Shōgun: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

After his Dutch trading ship Erasmus and its surviving crew is blown ashore by a violent storm at Injiro on the east coast of Japan, Pilot-Major John Blackthorne, the ship's English navigator, is taken prisoner by samurai warriors. When he is later temporarily released, he must juggle his self-identity as an Englishman associated with other Europeans in Japan, namely Portuguese traders and Jesuit priests, with the alien Japanese culture into which he has been thrust and now must adapt to in order to survive. Being an Englishman, Blackthorne is at both religious and political odds with his enemy, the Portuguese, and the Catholic Church's Jesuitorder. The Catholic foothold in Japan puts Blackthorne, a Protestant and therefore a heretic, at a political disadvantage. But this same situation also brings him to the attention of the influential Lord Toranaga, who mistrusts this foreign religion now spreading in Japan. He is competing with other samurai warlords of similar high-born rank, among them Catholic converts, for the very powerful position of Shōgun, the military governor of Japan.

Series details

• Title: Shōgun
• Format: Scripted
• Language: English
• Genres: Drama, Action, Adventure
• Premiere date: 1980-09-15
• Final broadcast date listed: 1980-09-19
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: NBC
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 117 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 7.8/10
• TVMaze ID: 10460
• IMDb ID: tt0080274
• TVDB ID: 80284

Cast and credited roles

• Richard Chamberlain — John Blackthorne (Anjin-san)
• Toshirō Mifune — Yoshi Toranaga
• Yoko Shimada — Lady Toda Buntaro - Mariko
• Frankie Sakai — Kasigi Yabu
• John Rhys-Davies — Vasco Rodrigues
• Yuki Meguro — Omi
• Michael Hordern — Friar Domingo
• Hiromi Senno — Fujiko
• Nobuo Kaneko — Ishido
• Hideo Takamatsu — Lord Buntaro
• Vladek Sheybal — Captain Ferreira
• Damien Thomas — Father Martin Alvito

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1980-09-15; final listed air date 1980-09-19; episode order: 5.

Source and licence

Adapted from Shōgun on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.