The women of Shogun came to slay.
Shogun, the hit FX series that won four Emmys on Sunday – taking their total up to a record-breaking 18 trophies in 2024 – has already cemented itself as one of 2024’s hit shows. Thanks to a standout cast, gripping storyline and intricate costumes, the 10-episode series has captured audiences the world over in a way no other Japanese historical fiction drama ever has — no small feat given that 90 percent of its dialogue is in Japanese.
One could be forgiven for assuming that Shogun — a Game of Thrones-esque saga based on James Clavell's bestselling 1975 novel about the rise of Lord Yoshii Toranaga in 1600 feudal Japan — is nothing more than a beautifully rendered, loosely historically-accurate show with bloody beheadings and bombings, but its compelling depiction of its female characters have turned it into something more than just your average swashbuckling drama.
From Anna Sawai’s gut-wrenching performance as Toda Mariko, a disgraced high-born lady turned political translator, to Fumi Nikaido’s turn as Lady Ochiba, the scheming queen regent, it’s safe to say the women of Shogun stole the show. Rather than falling into tired tropes of submissive wives or fetishised temptresses, Shogun’s leading ladies have robust arcs that see them vying for power and purpose, and even having the ability to change the tides of war. In one of the final lines of the show that sums up their roles, Toranaga said of Mariko: “I sent a woman to do what entire armies could not.”
But how much power did women *really* have during the Sengoku period, and how much of it was fictionalised for dramatic purposes? Turns out, according to Frederik Cryns, resident historian for Shogun, every character was based on real-life heroines. “The Sengoku period was marked by warfare and social instability, allowing women to have more power, whether it was because her husband died in battle and she became the head of the family or even influencing their men while they were alive,” he says. Frederik referenced letters by the real women behind characters like Lady Ochiba and Kiri, Toranaga’s wife, who conducted political affairs on behalf of their husbands and influenced everything from their philosophies to their choice of allies.
Frederik ensured maximum historical authenticity in every detail, from writing the original dialogue in Medieval Japanese (until it proved too much to learn even for the native Japanese actors) to even changing the character of an assassin from a man in the book to a woman, insisting that there was no historical reason why a trained shinobi (the predecessor to ninjas) whose job is to be discreet, could not be a monk, servant or ladies’ maid. He was heavily involved in the now-infamous scene where Mariko, wielding a naginata, attempts to fight through a wall of soldiers and fails.
“There were only ever two types of women in these typical Japanese historical dramas: those hidden at the back of the house behind men, and the superhuman ninjas that can take 100 men, but I think both of them are wrong,” says Frederik. “What we wanted to do in Shogun was show real women of the Sengoku period who had an enormous amount of willpower and who would act even when all the odds were against them. They had no supernatural powers, but their willpower alone could move mountains.”
To bring these characters to life, Frederik shared dozens of paintings of the time with lead costume designer Carlos Rosario (who is also the sartorial mind behind the recently-released Alien movie). “In period dramas we usually look to photographs, but in this case, it was paintings,” Carlos tells me. “I learned about the ranking and hierarchy, which dictated the number of layers and different patterns and colours the ladies wore, and from there we added the emotional arc of each character.”
Thanks to showrunners Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks and Federik and Carlos’ extensive research, the show exuded a level of historical accuracy that gave it a sense of gravitas even Japanese viewers found compelling.
Japanese runway model and Vogue Japan contributor Taira Go was thrilled to see how the show respected details both big and small. “From the costumes to the subtle movements, everything embodied the Japanese ethos and traditions,” she says. “I feel it was groundbreaking for Hollywood to have produced a show predominantly in a language other than English that required the majority of the audience to watch it with subtitles, and it still gained so much attention and success, I feel so proud and hopeful!”
While we wait to see just how many Emmys the show will take home, we break down the five women of Shogun, and the historic influences behind their characters.
MARIKO
As if her character could get any cooler, Mariko is actually based on a real-life woman named Hosokawa Gracia, a Japanese noblewoman and Christian convert. A brave and honourable woman, when her father and his men were killed in battle, she took in their daughters and widows as her ladies-in-waiting, giving them a place in court — a detail not in the books that Frederik subtly included in the show. Her own death later was, in fact, a catalyst for the Battle of Sekigahara, the largest and most important battle in Japanese feudal history, which ultimately ushered in a new, peaceful era.
Some audiences were also surprised to see Mariko wield a spear in the show, assuming it was fictionalised for dramatic effect, but the scene is a lot less farfetched than one might imagine. “Highborn women learned the art of the naginata and would always have a dagger with them to protect themselves if they needed,” said Frederik.
