Shōgun (TV series)

Shōgun (2024-present) is an American-Canadian-British-Japanese television period drama airing on on FX on Hulu and FX based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell about a Dutch Indies trading ship that is blown off course to Osaka that is already claimed by the Catholic Portuguese who have a deep rooted animosity to the Protestant fellow Europeans with the ship pilot, Englishman John Blackthorne recruited to serve the Imperial Japanese armies.

Season 1

"Anjin" [1.01]

Vasco Rodrigues: There's a saying out here that every man has three hearts. One in his mouth, for the world to know... another in his chest, just for his friends... and a secret heart buried deep where no one can find it. That is a heart a man must keep hidden if he wants to survive.You'll understand soon, Inglés. And who knows, maybe-maybe fate brought you here for a reason. Maybe you'll live long enough to find out what it is.

Kashigi Omi: His eyes were just the end of hell - All pain, Articulate.

John Blackthorne: This isn't the end for me. I won't die in this wretched land.

Vasco Rodrigues: This wretched land? I'll tell you what, Inglés. We're coming into port soon. Why don't you go on up there? Go up and tell me what you see. And tell me, when you set eyes on Osaka, if you really think our world is the hilt of civilization. And then ask yourself, "What kind of man wields power in a land like this? " The one who schemes in the open... or the one you never see?"

"Servants of Two Masters" [1.02]

Father Visitor Carlo Dell'Acqua: This English pilot... how do you mean, obscene?

Father Domingo: You know the sort. Uh, dirty. Diseased. And he's got a filthy mouth. He's like a back-passage of the 15th rank. Know what I mean, Father-visitor?

Father Martin Alvito: [Perusing journal] These journals are proof of his depravity. Look your eminence. [Hands journal to Father Visitor Carlo]

Father Domingo: Sacked, pillaged and slaughtered his way through Manila. He's a real piece of work, that one. Brutal savage.

Father Visitor Carlo Dell'Acqua: So we show this to the Japanese. And he will be hanged for piracy.

Father Martin Alvito: I'm afraid it may not be so simple. Despite the discord in Osaka, Toranaga is still president of foreign relations. He's a thorough man. I fear he'll want a complete translation of this journal. [Turns a whole pages] Perhaps a bit too complete.

Father Visitor Carlo Dell'Acqua: [Servant drops a money bag on table, to Father Domingo] I'll thank you to leave now.

Father Domingo: [Grabs money bag, to clergy figure] So you know, this, uh, pirate, he's not a man to leave his fate to God. I suggest you don't either. [Walks away]

John Blackthorne: You're telling me the lords here don't know?

Father Domingo: It's too late for that now.

John Blackthorne: You don't understand. I must tell them. That's my way out.

Father Domingo: You can't play their game. Their rules are too opaque, their hearts too guarded.

John Blackthorne: You don't know me.

Father Domingo: I've known a thousand of you.

Toda Mariko: My master asks for you to draw a map of the world.

John Blackthorne: Oh. Thank you. [Uses a stick to sketch a global map outline in a zen garden] Um... This is the limit... of what I know. The earth is round. Like a fruit. Uh, Japan is here. My country, England... is on the other side of the world. We came by way of Magellan's Pass. We are the first outsiders to use it because the Spanish and the Portuguese kept it secret. And for us, it was safer to sail this way. Because we had to avoid a Portuguese base in Macao. [Softly gasps] It employs Japanese mercenaries. I'm told you call them ronin. A secret Catholic fortress, used for guns. Employed during an uprising some years ago. My master asks that, later, you write this map and mark the Portuguese bases. If I may, I will explain now. This is the way Portugal and Spain carved up the New World that split undiscovered land between them. Your country falls... into the Portuguese half. So it belongs to them. I'm sorry, sir, but... I assure you their arrogance is unbelievable. Please tell him it's written into legal documents. Each Spanish and Portuguese king has the right to lay claim to any non-Catholic land they discover and to replace its government with Catholic rule.

Yoshii Toranaga: This is a lie.

