Blackthorne Draws Lord Toranaga a Map of the World - Scene | Shōgun | FX

Can Toranaga and Blackthorne work together?

I love how much of this scene's tension is entirely based on the need for a translator, and the not-so-subtle influence she has when she decides how to interpret his words.

I like how he clarifies "Yes they really are THAT arrogant.".

This 5 min scene was when I knew this show went from "this is going to be a good show" to "this show will be legendary".

He's referring to the the Treaty of Zaragoza signed in 1529 for those interested.

"Did he really say "belongs"?" Chills! Such an amazing show!

Toranaga : would you lose? Blackthorne : Nah I’d win

This is a great show so far. I love the slight smirk by Toranaga when Blackthorne says “Unless I win”.

This scene is amazing. No fighting, no special effects, no over the top action, just strong dialogue, subtle eerie music, and incredible performances from all cast. Absolutely loving this show

This is based on a real conversation held between Tokugawa Ieyasu and the English navigator William Adams. It led to the Tokugawa Shogunate aligning with the English and the Dutch against the Spanish and Portuguese.

“Did he really say ‘BELONGS’” The shock in his face….can’t imagine what hearing something like that can feel like.

Hand-painting a world map on karesansui, which represents water with gravel, is actually excellent.

Me installing Shogun 2 again

I actually liked the original series take on that line better. Toranaga was informed that England supported the Netherlands in their rebellion for independence against Spain and Toranaga said to Blackthorne, that there was no mitigating circumstances for rebelling against your sovereign lord. To which Blackthorne replied "unless you win", which Toranaga agreed with a smile.

Blackthorne really be like "Nah, I'd win."

The Portuguese replacing governments with Catholic ones suddenly scares the crap out of Toranaga, because he is smart enough to realize that they're already halfway there. Two of the five regents are Catholics. They're forcing him out, which means soon the government would be half Catholic. He was worried about Ishido and even trying to get the Catholic regents to turn against him, but in this moment I don't think he's thinking about Ishido anymore. He's realizing that Portugal is the real enemy of Japan.

Shōgun is the best miniseries of this year in my opinion . This show is going to win some Emmy awards , because everything in this show is so well done ⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️ .

I LOVE how they use Hi no Moto instead of Nippon to address Japan, and Min-koku (Ming Kingdom) to address China.

William Adams (the character Blackthorne is based on) really did push some heavy propaganda against the Catholics because he worked for the Dutch East India Company and the United Provinces were at war with the Hispanic Monarchy and in the end, the Tokugawa favoured the Dutch traders because they weren't interested in proselitism. That being said, by 1600 the Japanese authorities had already started to distrust the Portuguese after nearly 20 years were several daimyos, Oda Nobunaga included, used the Jesuits to counter the political power of the Buddhist temples. Both Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu were aware of the growing Portuguese presence in Asia and they definitely knew about Macau being a colony, basically because since China banned all trade with Japan (the Ming blamed the Japanese for the growing acts of piracy in their coasts) the Portuguese acted as a middleman between both nations. I mean, "Macau" is literally a Portuguese minstranslation of the name of the island of Aomen. Not just that, but the Philippines were already under the rule of the Spanish and, again, the Japanese knew about it: Hideyoshi even planned to conquer them but he died before he could start his invasion. So having Torenaga (Tokugawa Ieyasu) being this surprised about European colonialism and the Jesuits being used as some sort of subversive force trying to pave the way by converting the population before an imminent invasion seems a bit out of place because at that point he already suspected it. Then there's the fact that even when Blackthorne talks about the "kings of Portugal and Spain" as if they were diferent people, by 1580 (and up to 1640) the king of Spain (or more correctly, Castile and Aragon) was also the king of Portugal. That's just some small context for those who are interested in the real history, otherwise I'm really liking the series so far.

I love how Mariko turns "To vanquish our common enemies" into "To enlist you against his enemies." It's a subtle but important mistranslation, and because she's accurately translated other things that clearly upset her, neither one has any reason to think she's worded this to slightly weigh it in favour of the Portuguese, and she did it effortlessly and quickly. It reminds you of just how sharp and dangerous Mariko could be if she weren't totally loyal to Toranaga.