As for her costume, Carlos wanted her to appear “ghost-like” in the beginning as she navigated her disgraced past. “The first uchikake (formal Japanese robe), she wears has hand-painted curves on it in grey, black and gold, symbolising snow covering grass, but as she finds her purpose as a translator, her costume starts to bloom with camellias to represent her finding her own voice and truth,” he said.
OCHIBA
Lady Ochiba, or the queen regent to the heir in Shogun, was based on Yodo-no-kata, a samurai princess and daughter of a powerful warlord. Her role in the show might be one of the most complex, as she attempted to maintain her seat of power by manipulating the warring lords to do her bidding. Perhaps one of the most delicate dynamics depicted is the one between Ochiba and the Daiyoin — the former queen who failed to produce a viable male heir for the late Taiko, or emperor. The relationship is not explicitly explained in the show, and is one rather specific to how women respected each other in feudal Japan. Many viewers, including myself, were left scratching our heads — shouldn’t there be bitter in-fighting between the two women essentially occupying the same seat? “In Japan, it’s the very opposite,” explains Frederik. “The clan, and the name of the house comes first, so there are many instances of the legal wife taking in and protecting a concubine’s son to ensure that there be an heir to the house.” Shogun has shown, time and time again, that one of its women’s greatest strengths is their ability to put aside their own ego for the greater good. In the last moments of the series, Ochiba sends one fateful letter to Toranaga announcing her change of loyalties, which changes the entire course of the war — and history.
When it came to reflecting her power, or rather, her thirst for power, Carlos chose the thickest fabrics for Lady Ochiba: “to show that she was taking up more space than everybody else because of her high rank.” Her colours are bolder, her train longer, and yet, there is a sombre undertone to her palette. “When I met Fumi Nikaido (who plays Ochiba), I asked her how she viewed her character, to which she said, quietly, ‘I think Ochiba is a mixture of power and grief.’” So Carlos distilled those two words into an autumnal palette of deep purple and black, then meticulously embroidering her uchikakes with flowers. One that he is most proud of is a grand number that, in a sudden flash of inspiration, was created out of all the discarded fabrics left over from uchikakes made for other noble ladies in the show. “The audience may not catch this, but it’s like a symbol of how she’s superior to everybody else.”
KIKU
The geisha is a Japanese figure well known the world over, but the showrunners of Shogun wanted to ensure a historically accurate portrayal of courtesans long before they became known as the geisha. “The courtesans of the Sengoku era were the foundation of what would become the geisha, and they modelled the way they dressed on Chinese fashion at the time,” says Frederik. Courtesans wore kosodes, which were the predecessor to the modern-day kimono, featuring shorter and wider sleeves for dramatic effect as the courtesans danced or played the shamisen, a traditional Japanese stringed instrument. “I knew Kiku needed to be in red, because that was the colour of the courtesans, but I also wanted her look to feel like a stark contrast to their immediate surroundings because they were meant to offer a fantasy,” Carlos said. “Since most of the time they’re in tea houses which are very dark, I chose fabrics that would shimmer in the dark and have that silvery quality that would catch the candlelight. I also incorporated fabrics with bird motifs as my way to show that these courtesans were ready to bring whoever to take flight into a dream.”
GIN
An easily overlooked character, Gin, the retired courtesan and owner of the Willow World brothel, represents one of the most modern women of her time. Thanks to the de-stabilised social order of the warring era, Frederik explains, women at the time were still able to head up brothels, until men took away that right during the Edo period. In the show, Gin has the guile and guts to negotiate with Toranaga for a piece of land in the new world he builds in order to establish her brothel. For a lowly courtesan to ask anything of the high lord would be a daunting feat in the modern age, let alone the 1600s. And yet, Gin displayed the kind of courage to seize opportunities for herself in a way we would still admire today.
FUJI
Loosely based on a concubine of Tokugawa Hidetada, the second Tokugawa shogun, Fuji’s arc may seem tragic to most. Forced to witness her husband and infant son’s death, she was then strong-armed into marrying the British sailor Jack Blackthorne. But her unwavering loyalty and the strength she demonstrated in the darkest hours is what became her legacy. “Someone explained to me that “fuji” means wisteria in Japanese and I immediately wanted to demonstrate that delicate strength she has through this light palette, to show how she can be both vulnerable and powerful at the same time,” says Carlos. “Her storyline is incredibly sad, but she is no victim.”