Father Domingo: Another soul for every hour of the day. It's nothing for you to fear now. You'll die a martyr. On the cross, perhaps.

John Blackthorne: I'm sorry, Father, I didn't come all this way around the world just to die on a cross.

Toda Mariko: He asks what you seek here.

John Blackthorne: To vanquish our common enemies.

Toda Mariko: My master says you should not war against the Portuguese in Japan. You are outnumbered. It is hopeless.

John Blackthorne: Unless I win.

Father Martin Alvito: This is Lord General Ishido. Toranaga's chief rival. If you value your life, do not say a word.

Father Domingo: Dear God, you're a child in the wilderness. You don't know their games. Toranaga is a prisoner in Osaka castle. Isolated by his rivals on the Council of Regents. There's Sugiyama, descended from the richest samurai family in Japan. Ohno, a feared warrior, whose affliction of leprosy led him into the arms of the Church. And Kiyama, a man whose faith in Christ is guided only by his greed and ambition. All of them are in the palm of Ishido, caretaker of the castle. Any day now, these men will vote on Toranaga's demise.

Father Domingo: I came here in '72, clutching my rosary, visions of the souls I would save. Then I learned the true tenets of the cloth: silk, gold and guns. These Jesuits care nothing for their souls. They've made an idol of that cursed Black Ship. That's how they dominate trade. The Chinese hate Japan. So all trade goes through the Portuguese. It's usury. The late Taiko even tried to put a stop to it, but the Church had incited the rebellion, smuggled guns from that secret base in Macao... I met a man who said he'd been to that fortress, said there were Japanese soldiers... hundreds of them... all converted to Catholicism.

Yoshii Toranaga: [To Kashigi Yabushige, translated] You have a way of being in the right place at the right time

Father Domingo: Toranaga was born Minowara. A name that carries great weight in Japan. For centuries, his ancestors dominated this country, carrying with them a divine mandate.

John Blackthorne: Mandate?

Father Domingo: A title, revered through the ages. The ultimate rank a mortal can achieve. Shogun.

Father Domingo: Hear me, my son. I alone will tell you the truth. If Toranaga claimed you as an ally, you'll never leave Japan alive.

Yoshii Toranaga: [To a female shinobi] What are you doing here so late? [Shinobi executes him]

Kashigi Yabushige: [Referring to the fallen female shinobi after a killing spree] She didn't come for me, she came for him. [Referring to John]

"Tomorrow Is Tomorrow" [1.03]

Father Martin Alvito: But your black ship must stay where it is. Toranaga has come to understand the great profits being made from our monopoly over the China trade. He has invited us to provide a report on our rates of exchange.

Ferreira: You men of the cloth with your impotent pricks. [Pokes table] We... bring the profits. We... dictate terms.

Father Visitor Carlo Dell'Acqua: And we are here at their pleasure.

Father Martin Alvito: Until Toranaga receives this report, you won't get clearance to leave.

Ferreira: [Points at them] I am sitting, on one million ducats that has to get to Macao. [Points behind him] I won't lose this wind. That pilot should have been taken care of, before, he even reached Osaka.

Father Visitor Carlo Dell'Acqua: Captain, you forget yourself.

Ferreira: And you forget I don't work for the church, I work for the crown. [Walks away] Let it be know the Black Ship sails tonight.

John Blackthorne: What's been said about the assassin?

Toda Mariko: Only that she belonged to a very dangerous sect.

John Blackthorne: Hmm.

Toda Mariko: She had served as a palace maid for years. Some train their whole lives for a single kill. It is very costly.

John Blackthorne: A price few could afford. You refuse... to see it. What those priests are capable of, even now. [Doctor pricks his arm] Christ! How much are the Jesuits priests are paying this one to kill me?

Physician: He's too tense. He doesn't need a doctor, he needs a woman.

John Blackthorne: Oh, my God, dear, what did he say? What did the warlock say?

Toda Mariko: Since, you are so upset, the doctor suggests we send a... woman to pillow with you instead.

