Shogun

“Always remember, child [...] that to think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral you down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline—training—is about.”

Kiku’s first teacher gives her a lesson in the discipline of mindfulness. Negative thoughts are natural and easy in a violent world. The women of the Willow World have to appear light and at ease when they are entertaining. A large part of their training involves thinking good thoughts even when there is little reason to do so.

“To serve is duty, duty is samurai, samurai is immortality.”

Yabu contemplates becoming completely loyal to Toranaga. The samurai code of service makes obedience to one’s lord is indistinguishable from duty. Treating one’s duty with seriousness guarantees positive karma and a desirable immortality. Yabu’s problem is the realization that whom he serves matters less for karma than the fact that he serves a lord honorably.

“Why is it there is always such violence between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law? Doesn't daughter-in-law, in time, become mother-in-law? Why does she then always treat her own daughter-in-law to a lashing tongue and make her life a misery, and why does that girl do the same in her turn? Doesn't anyone learn?”

Kiku dislikes the tension between Omi’s wife and Omi’s mother-in-law—it is customary in Japanese culture for a mother-in-law to treat her daughter-in-law harshly. However, tradition changes slowly in Japan, or not at all.

“Stop your stupid womanish thoughts! You’ve been in pain for almost sixty years! What is pain to a man? A privilege! Masking pain is the measure of a man.”

Hiro-matsu suffers from the pains of old age, past injuries from battle, hemorrhoids, and fatigue; however, he steels himself because the natural inclination to express his pain is a sign of weakness. In a culture that values stoicism in, pain is necessary for demonstrating one’s toughness. But at 60, Hiro-matsu finds the need to remain impassive at all times oppressive.

“It's a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for the world to see, another in his breast to show to his special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except to himself alone, hidden only God knows where.”

Rodrigues has been around the Japanese long enough to understand the importance they place on hiding their feelings—though because of his bias, he ignores the fact that the European often hide their motives and thoughts as well. The novel doubles down on this standard racist anti-Asian trope: Japanese characters in the novel rarely reveal their feelings while speaking, and Clavell instead conveys of their inner turmoil through internal monologues.

“Of what real value is a title? The power is the only important thing.”

Toranaga discusses the irrelevance of titles with Ishido. Goroda never reached the rank of shogun but was feared and respected. Nakamura only rose as high as Taiko. The fact that they ruled matters more to Toranaga than the titles they held while ruling. This is one of the reasons why Toranaga is willing to appear vulnerable or weak at times—as long as he gets the result he wants, the words people use to label him do not matter.

“How beautiful life is, and how sad! How fleeting, with no past and no future, only a limitless now.”

The Zen nature of the samurai comes through in several instances. Mariko and Toranaga believe that there is something to be enjoyed, or endured, in every moment. This is part of what gives life its beauty, and what allows the samurai to compose lovely death poems even as they are about to leave this world. There is no past or future—only the present.

“By universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.”

Yabu suspects that Toranaga has already decided he must die. Their obligation for politeness extends even to mortal foes. Yabu takes Toranaga’s apparent graciousness as evidence that he will kill him. In the novel’s version of Japanese society, everyone expects politeness, making it difficult to read clues about anyone’s intentions.

“Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san. Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal. We have no word for ‘love’ as I understand you to mean it. Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need.”

Although Mariko will later understand love as Blackthorne defines it, early in their relationship, she claims there is no such thing as love in Japanese—a statement that reveals more about the torment of her abusive marriage than psychological reality. Later, she will see that Blackthorne’s love for her is based on loyalty, honor, respect, desire, and duty, as is hers for him.

“Isn’t it only through laughter we can stay human?”

Toranaga is not a nihilist, but he believes that the doctrine of karma makes it absurd to believe that things could have happened another way. Senseless deaths and tragedies are blunted given the idea of predestination. Toranaga believes that laughter in the face of apparent catastrophe places him on equal footing with the gods.

“True love, we call it duty, is of soul to soul and needs no such expression—no physical expression, except perhaps the gift of death.”

