Miura Anjin
During the summer, I re-read James Clavell's 1975 novel Shogun, set in feudal Japan. The novel was rendered into a 9-hour TV miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune. Chamberlain played the English sea captain Pilot Major John Blackthorne, washed ashore and marooned in Japan, but who is saved by finding favor with one of the chief feudal lords of the country, Lord Toranaga.
I read the novel originally in Grade 12, immediately after it was broadcast in installments on television. Instead of studying for my mid-term exams I was watching another 2-hour nightly installment of the show. This went on for a whole school week. At that time, I ripped through the 1,000-page paperback in one week. This year, however, it took me an entire month to read it - an 800-page hardcover edition that I found and bought many years ago in the Jimbocho used book district of Tokyo. I wanted to get it out of my apartment, but not without re-reading it first. In high school I had the time and the energy to read it in a week. Now, I’m a tired, busy middle-aged man. Typical of long books, it took me a long time - weeks - to reach the middle of the story. But after that, I finished the second half in mere days. It’s like slowly trudging a tall hill, and then quickly tobogganing down the opposite slope.
The story is based on real events. John Blackthorne is derived from the Englishman William Adams (1564 - 1620). Adams was trapped in Japan after being shipwrecked here, but he made a new life for himself as a military advisor to the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu. In Japanese, Adams took the name Miura Anjin. The Shogun elevated him to a high samurai status and provided him with work and an income. Although he died in Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu, he had a home in Edo (Tokyo) only a few kilometers from Edo Castle. On Saturday, September 19th I discovered the location of Adams' Edo home in the Nihonbashi district. The site is currently occupied by the Tagawa Jewelry store.
Four hundred years ago, Ginza and Hihonbashi were seaside harbor neighbourhoods. Today, however, after centuries of land reclamation, Tokyo harbor is far away. In the early 16th century, Edo Castle was practically a seaside fortress. You wouldn’t imagine it today if you look at the city without a knowledge of its history and geography. I have a little of both.