John Blackthorne: Pillow?

Toda Mariko: Uh, it is polite for... the physical joining of man and woman.

John Blackthorne: [Groans] If he's not a warlock, he's most certainly a pimp.

Toda Mariko: Would you prefer a male companion?

John Blackthorne: Dear God, where am I? [A general enters] Who's he?

Buntaro: Is the animal behaving himself?

Toda Mariko: Yes, Buntaro.

Buntaro: We're leaving Osaka immediately. The barbarian is to join us.

Toda Mariko: Where are we going?

Buntaro: Back to Ajiro, with members of Toranaga's clan.

Toda Mariko: I don't understand.

Buntaro: It's not for you to understand. [Walks away]

Guard Captain: [John arrives at gates with envoy] I need to verify all members of the party.

Nebara Jozen: Lord Ishido cleared us to depart.

Guard Captain: It is Lord Ishido's order. All travelers are to be verified.

John Blackthorne: [To Toda] No one's going to stop him? [Guard captain peers into royal sedan, John announces to himself] No one's going to stop him. [Walks up to Guard Captain] This is unacceptable! Peering into ladies private quarters?! It's not proper!

Guard Captain: What is the barbarian saying?

John Blackthorne: Worse than that! It's vulgar! Unholy perversion!

Toda Mariko: [Walks up, in Japanese] I think the barbarian is offended. In his country it is improper to... leer at women.

Guard Captain: This is Japan! [Shoves John aside]

John Blackthorne: Am I the only man present who treasure the purity of a women?! [Guard Captain backhandedly smacks John in the face hard, knocking him down]

Toda Mariko: [Gasps, to Guard Captain in Japanese] You must excuse him! He is ignorant of our customs!

John Blackthorne: Low! A women's virtue is her glory! A blight on us all! My God, the shame of it!

Toda Mariko: His customs are very different! And I find it's very hard to reach him...

John Blackthorne: [Guard Captain attempts to lift up door of royal sedan with John shutting it] You, sir, are a silly little man! And your hair looks like the tail of a pony!

Kashigi Yabushige: What is this buffoonery?! Lord Ishido has ordered us all to the harbor. Let them through! [Envoy departs]

John Blackthorne: [To Toda] Well, I hope you didn't mind the part about the pony.

Vasco Rodrigues: Ahoy, Ingés! [Chuckles] Still alive I see!

John Blackthorne: How's your leg?

Vasco Rodrigues: Fine. How's your mother?

John Blackthorne: Dead!

Vasco Rodrigues: Aww...

"The Eightfold Fence" [1.04]

Toda Mariko: Do you know "The Eightfold Fence"? From the time we are small, it is something we are taught to build within ourselves. An... impenetrable wall, behind which we can retreat whenever we need. You must train yourself to listen without hearing. For instance, you can listen to the sound of a blossom falling or the rocks growing. If you really listen, your present circumstance vanishes. Do not be fooled by our politeness. Our bows, our maze of rituals. Beneath it all... we could be a great distance away. Safe. And alone.

John Blackthorne: The hell was that?

Toda Mariko: Just a baby earthquake.

John Blackthorne: A... A b-baby what?

Toda Mariko: You will most certainly experience more while you are here. There are also tsunami that come from the sea and fires that break out in the villages and cities. It is why our houses are built to go up as quickly as they come down. Because death is in our air. And sea and earth. It can come for us at any moment. Before you meddle with our politics, just remember... we live and we die. We control nothing beyond that.

Toda Mariko: Anjin-san, this is Omi-sama, the lord of this village.

John Blackthorne: Actually, we've met. [In Japanese] Pardon me. [In English] And fuck yourself, you sniveling little shit rag.

Yabushige: The barbarian is hatamoto now.

Lady Mariko: We grieve those we have lost by continuing their fight.

Blackthorne: Well, I suppose we both have our masters to serve, don't we?

Yabushige: The barbarian's cannons...they're unlike anything I've seen. Enough to shrivel Christian balls.

