Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga in SHOGUN miniseries | ©2024 FX Networks/Kurt Iswarienko

SHŌGUN, FX’s ten-part limited series, premieres Tuesday, February 27, with episodes available the same day on Hulu.

Based on James Clavell’s 1975 novel about a power struggle in 1600s Japan that comes to involve an English ship’s navigator, SHŌGUN had previously been adapted as a television miniseries in 1980. However, both that miniseries and the book itself are primarily from the Western point of view. The new version, created for television by executive producers Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks, is told more from the Japanese perspective.

To this end, actor Hiroyuki Sanada was brought on board not only to play the lead role of wise, strategic Lord Yoshii Toranaga, but also as a producer. Sanada, a major star in his native Japan, has enormous experience in period dramas there. To Western audiences, he is known for features including THE LAST SAMURAI, THE WOLVERINE, 47 RONIN, AVENGERS: ENDGAME, LIFE, BULLET TRAIN, and JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4, and television series including LOST, EXTANT, HELIX, and THE LAST SHIP.

During FX’s portion of the Winter 2024 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in Pasadena, California, Sanada sits down to discuss SHŌGUN.

SHŌGUN is based on actual history, with Toranaga a fictionalized version of Tokugawa Ieyasu, his chief rival Ishido Kazunari (Takehiro Hira) a stand-in for Ishida Mitsunari, and ship’s pilot John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) a substitute for Englishman William Adams. Ieyasu remains a Japanese national hero for ushering in a long period of peace throughout the land.

Sanada was already familiar with the historical narrative. “I had a chance to learn for a long time about this period, because I read the books when I was a kid. Then, I’ve done a lot of samurai roles in this period, including the model of Toranaga, the biggest role I’ve done in Japan, and then Ishido, I’ve played twice in Japan, and then other characters I’ve played. So, at that time, I learned a lot of the background of this history in Japanese shows or movies.”

In fact, Sanada adds, the era in which SHŌGUN is set is “the most popular period in Japan for filmmaking.”

Sanada explains how he came to be involved on multiple levels with SHŌGUN. “My co-worker/producers in London, [Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich at] DNA Films, called me and said, ‘Can you play the Toranaga role in SHŌGUN?’ ‘Yeah.’ We met in L.A. and then I met FX people. Then, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ But we spent a long time to finally get Justin and Rachel. So, I took the role first. Then, after Justin came in, they asked me to produce as well. And then, ‘Oh, my gosh, yeah, why not?’ It’s important to make this drama as authentic as possible.”

SHOGUN miniseries Key Art | ©2024 FX Networks

Starting with his first experience in Hollywood, Sanada says that producers and directors asked his advice on Japanese dialogue and cultural matters, but he felt that, as an actor, there were limitations on what he could suggest.

“Luckily, this time, Justin, Rachel, and then FX allowed me to do the producing. I got a title for the first time. So, for the first time ever, I had a team to make it as authentic as possible. I was so lucky and happy. Of course, responsibility was on my shoulder, heavily. But more than that, I felt fun and happiness to create the authentic drama with a Western crew and Japanese crew together. We had a dream East-meets-West team.”

Given his long experience with dramas about feudal Japan, Sanada was able to drawn on past collaborators to make recommendations for both sides of the camera. “Production is important, more than casting, at the beginning. So, I hired Japanese crew from Japan as experts on samurai drama, some of them working together over forty years or more, and I selected the best crew for this show, for wigs, costumes, technical advisors, master of gesture, horseback-riding master, fighting master.

“Then, we started casting. I suggested who’s the best for [different characters], especially for the Hiromatsu role [Toranaga’s general, played by Tokuma Nishioka]. I worked with [Nishioka] over thirty years, so we create the chemistry, and then on set, show to the audience how long we know each other, believe in each other, without a word. That’s important, and Justin agreed.”

Iconic actor Toshiro Mifune portrayed Toranaga in the 1980 miniseries. Did Sanada have any concerns about playing the character after that, or does he feel that the new SHŌGUN is different enough that comparisons aren’t really relevant? “Yeah. I watched the original, of course, when I was twenty,” Sanada laughs. “But that time, it is the same as the novel, watching feudal Japan through ‘the blue eyes.’ But this time, [it’s shown] more through the Japanese lenses. That was the intention from the beginning. Justin and I talked a lot about that. Even Toranaga’s position is different. Especially, this time, Toranaga is the main character in the story.”

Even so, “Of course, Toshiro Mifune is one of my favorite actors, so I felt a little pressure. But during the process of making this project, I forgot the original. And then, our mission was graduated from the original, forget the original, create our own version in 2024.”

Sanada was extremely serious about his executive producer duties. “Every day, I was on set all the time, even when I had no shooting as an actor. So, before the director came in, early morning, I went to the set, and checked everything – the set decoration, the props. Then bring in the director and the actors, and then check all the rehearsals, take notes, suggestions.”

On days when Sanada was also acting, “During lighting, go back to the trailer, put the wig on, costume on, and start acting. Back and forth, back and forth. On set, if the actors had their own ideas [about dialogue], Justin was so open to that. It was great cooperation.”

We get to observe Toranaga’s motivations and plans much more than we did in the original. Sanada says he had input into this, even into which props were used “for how he is training his strategist brain.” However, as the project developed, scenes were pared back to make them “simpler and deeper.”

One sequence that survived the process was “the falcon hunting.” This is because “That’s a rehearsal for the battle in that period for the samurai. Leading, catch the rabbit, but [the soldiers’] formation, everything is training for the battle. So, that remained in the show. It’s an important part.”

Although SHŌGUN is set in Japan, it would up shot entirely in Vancouver, Canada. This was partly to do with COVID issues, Sanada explains. It was also easier in terms of avoiding modern elements like phone towers that would have to be digitally removed. “But Vancouver has everything – big studio, and also, thirty minutes driving to jungle or port, river or field, without a pole or wires. And the whole inside of a castle, or a house, we created on a soundstage.”

Sanada had no problem playing Toranaga over SHŌGUN’s length. “In Japan, I’ve done the lead in a long drama called TAIHEIKI [which ran in 1991] for a whole year, forty-nine, almost fifty episodes, spending two years [shooting that]. So, I felt it was much shorter this time,” he laughs.

Does Sanada feel like he had enough time to explore Toranaga? “‘Already? Episode Nine? Oh, my God. One more left?’ Like that. No, we had a great time. Not less, not too long. It was perfect timing.”

And what would Sanada most like viewers to get out of SHŌGUN? “I think this is a great, epic human drama, with the essence of Shakespeare or GODFATHER. This is a universal theme – strategy, family, love. So, I think it’s easy to understand, even [with dialogue that is] seventy percent Japanese and with the subtitles – I hope.”

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Article: Exclusive Interview with SHOGUN miniseries executive producer and actor Hiroyuki Sanada on new miniseries

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