Shogun’s samurais: Authentic or Hollywood fiction?

Have you already watched Shogun? As most of you already know, it’s a very popular TV series about the samurai era on Disney Plus. As a Japanese, I’m proud that it won 18 Golden Globe awards, which was a record high. Of course, it’s becoming popular in Japan as well, and many people are analyzing and expressing why it was such a big hit. As far as I’ve read over some analyses, the majority opinions say that the great thing about Shogun is its authenticity and reality. Indeed, in most of the Hollywood movies so far, Japanese samurais don’t look Japanese to us Japanese people mainly due to their behavior.

Thinking rationally, it’s funny because we, present-day Japanese people, have never seen real samurais. Nevertheless, the reason why we have a stereotypical and common image of samurais is because we have watched a lot of samurai-themed TV shows. For your information, Hiroyuki Sanada, the actor playing the lead role of Shogun is a master of swordplay from the Japanese action movie industry. In this sense, it’s no doubt that Shogun is high in authenticity and reality. However, as I wrote above, such common sense might be a fiction created by the entertainment industry. Today, let’s see how much we still have a cultural continuity from around 1600, the period which Shogun is set in.

Lost in translation: The language and architecture of the Shogun era

First, it’s about the Japanese language. Mariko, one of the lead roles in Shogun speaks both Japanese and English fluently. Her way of speaking Japanese sounds noble and so beautiful to me, a native Japanese speaker, but, as it sometimes happens, the Japanese language spoken in samurai-themed TV shows is a little difficult to understand even to us, present-day Japanese people. There are some YouTube videos where we can hear old Japanese languages in various times, and I found the one in the Shogun era. It was much more difficult than the Japanese language generally spoken in samurai-themed TV shows. If we time-travel to the past of Japan, we may need translators.

The exterior and interior design of buildings looks so natural and Japanese to me, though the film set was built from scratch on a huge plateau in Vancouver. Regarding this point, I’m sure this is not an instilled image, but we have a strong cultural continuity because there are many old wooden buildings still remaining in Japan. As some of you may know, the oldest one was built in 607, more than 1400 years ago. In order to truly depict the scenery and buildings at that time, some advisers joined the project of Shogun. Surprisingly enough, one of them is Frederik Cryns, not a Japanese but a Belgian. He is a historian specializing in Japan in the Shogun era. I guess this would be a big factor to ensure the authenticity and reality of Shogun.

From shadows to beauty: The subtle elegance of samurai interiors

As the people who have watched Shogun probably notice it, the inside of buildings was depicted so dark. Of course, it’s very natural because the lighting equipment at that time was only vegetable-oil candles, even darker than the current candles. Probably, this backdrop created a culture to enjoy and appreciate shadow inside the house in Japan. The Japanese people of former days found beauty in a dimly lit space. A good example is shoji (paper sliding doors). It was developed and widely used to prevent direct sunlight from entering the house. Considering this, I think the following backstage story of Shogun makes sense. The film crews said the interior of the film set was so beautiful when it was shot from inside with the background for the landscaping of a garden, but not so much when shot from outside (probably because it’s too dark, I guess).

If there’s a cultural continuity in the design of furniture, our products may look more beautiful when they are placed and seen in a dimly lit space, together with the background for natural landscaping. Please give it a try when you get one!

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