New epic TV adaptation of 1975 novel reignites interest in Kent sailor William Adams’ exploits
On a side street in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district stands a simple monument. It marks the former site, as the inscription says, of the home of William Adams, the first Englishman to arrive in Japan and the inspiration for one of the year’s top TV series.
Although it says Adams rendered “valuable services in foreign affairs”, the memorial is a strangely inconspicuous tribute to a man who, more than 400 years after his death, remains an unbroken thread running through Anglo-Japanese relations and the whose portrayal on the screen still causes debate.
The release of Disney+’s 10-episode Shōgun series has reignited interest in Adams, whose talents were endless: shipbuilding, mathematics, geography, trade negotiations and diplomacy, and, most notably, personal abilities that made him a friend and trusted advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Born in Gillingham in 1564, Adams was the only Englishman on board the Dutch merchant ship De Liefde when it ran aground in Usuki Bay in southwestern Japan in April 1600. Adams and 23 Dutchmen were the only survivors of a fleet of five ships and 500 men which had started from Rotterdam almost two years earlier. Of the 23, only nine, including Adams, were strong enough to land.
Local missionaries tried to execute Adams for piracy, but he avoided that fate and became Japan’s first foreign samurai. His story inspired a best-selling novel—James Clavell’s 1975 classic Shōgun, with Adams’ name changed to John Blackthorne—and a 1980 miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain.
These accounts of Adams’ extraordinary rise through the ranks of a war-torn Japan largely isolated from the rest of the world have captivated generations of readers and viewers.
Producer Hiroyuki Sanada stars as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, who is fighting for his life as his enemies in the Council of Regents unite against him. When a mysterious European ship lies adrift near a fishing village, its English captain, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), arrives bearing secrets that could help Toranaga overthrow power and reduce the formidable influence of Blackthorne’s enemies, the Jesuit priests and Portuguese merchants.
The fates of Toranaga and Blackthorne are inextricably linked with their translator, Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), a mysterious Christian noblewoman, the last descendant of a dishonored generation. While serving her lord in this fraught political landscape, Mariko must balance her relationship with Blackthorne, her commitment to the faith that saved her, and her duty to her late father.
Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks’ series balances spectacularly in this labyrinthine plot, managing to “unlock” without problems for the viewer the door that leads to this new, old world, while giving a depth to the characters’ stories, not at all given for a series of limited episodes that tackles a ‘doorstep’ novel. Our series takes us on an epic journey to 17th century Japan and holds rich gifts for its travelers if they are willing to accept them…
Source :Skai
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