Is Hulu's Original Series 'Shōgun' Another Orientalist Disaster?

The TV series 'Shogun,' produced as a Hulu Original series, is premiering soon. This series is based on the novel of the same name by James Clavell and is a fictionalized story based on historical facts. However, the characters' actions and names have been slightly altered.

John Blackthorne, played by Cosmo Jarvis, is a British sailor. He shipwrecks on the coast of Japan in 1600 and becomes a samurai under the command of Yoshii Toranaga, a Japanese daimyo played by Hiroyuki Sanada. John helps Toranaga win the civil war to prove his worth in Japan.

If you are familiar with East Asian history, you will recognize that this novel and TV series are based on the real-life stories of Tokugawa Ieyasu and William Adams.

After the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1598, the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans were in a state of civil war. The year 1600, when William Adams arrived in Japan, was the year Tokugawa Ieyasu, the head of the Tokugawa clan, won the Battle of Sekigahara. This marked the beginning of the Edo period in Japan.

William Adams, who arrived in Japan during this period, faced threats from Catholic forces operating in Japan but explained the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism to Tokugawa Ieyasu. This ultimately led to Japan severing ties with Catholic nations and forming relationships only with the Protestant Netherlands.

William Adams, particularly as a British samurai, has garnered the attention of modern Westerners. He helped the Tokugawa clan build Western-style sailing ships. He also introduced Ieyasu to various Western academic disciplines. Ieyasu granted Adams a fief and serfs and made him a samurai. He also received a Japanese name, Miura Anjin (三浦按針, Miura Anjin).

However, depictions of East Asia from a Western perspective have rarely strayed from Orientalism. In Western TV series and films, Asia is a land of mysterious adventure. The protagonist must have a mystical experience or fall in love with an exotic woman in this location. Therefore, many settings and scenes deviate from actual Asian culture.

For example, the 2014 Netflix Original 'Marco Polo' depicted 13th-century East Asia as a fantasy world. Jia Sidao (賈似道), the Grand Chancellor of the Southern Song Dynasty, is portrayed as a martial arts expert, and the Chinese Empress is depicted as a femme fatale. From the perspective of Asian viewers who are aware of the actual behavior of Confucian-culture nobles, these settings were difficult to accept.

The 2003 Tom Cruise-starring film 'The Last Samurai' was also shocking to Asian viewers in a negative way. The samurai depicted in this film are romanticized warriors through a distorted lens of Cool Japan. However, in reality, the samurai were nothing more than mercenaries employed by the daimyos who exploited the peasantry.

In particular, the concept of 'bushido' among the samurai emerged after the samurai era ended and gunpowder weapons became widespread. It was more of a governing ideology of the Tokugawa shogunate that controlled Japan rather than the samurai's beliefs. The Western image of the samurai was created in the 19th century by combining it with Western chivalry.

This bushido later evolved into Japanese militarism, and the Empire of Japan was referred to as the 'Nazi of Asia' for massacring 300,000 people in Nanjing, China. The romantic depiction of samurai and bushido was appalling to Asian viewers outside of Japan. Especially, the obsession of Tom Cruise and the production team with the 'spirit of Japan' is quite humorous from the perspective of Asians.

Of course, the first episode of this series has yet to be released. It's possible that, like 'Game of Thrones,' it could depict the true nature of medieval European knights in a realistic manner. (Although it is the knights of Westeros, not Europe.) However, the trailers have already hinted at a femme fatale relationship between the protagonist, John, and the Japanese woman, Toda Mariko.

Toda Mariko is a character based on the real-life figure Hosokawa Tadashi, who has no particular connection to William Adams. This type of adaptation is a tired cliché used in numerous Hollywood films and TV series, such as The Last Samurai (2003) and Marco Polo (2014).

The issue is that this TV series was produced in 2024. Asian viewers who are hoping for a fresh 'Hollywood Samurai Show' should probably lower their expectations.

'Shogun' will be released on Hulu and Disney+ on February 27, 2024.