Fuji: I can't be consort to a man without swords.

Mariko Many years ago, a great injustice stole everything from me.

"Broken to the Fist" [1.05]

Ishido Kazunari: Any day, the Lady Ochiba will be returned to us from Toranaga's castle in Edo. Let us ensure that the mother of the heir comes home to a safer city than what she left. Toranaga must be impeached.

Lord Sugiyama: I agree. His escape from Osaka was not only a mockery of this council but also an insult to the heir. Ohno... what do you think?

Ohno: Impeach.

Ishido Kazunari: How fortifying to see us this united. It's only... Toranaga's resignment has made impeachment impossible with our council now incomplete.

Lord Sugiyama: Let us vote on his replacement. Ishido's friend, Ikeda, would make an excellent regent. [Kiyama scoffs]

Kiyama ukon Sadanaga: The man's an idiot. The seat would stink of countryside. Perhaps Hiroda?

Ishido Kazunari: The seat would stink of Christian. Lord Kiyama sends his regrets. I propose Maeda.

Ohno: Wonderful choice.

Lord Sugiyama: I won't sit on a council with that rotten syphilis. I'd rather slit my own belly.

Ishido Kazunari: Sugiyama. Perhaps you were unaware. Maeda is Ohno's cousin. [Servants carry away seats and tables with Sugiyama coughing helplessly]

Miraji: The stench of death, arrows sticking in the walls. Villagers are starting to whisper there's a tatarigami in your house.

Toranaga: You so easily fell for their trap. Broken to another man's fist. Like a falcon without the beauty.

Buntaro: Bad enough my wife must live under a roof with the Anjin. But now, I am to do the same.

Fuji: If the Anjin asks for more sake, tell him that was the last of it. And pour that stew into the sea.

Blackthorne: If you cheat, cheat death. If you steal, steal the heart of a woman. If you lie, lie in the everlasting warmth of her bosom. And if you drink, drink with me.

"Ladies of the Willow World" [1.06]

Nagakado: Reclaim our family's legacy and become Shogun!

Ishido: As a boy, I looked up to the Taiko as proof that even a peasant like me could lift himself to great heights.

Toranaga: Death is the end of having lived. It is an affirmation of life itself.

Blackthorne: Where I come from, prostitutes are neither this well presented, nor as inquisitive.

Mariko: A man may go to war for many reasons: conquest, pride, power. But a woman is simply at war.

Ishido: As a boy, I looked up to the Taiko as proof that even a peasant like me could lift himself to great heights.

Nagakado: Reclaim our family's legacy and become Shogun!

"A Stick of Time" [1.07]

Saeki Nobutatsu: Your boy is already a man! The last time I saw Nagakado, his chin was as hairless as his balls. [All chuckles with Yoshii Nagakado particularly amused] Hey nephew, I bet you have a different girl for every day of the moon. Just like your father.

Yoshii Toranaga: Slander. Your uncle is far more gifted with women.

Saeki Nobutatsu: [All chuckles with Yoshii Nagakado particularly amused] More lies!

John Blackthorne: What's so funny?

Toda Mariko: Saeki-sama remarks about how long it has been since he's seen Nagakado-sama.

Kashigi Omi: It must bring you great honor... seeing your wife perform her duty to the Anjin with such devotion.

Toda Hirokatsu: You mean her duty to our Lord.

Yoshii Nagakado: Uncle, you honor me with these stories. What was my father like when he was young?

Saeki Nobutatsu: This is a good story! Did you know that your father was still a boy when he won his first battle? Yoshii Toranaga, the boy warlord. But that's not even the good part. I'm told when the disgraced Mizoguchi bowed to him in surrender, it was your father, just twelved years old, who struck his enemy's head from his shoulders with a single blow.

Yoshii Nagakado: Oh. [All chuckles]

Toda Hiromatsu: Lord Saeki, did you receive our Lord's gift?

Matsudaira Ietada: The courtesan, yes. Many thanks. She's beautiful, but beauty's a fleeting pleasure. Like trying to grasp a river, or fuck a sunset.

