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FX’s Shōgun took Disney Plus and Hulu by storm. The historical drama, a ten-episode miniseries, is beloved by both the critics and the audience alike. Giving us a more honest, faithful recreation of feudal Japan than most of the other pieces of media we have access to nowadays, Shōgun is a breath of fresh air.
The series is based on a homonymous novel written by James Clavell in 1975 and, much like the book, stays quite true to the real history behind it. As is the case with any historical fiction, details are changed, added or removed, but the brunt of the story and the key people in it, have a historical counterpart. That’s what we’ll strive to explore in this piece.
All information in this article was taken from two main sources, alongside the series and book.
Those are FX Networks’official viewers guide, an excellent resource for anyone curious about the real history behind the series, andBritannica, one of the most reliable sources of history available on the internet.
Shōgun’s Historical Context
The series kicks off in 1600, which is considered the last year of theSengokuPeriod. This era of Japanese history, whose name roughly translates to“the warring states”, was a period of near incessant civil war throughout the country.
Japan was split between multiple domains, each controlled by different warlords with their respective vassals. Political turmoil was permanent, and wars were a near daily affair.Peace looked like a distant dream.
The solution to this, as had previously been the case, would be a shōgunate. A military government with a single leader at its head. The first of its kind was Minamoto Yorimoto, who was appointed Shōgun on Jul 18, 2025, initiating thefirst ever shōgunatein the country.
Oda Nobunaga, a now almost universally famous figure in Japanese history, was the first warlord who attempted to unify the country during the later part of the 16th century. He succeeded, but only temporarily. After managing to appoint Ashikaga Yoshiaki as Shōgun in 1568, and later taking the role unto himself, he wasbetrayed by one of his vassalsand committedseppuku.
As the news of his death spread, another one followed in his footsteps. Toyotomi Hideoyshi, one of his other vassals, took matters into his own hands and became Shōgun himself. This would’ve been around 1585, and lasted until 1598.
The series picks off around this time. Toyotomi Hideyoshi died of illness, leaving the shōgunate in the hands of theCouncil of Five Elders, the regents portrayed in the FX series. By the time the year 1600 came around, political turmoil was already afoot, with the Council members turning on each other.
Simultaneously,William Adams, a British navigator, was arriving in the island of Kyushu in southern Japan, with thefirst Northern-European ship to ever reach the country, and the only one of the fleet of five Dutch ships that had left Europe in 1598.
The Shōgun series begins in the middle of this dangerous concoction of political and religious ingredients. Toranaga is made aware of Portugal’s true intentions; the council of regents is falling apart; the Taikō’s heir is in danger; the country is split between two religious beliefs; war looms on the horizon.
Is Every Main Character Based On A Real Person?
No. Some of the most important characters in the series, like Yabushige, Fuji and Muraji,did not have a specific real-life inspiration.
With that being said, they were allbased on a type of person that was synonymous with the Sengoku era of Japan. The samurai vassal, the woman “used as [a] strategic tool”, and the local samurai who became a spy to a higher lord.
The Council of Regents is another good example of James Clavell’s changes to the historical inspirations. In real life, the country was led by theCouncil of Five Elders.
In Shōgun, we have the Council of Regents. They’re still five members, butoutside of Toranaga and Sugiyama, they weren’t the Five Elders. They’re all based on real people, though, just ones that weren’t part of the real council.
It will quickly become obvious that James Clavell, the author of the original book that inspired the series,didn’t create any characters out of thin air.
Some changes were made to make the narrative easier to understand or more appealing, butevery single character shown on screen has some historical basis behind them, even if it’s not a specific person as their direct counterpart.
The Protagonists’ Historical Counterparts
The key characters in Shōgun’s narrative have, for the most part, a direct historical counterpart. We’ll highlight a few of them, explaining what they share with their real life versions.
SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SHOGUN SERIES AHEAD
Kiri-No-Kata
Kiri is Toranaga’s wife. It is implied that, like his historical counterpart, Toranaga had multiple concubines. Kiri is the only one with a relevant role in the story and is described by the show’s creators as his “steadfast partner”.
Kiri-No-Kata (roughly translates to Lady Kiri) is based on Acha-No-Tsubone, later known as Lady Acha. She married a powerful samurai, who died not long after. She had likely already met Tokugawa Ieyasu (Toranaga) when he was a hostage of the Imagawa clan.
When she was widowed, Tokugawa asked her to become one of his concubines.She eventually became Tokugawa’s first lady, handling a lot of the clan’s affairs.
Kuroda Nobuhisa
Despite not taking center-stage in Shogun’s narrative, he is a crucial piece in the puzzle. Kuroda’s historical counterpart is also likely the most famous name in all the ones we’ll be highlighting here.
Kuroda is Shogun’s version of Oda Nobunaga, the legendary samurai warlord who became the first person to unite Japan during the Sengoku period. He had a massive impact on the protagonists of this period, much like Kuroda did on the main characters of the series.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (the Taiko), Hosokawa Fujitaka (Toda Hiromatsu), Akechi Mitsuhide (Akechi Jinsai) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (Yoshii Toranaga) were all generals or vassals of Oda Nobunaga. Much like Kuroda,Nobunaga was betrayed by one of his highest ranking generals, Akechi Mitsuhide. Surrounded, he died by committingseppuku.
