiban" by Toranaga, cons the galley for the harbour mouth while the Santa Theresa tacks across the harbour under full sail. The mate Santiago…
  20. Waking in the pilot's bunk
    Waking in the pilot's bunk

    Chapter 29 10 plates

    Toranaga learns to dive

    Blackthorne wakes in the pilot's bunk; the galley lies off Totomi, and Mariko, her arm out of its sling, tells him in Latin that he has great bravery. On deck everyone is naked and swimming…

Part Three

  1. Anjiro scrubbed and kneeling
    Anjiro scrubbed and kneeling

    Chapter 30 10 plates

    The Minowara sword at Anjiro

    Anjiro waits, three thousand of Yabu's samurai massed on the shore; Omi has spent five hundred koku on the welcome, and Mura has secretly stolen rice and weapons. Aboard, Fujiko begs Torana…
  2. The path to the new house
    The path to the new house

    Chapter 31 10 plates

    Omi's hands stop the blade

    Blackthorne walks numbly to his new house, where the old gardener Ueki-ya and Fujiko wait, and drinks saké without effect. Told Fujiko is now his consort, a nineteen-year-old widow whose hu…
  3. The courier rides in under the cipher
    The courier rides in under the cipher

    Chapter 32 10 plates

    Jozen rides in

    Twelve days on, Ishido's lieutenant Nebara Jozen rides in under the Regents' cipher: Lord Ito Teruzumi is the fifth Regent, the Council meets in twenty days, and Yabu is summoned to Osaka.…
  4. Alone at dawn, her perfume lingering
    Alone at dawn, her perfume lingering

    Chapter 33 10 plates

    The Musket Regiment rehearses

    Blackthorne wakes alone, her perfume still on the air. Riding to the plateau he tells Mariko in Latin that he loves her; she insists that his night visitor was her maid Koi, and he cannot s…
  5. Three galleys round the Anjiro headland
    Three galleys round the Anjiro headland

    Chapter 34 10 plates

    Toranaga inspects; Buntaro lodges

    Ten days after Jozen's death, Toranaga lands at Anjiro unannounced with three galleys of troops and, beside him, Buntaro. Toranaga demands an attack exercise at once, announces nine battali…
  6. Buntaro received in the garden
    Buntaro received in the garden

    Chapter 35 10 plates

    Five arrows through the shoji

    Blackthorne, pistol hidden under his sash, formally receives Buntaro. Through Mariko they discuss fire arrows, pitch and the siege of Malta, which Blackthorne sees as the key to Osaka Castl…
  7. Hawking in the brush at Anjiro
    Hawking in the brush at Anjiro

    Chapter 36 10 plates

    Hawking with Tetsu-ko

    Hawking in the brush, Naga begs his father to stop the training and leave Anjiro, where Yabu's eight thousand and a waiting fleet make him a prisoner. Toranaga, for the first time in Naga's…
  8. The last pigeon at the coop
    The last pigeon at the coop

    Chapter 37 10 plates

    Kiri's cipher; Crimson Sky

    The pigeon carries Kiri's last cipher. Sugiyama resigned and was caught by Ishido's ronin; refusing to betray Toranaga, he watched eta torture his children and died badly, but the Council i…
  9. Down the hill with Naga
    Down the hill with Naga

    Chapter 38 10 plates

    The gardener, then the earthquake

    Blackthorne walks to Toranaga with Naga, still sick with the horror of three days ago: the rotting pheasant was buried and the old gardener Ueki-ya beheaded for disobeying his mock-solemn o…
  10. Fujiko bandaged by the garden fence
    Fujiko bandaged by the garden fence

    Chapter 39 10 plates

    Chief Admiral of the Kwanto

    The quake has burned Fujiko's legs and back and killed her maid Nigatsu. Blackthorne sits in his wrecked garden and names the surviving rock Ueki-ya-sama, remembering Mariko on Shinto, "a n…
  11. Mariko bargains with the Mama-san
    Mariko bargains with the Mama-san

    Chapter 40 10 plates

    Kiku's evening, Mariko's gift

    Mariko bargains with Gyoko, the Mama-san whose "heart was an abacus", from five koban down to one for Kiku's evening, and raises the contract, for which Gyoko weeps and names five thousand…
  12. The courier from Mishima at dawn
    The courier from Mishima at dawn

    Chapter 41 10 plates

    Zataki is coming

    A courier from Hiro-matsu at Mishima: Zataki is coming under safe conduct as the new Regent, with Father Alvito in his party. Omi proposes intercepting him at Yokosé; Buntaro rides ahead wi…
  13. Toranaga surveys the Yokosé clearing
    Toranaga surveys the Yokosé clearing

    Chapter 42 10 plates

    Two brothers at Yokosé

    At Yokosé Buntaro has fortified the clearing, penned Zataki's party across the bridge. Toranaga strips the meeting dais of its brocade, orders Buntaro to stay at the inn and "attempt a peac…
  14. Alvito kneels before the dais
    Alvito kneels before the dais

    Chapter 43 10 plates

    Buntaro's cha-no-yu

    Alvito kneels on a cushion in the dirt while Blackthorne, swords in his sash, lolls against the dais. The priest confesses his failure with Brother Joseph; Toranaga orders the renegade brou…
  15. The second meeting under a lower sky
    The second meeting under a lower sky

