The History behind Shōgun

The History behind Shōgun and the main character

Hey there, Peter here! I've already talked a bit in my last posts about the history in the era that this book took place in. To understand this book even further, I researched what was going on at that time.

This book was set around the 1600s when the English and Dutch allied up to fight against the Spanish. The English were skilled sailors. Their ships outclassed the Spanish. At that time, the New World had already been discovered and conquered by the Spanish. The English and Dutch hired Pirates to go loot the coastal towns in South America. They looted churches and raped women. Afterwards, they would bring the bounty back to England/Netherlands and would get around 15% of their bounty. 

This book revolved around an English Captain named John Blackthorne. Blackthorne was a fictional character but the writer based him on a real historical figure named William Adams (English sailor) who traveled to Japan and was known to be the first 'Western Samurai'. Adams was assigned to Asia by the Dutch East India company in 1598. He was close to the Shogun, Tokugawa leyasu and commanded a couple of Japanese ships to Southeast Asia. He also kept his close relationship to his homeland and had set up a couple of trade factories in both Netherlands and England.