Yoshii Toranaga: Tonight, we'll speak formally on the matter of our alliance.

Saeki Nobutatsu: Why not tonight?

Yoshii Toranaga: Patience. [Offers him drink]

Saeki Nobutatsu: Nonsense! I can't live in this suspense! What will the Great Yoshii Toranaga offer me for my army? I quite like it here. [Yoshii puts down drink] Perhaps my brother would give my Izu? Wouldn't that be something? [Kashigi grunts inquiringly] Nephew. I do have one more story about my brother. Not many know it. He was once sent away as a hostage, to ensure our alliance with the Imatani clan. Our mother told him to be brave. That a Minowara does not feel fear. But the moment he left her arms, I'm told my brother shat his pants and rode his horse for ten messy ri. I mean no respect, of course. I just meant to say, I always felt for that horse... Nagakado. What do you prefer? Stories, legends... or the truth? This proposal, for example. What a legend that would make, for me to become Lord of Izu. Unfortunately, I already receieved another offer.

Toranaga: Tonight, we'll get good and drunk

Toranaga: Why is it that only those who have never fought in a battle are so eager to be in one?

Gin: Fate is like a sword. Useful only to those who can wield it.

Buntaro: Before we die, I beg permission to take the barbarian's head.

Toranaga: Even when there's evil in this land, no one has the right to tear the realm apart. Crimson Sky was a mistake.

Saeki Nobutatsu: [Over the sight of Yoshii Nagakado's body having perished slipping and hitting his head on a rock] Where is the beauty in this?

"The Abyss of Life" [1.08]

Blackthorne: I will reunite with my crew, get back aboard my vessel, then pay a visit to that Black Ship I have heard so much about.

Mariko: I don't think you are her enemy. I think fear is her enemy.

Mariko: What you denied me wasn't death. It was a life beyond your reach. And I would sooner live a thousand years than die with you like this.

Mariko: Once loyalty begins, it does not have an end. Otherwise, it would not be loyalty.

Kiku: If you look and see nothing, you must simply look harder.

"Crimson Sky" [1.09]

Blackthorne: Which comes first, God or your purse strings?

Ishido: I am no peasant to be trodden upon. I am daughter of the great Lord Akechi Jinsai.

Mariko: It is not possible to fight through all these men. We must go back.

Mariko: Accepting death isn't surrender. Flowers are only flowers because they fall.

"A Dream of a Dream" [1.10]

Tonomoto Akinao: [An aged samurai bringing John to Toronaga] Until we find those who aided the Christian raiders, no one in this village will rest. Lord Toranaga has ordered it. [Walks past decapitated heads of European sailors on a board]

Kashigi Yabushige: [Gets manhandled to be forced to knees before Toranaga] Lord.

Yoshii Toranaga: Thank you for returning my consorts and my vassals.

Kashigi Yabushige: You’ve heard the news that Lady Mariko is dead.

Yoshii Toranaga: Yes, I know. That night, you were seen letting intruders into my quarters.

Kashigi Omi: One of Mariko’s ladies-in-waiting was with you in the cellar. She sent a letter to Omi. After Lady Mariko’s death, they say you were guilt-stricken and asked for forgiveness. I felt it was my duty to alert our lord.

Yoshii Toranaga: Did you aid this attack?

Kashigi Yabushige: [Sighs and inhales sharply] Yes, I did.

Yoshii Toranaga: Fine. All of your lands are forfeit. Please slit your belly by sunset tomorrow.

Kashigi Yabushige: Lord... If you must kill me, give me a good death! Like being torn apart by cannon or eaten alive by a school of angry fish! I beg you! Please!

Yoshii Toranaga: Fine suggestions, but I don’t trust you. Please commit seppuku by sunset tomorrow.

Kashigi Yabushige: Izu is the fief of the Kashigi clan. I declare Omi to be my heir, and request it be given to him. It is fair to ask, but Izu is no longer yours to give.

