“Shogun” settings in Izu. In the 1970s and 1980s James Clavell’s Shogun captured the Western World’s imagination. Japan was asserting itself as the engine room of global economic growth, and Western readers were eager to better understand this mysterious nation. Clavell provided the perfect tool to do that – a fast moving historical romp that also explained Japanese Culture 101 to those that didn’t have the time or inclination to take the University paper.
Clavell cleverly sets his novel in the year 1600, for Japanese instantly rememerable as the year of the battle at Sekigahara (which you can glimpse through the windows of the Tokaido Shinkansen shortly before it zooms into Kyoto). This battle ended the Warring States Period and was the beginning of the legendary Edo Period, during which the capital was relocated from Osaka to Edo (now called Tokyo).
The territory between the old capitals of Kyoto and Osaka, and the new capital in Edo, played a pivotal role in this part of Japanese history. This is not lost on Clavell, who strategically places his story on the Izu Peninsula, easilly accessed from all the capitals by Tokaido.
Clavell’s protagonist in Shogun, Blackthorne (later renamed Anjin), is based on the true story of English pilot William Adams who was shipwrecked on Japan’s southernmost main island of Kyushu. Perhaps Clavell felt Kyushu was too far away from the main centres of Osaka and Edo (Tokyo) for the smooth flow of his story, so he substituted Kyushu with Izu Peninsula’s east coast, where Adams did in fact conclude his life at Ito (see below).
The first couple of hundred pages of Clavell’s epic are set in Ajiro, the southernmost part of the modern town of Atami, and just 10 minutes on the Ito local train line from the Tokaido Shinkansen. Clavell cleverly changes the spelling of names slightly in his piece of historical fiction, just enough so we can still recognise the originals, but also enough to emphasise that whilst the geographic and historical settings are real, the detail of the story is fiction. So, Edo founding Shogun Tokugawa becomes Toranaga in Clavell’s classic novel, Osaka Lord Ishida becomes Ishido, and the tiny fishing port of Ajiro becomes Anjiro. Clavell’s detailed placement of Anjiro on Izu’s eastern Pacific coast leaves us in no doubt of its true identity. Ajiro possibly hasn’t changed a lot in four centuries – it remains a quaint fishing port where visitors can enjoy the beach, hot springs, and today’s catch straight from the ocean.
The second half of the novel moves about 20km to Mishima, the next stop on today’s Tokaido Shinkansen (Kodama) heading westward after Atami. Mishima is perhaps most famous for its shrine, known as a Taisha because it a very important shrine. Clavell’s novel talks of a castle there for the local Lord. Today we can enjoy the ruins of Yamanaka Castle, which is also an excellent viewing spot for Mt Fuji when the weather is good. In fact, by 1600 when Shogun is set, Yamanaka Castle was already in ruin, having been destroyed about a decade earlier by the powerful western forces.
En route to Mishima, our hero Anjin san has a conference with Toranaga (based on the real figure of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan’s most famous Shogun, who established Tokyo as capital) at Shuzenji.
Anjin san eventually settles in Ito, on Izu Peninsula’s east coast not far south of Ajiro, where he supervises ship building for the fledgling Japanese navy.
So what are you waiting for? – wander in the memories of Clavell’s great classic novel. Fuji, Hakone, Izu National Park 5 Day Hiking Tour allows you to enjoy this area of Japan.
Thank you for writing this. I greatly enjoyed listening to Shogun as an audio book, and your essay helps put the place names in perspective. – Steve Prentice, Toronto Canada
Thanks Steve, glad you found it helpful, hope you can visit sometime, Tony