    Chapter 44 10 plates

    Toranaga announces surrender

    At the second meeting Toranaga stuns everyone: he will go to Osaka and submit to the Council, leaving today. "The realm takes precedence." Buntaro resolves to kill Mariko and their son; Nag…
  16. Three adjoining rooms, one lamp
    Three adjoining rooms, one lamp

    Chapter 45 10 plates

    Nine nights on the road

    Nine days to Mishima, and every night Mariko slips from her maid Chimmoko's side into Blackthorne's adjoining room, Yoshinaka's security arrangements unwittingly making it easy. "At long la…
  17. The dispatch in the Mishima donjon
    The dispatch in the Mishima donjon

    Chapter 46 10 plates

    Mishima, Gyoko, Rodrigues

    In the Mishima donjon Hiro-matsu reads Toranaga's dispatch and hears Mariko's account of Yokosé. Alone, the old general resolves to disobey for the first time: he will co-opt Sudara and Gen…

Part Four

  1. Erasmus refitted at the Yedo wharf
    Erasmus refitted at the Yedo wharf

    Chapter 47 10 plates

    Yedo and the beaten man

    Erasmus glitters at the Yedo wharf, the Lion of England flying, and Mariko knows she has been replaced. The journey ended with Fuji from Hakoné Pass and a quarrel over brandy that sent Alvi…
  2. The marsh road to the barbarians' house
    The marsh road to the barbarians' house

    Chapter 48 10 plates

    The crew in the eta village

    Through the marshy outskirts of Yedo, Blackthorne finds his crew: van Nekk urinating drunkenly off the veranda under a limp Dutch flag, Vinck, Sonk, Salamon, Croocq, Ginsel and sour Jan Rop…
  3. Fujiko shows her healing burns
    Fujiko shows her healing burns

    Chapter 49 10 plates

    Sudara's children; fifty swords

    Blackthorne, who had forgotten Fujiko, makes her show him her burns; they are healing well, and with the dictionary between them they truly talk for the first time. Mariko meets him in the…
  4. Morning sun in the castle garden
    Morning sun in the castle garden

    Chapter 50 14 plates

    The mask comes off for Hiro-matsu

    Five days confined to the castle, Blackthorne decides: first and last he is Pilot. Toranaga's mother sends word that Zataki agrees, Sudara's family to go as hostages within ten days. Hiro-m…
  5. Ten men across the drawbridge
    Ten men across the drawbridge

    Chapter 51 10 plates

    Mariko's bargain with Alvito

    Before dawn Naga leads Yabu, Blackthorne and Uraga out of the castle to the wharf, where the frightened Dutch crew are marched aboard Erasmus. Yabu, aping the pilot's stance, asks him samur…

Part Five

  1. Osaka from the sea roads

    Chapter 52

    The Imperial summons; Uraga dies

    The galley reaches tai-fun-scarred Osaka, the castle untouched. Blackthorne has sent the quarrelling crew back to Yedo and kept Vinck. Uraga explains "rice Christians" and spills Jesuit sec…

  2. Chapter 53

    The camellia and the challenge

    In a new winged over-mantle Blackthorne walks to the Taikō's Great Hall, where five hundred samurai and their ladies watch him bow before the Lady Ochiba and Ishido. He congratulates her on…

  3. Chapter 54

    Noon set for the departure

    Mariko sets noon for the departure. Kiri backs her but asks why Toranaga, who had Kiri plant the idea of the Emperor's presence in Ochiba's mind, would spring the trap on himself; Mariko ca…

  4. Chapter 55

    Mariko walks to the gates

    At noon Mariko, in pale green under an iridescent sunshade, leads the column out of the gates: twenty Browns ahead, her open palanquin, then Kiri and Sazuko with the infant, samurai women a…

  5. Chapter 56

    The knife at her throat

    "It was a poem," Yabu says of the dead in the avenue. Blackthorne, no longer afraid of death, is appalled only that he cannot protect her. Samurai ladies drift back through the Grays to wai…

  6. Chapter 57

    Ninja in the castle

    Captain Sumiyori senses something wrong on the night watch; the red-spot ninja behind the audience-room spyhole watches him. Yabu, having bargained through Ishido's intermediary for Izu, th…

  7. Chapter 58

    The Regents vote for war

    At dawn the Regents meet in the smoke-scented donjon: Ishido, Kiyama, Zataki, painted Ito and Onoshi the leper behind his litter curtains, with Ochiba watching. Ishido insists the ninja "we…

  8. Chapter 59

    The funeral and the wharf

    Blackthorne wakes in the donjon after a day and a night, with Ochiba and Kiri in mourning white at his bedside. Dressed in a winged overmantle, he rides in the funeral procession to the squ…

Part Six

  1. Chapter 60

    The wreck of the Erasmus

    Blackthorne stands in the shallows at Yokohama before the charred ribs of the Erasmus. Naga reports a night storm, fifty-eight seppuku and a hundred heads on spears behind the dunes. Vinck,…

  2. Chapter 61

    Yabu's head, Tetsu-ko freed

    Two dawns later Toranaga tightens his girth and uses a hunt as cover. Ishido and the Heir have left Osaka; Jikkyu is dead of a five-hundred-koku poisoning. Before his generals he lets Omi's…