Yoshii Toranaga: Who would you like to second your death?

Kashigi Yabushige: Let it be the Anjin.

Yoshii Toranaga: No.

Kashigi Yabushige: In that case, I would be honored if it would be you, Lord.

Yoshii Toranaga: I shall. Until tomorrow, then.

Kashigi Yabushige: [Yabushige grunts as he is manhandled upwards, to John] May Fudō Myō’ō smile on tomorrow.

Yoshii Toranaga: If I could use words like scattering flowers and fallen leaves, what a bonfire my poems would make.

Kiri No Kata: Those words are too beautiful to belong to you.

Yoshii Toranaga: They belong to Lady Mariko. Only her words remain with us now. But what a bonfire she made.

Ishido: War is inevitable.

Ochiba: It was written by my friend.

The Heir: The one who was just buried?

Ochiba: Yes. So we must finish the poem.

Toranaga: Only her words remain with us now.

Blackthorne: I, Anjin, by my death, protest the callous punishment of this village by Yoshii Toranaga.

[Kashigi is awaiting his execution at an oceanside cliff with Yoshii]

Kashigi Yabushige: If only I could have lived to see it... the day your plan comes together, whatever it is... my nephew’s first battle... when the Anjin sails against the Christians who burned his ship... so many days I could have seen.

Yoshii Toranaga: If only it were that simple. The ship had to be destroyed. It was between that and the Anjin’s life. Appointing a watchman to spread gunpowder... wasn’t that hard. Mariko negotiated for the Church, and I agreed.

Kashigi Yabushige: You burned that ship.

Yoshii Toranaga: It was a necessary ruse to test the Anjin. Perhaps someday I’ll tell him the truth. By then he’ll have rebuilt the ship, and I’ll likely have to destroy it again. I don’t think it’s his fate to ever leave Japan.

Kashigi Yabushige: How does it feel to shape the wind to your will?

Yoshii Toranaga: I don’t control the wind. I only study it.

Kashigi Yabushige: [Sighs] But how can you win this? With your forces outnumbered, the Heir’s army about to attack... is it Crimson Sky?

Yoshii Toranaga: I suppose it could work... but I don’t see how.

Kashigi Yabushige: At least tell me before I die...

Yoshii Toranaga: Yabushige. After all we’ve been through, I thought you of all people would see. Crimson Sky is already finished. With the Regents united, I could never send an army to Osaka. It would have meant certain death. So I sent a woman to do what an army never could. Don’t you see what’s coming next? In just one month, we will meet our enemies at Sekigahara. Five armies squaring off on the field of battle. And you’re right... with the Heir’s army on Ishido’s side, I’d be finished. However, because of Mariko’s actions, Lady Ochiba has grown tired of her alliance with Ishido. In a letter to me, she secretly pledged to keep the Heir’s army from the battlefield. On that day, Ishido will have no banner. The Regents will turn on him before a sword is drawn. Only then will my dream be realized... I will start it in Edo, my center of power. A nation without wars. An era of great peace. All of us have made this possible. You, me, Lady Mariko... even the barbarian who came out of the sea. [Sighs] How many times I’ve thought of giving his life away, but stopped. Not because he’s important... my banner would survive without him... [Chuckles] but because he makes me laugh. And my enemies need a distraction.

Kashigi Yabushige: It’s hypocrisy, our lives... all this death and sacrifice from lesser men just to ensure some victory in our names.

Yoshii Toranaga: Do you remember what the Anjin said on the day we met, when I told him his fight was pointless?

Kashigi Yabushige: “Unless I win.”

Yoshii Toranaga: If you win, anything is possible. Even Shōgun. [Yabushige gasps]

Kashigi Yabushige: It’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? You’re no better than us, in your secret heart... tell me the truth. I’ll take it to my grave.

Yoshii Toranaga: Why tell a dead man the future? [Kashigi commits seppuku and Yoshii decapitates him]

Toranaga: If you win, anything is possible.

External links

Shōgun (TV series) quotes at the Internet Movie Database