Ochiba-No-Kata
Lady Ochiba,the most powerful woman in Japan, is the mother of the heir. She plays a crucial role in Shogun’s narrative, and reveals herself as one of Toranaga’s fiercest opponents. She is the daughter of Kuroda, and the only concubine able to give the Taiko an heir.
Ochiba’s historical counterpart wasYodo-no-kata(born Azai Chacha). Unlike Ochiba, she was the daughter of Azai Nagamasa and Oichi-no-kata. Interestingly enough, Oichi was the younger daughter of Oda Nobunaga. In the James Clavell book, the author decided to make the family tree a bit simpler, and made Ochiba the daughter of Oda Nobunaga’s character, Kuroda Nobuhisa.
This makes sense and changes almost nothing, as Lady Yodo was raised under the protection of Nobunaga after the death of her father when she was only four years old. Through multiple political feuds,she became Hideyoshi’s (the Taiko) concubine, and bore him his heir.
There is no mention of a relationship between Ochiba’s and Mariko’s historical counterparts.
The Toda Family
Toda Hiromatsu and Toda Hirokatsu (Buntaro) are two fierce samurai warriors. Father and son, respectively, are loyal to Toranaga and play a key role in his success. Both of them have direct historical counterparts that the series stayed quite true to.
Hosokawa Fujitaka and Hosokawa Tadaoki were also father and son, andtwo famous samurai warriors in the Sengoku period. Unlike Toda Hiromatsu in the series, Fujitaka only became a vassal to Tokugawa Ieyasu much later in life. He rose to prominence under the leadership of Oda Nobunaga, then became Hideyoshi’s (the Taiko) vassal until the lord died. That’s when he becomes one ofTokugawa’s most loyal vassals.
Tadaoki followed a similar trajectory, but was more well known asthe husband of Akechi Tama(Mariko in Shogun). Much like his father, he only became a vassal of Tokugawa after serving under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. He hid his wife from public view, due to her father’s role in Nobunaga’s assassination, to protect her from Hideyoshi.
Toda Mariko
Mariko is one of the most crucial characters in Shogun’s narrative. She is the link between all parts of the conflict. She is Christian, speaks Portuguese, creating a line of communication between Blackthorne and Toranaga; and she is married to Buntaro.
Toda Mariko’s historical counterpart is Akechi Tama, who became better known asHosokawa Gracia. Gracia was the daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide (Akechi Jinsai in Shogun) and wife of Hosowaka Tadaoki (Buntaro).
Their marriage, unlike what’s shown in the series, was supposedly a happy one. Gracia and Tadaoki had five children. Their relationship took a turn for the worse whenGracia’s father assassinated Nobunagaand when, later on,she converted to Christianity.
The depiction of their marriage in the series was likely based on the phase that it went through during the time following her conversion. Despite the objections of her husband and the ban against Christianity issued by Hideoyshi, she remained true to her faith until her death.
She played a crucial role in Japan’s political games during the Sengoku period,and became known as a courageous woman. There is no mention of her being an interpreter, but given her conversion, it is said that she studied both Portuguese and Latin.
John Blackthorne
John Blackthorne is the fierce British pilot that became the first Englishman to reach Japan. He is brave and honest in his hatred of the Portuguese and the Jesuits. He becomes Toranaga’shatamotoand finds himself stuck in the country against his will, and in a troubling love triangle with Mariko and Buntaro.
Blackthorne is William Adams almost 1:1. Exactly like John,Adams was the first British man to reach Japan. He did so with the last vessel in a fleet of five Dutch ships that were on a secret mission to attack ports controlled by Spain and Portugal.
The fleet ran into immeasurable problems during their voyage, and only Adams’ ship survived the journey. It arrived in Japan two years after leaving Europe. William Adams reached the Japanese lands asone of the few survivors of the ship, and disembarked in the town of Usuki, in the north of the country (in the series, he reached Japan through the south).
He was eventually taken to Tokugawa Ieyasu (Toranaga) with a few of the other survivors. The samurai warlord interrogated him and, due to the knowledge shown by the pilot,eventually gave him the title ofhatamoto.
There is no mention of William Adams having any interaction with Hosukawa Gracia (Mariko), but he did become one of Tokugawa’s most trusted advisors.
Yoshii Toranaga
The man who sits menacingly atop his horse in the series’ official artwork is Yoshii Toranaga. The fierce samurai warlord is a cunning lider, a feared warrior and a political genius. Even when outnumbered, he never seems outmaneuvered.
Tonaraga’s historical counterpart is Tokugawa Ieyasu, thethird great unifier of Japanduring the Sengoku period. His lineage was said to descend from the shoguns of the Minamoto Shogunate.
Tokugawa Ieyasu rose through the political and military ranks of Japan through many battles and betrayals. He was held hostage, forced to change alliances multiple times and eventually rose to such a political height that he became the most powerful member of theCouncil of Five Elders.
This wasn’t received well by the other members of the council, namelyIshida Mitsunari (Ishido in the series), who quickly began plotting his assassination. Tokugawa was forced to prepare for war, and so he did.
Tokugawa Ieyasu emerged victorious through it all, despite the odds being against him, and began the last shogunate in the history of Japan, putting an end to the Sengoku period.