Mariko considers duty the ultimate obligation. In the West, love does not connote obligation and duty in the same way that it does in Japan. The Japanese in Shogun do not discuss traditional romance. They focus on power, pleasure, and duty.

“They had no sense of sin, they were all conscienceless—even Mariko.”

Blackthorne is troubled after witnessing the death of Jozen and his men. He does not understand how anyone can fail to be shaken by such cruelty. It disturbs him to think that the Japanese might lack a conscience, though of course he will learn that he is wrong.

“Yabu-san’s a violent man with no scruples whatsoever. He honors nothing but his own interests. Duty, loyalty, tradition, mean nothing to him. His mind has flashes of great cunning, even brilliance. He’s equally dangerous as ally or enemy. All commendable virtues. What’s to be said against him?”

What sounds like a condemnation of Yabu becomes a backhanded compliment: Yabu may not value traditional ideals, but his success in political machinations makes him a worthy adversary, which is laudable in and of itself.

“Karma is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very important. The strong are the patient ones, Anjin-san. Patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don't give way to the seven, you're patient, then you'll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity.”

Patience is a key value in the Japanese society. All other positive attributes flow from it: There is no harmony without patience, and patience is a requisite for strength. Many of the bad decisions made by characters in the novel are the result of people acting impatiently, typically out of anger.

“If you let this incident destroy your harmony, you will be lost and so will I. Please, I implore you to be Japanese. Put this incident away.”

Mariko associates being Japanese with the maintenance of harmony. She asks Blackthorne to emulate the Japanese after his argument with Father Alvito. She is able to compartmentalize her feelings in a way that is difficult for Blackthorne, who often asks rashly when angered. She is always able to find a sense of serenity in the midst of challenges and pain.

“If you want peace you must learn to drink cha from an empty cup.”

Mariko presents Blackthorne will a riddle in the form of Zen koan. Japanese meditative practices often require intense visualizations: Trained extensively, she is not disturbed by the paradox of drinking something that isn’t there. Rather, by imagining drinking cha—a calming substance—Mariko can access its tranquil effects whether she has a cup of it or not.

“The law may upset reason but reason may never upset the law, or our whole society will shred like an old tatami. The law may be used to confound reason, reason must certainly not be used to overthrow the law. The Taiko’s will is law.”

The Taiko’s will is the supreme law of the land, Toranaga tells Hiro-matsu. Laws are an instrument to deliver the Taiko’s wishes, not an apparatus to keep him accountable or constrained. This illustrates the danger in having the wrong person in charge; if they endorse unethical practices, no one can stop them.

“Men need to whisper secrets, Lady. That’s what makes them different from us—they need to share secrets, but we women only reveal them to gain an advantage. With a little silver and a ready ear—and I have both—it’s all so easy. Yes. Men need to share secrets. That’s why we’re superior to them and they’ll always be in our power.”

Although women in the novel are almost completely subservient to men, Gyoko acts as a power broker who traffics in information gleaned from clients who boast to her stable of courtesans. Men share secrets in order to pretend that they are powerful insiders, but they dilute the value of information every time they share it.

“Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life.”

Feeling like they are always on the edge of death, samurai are better able to appreciate life’s pleasures and tranquil moments because they know how quickly things can change. Those who have not faced death do not have the same sense of life’s exhilaration.

“The whine in Vinck’s voice irritated Blackthorne. Everything about Vinck irritated him now. Three times in the last week he had almost told his vassals to knife Vinck quietly and throw him overboard to put him out of his misery when the weeping and bewailing and accusations had become too much.”

Having assimilated into Japanese culture, Blackthorne find his shipmates disgusting and tiresome. Vinck is not an impassive stoic like the samurai, so Blackthorne recoils from his lack of self-control. He entertains killing Vinck as a samurai solution to what seems like an intolerable burden. 

“What are clouds,

But an excuse for the sky?

What is life,

But an escape from death?”

Before his suicide, Yabu composes a death poem inflected with Zen Buddhist philosophy. Though disgraced, Yabu dies an ideal bushido death, showing no fear or pain during his seppuku. His death poem reflects this calm acceptance of his fate. Yabu believed in what he was trying to accomplish. He got caught and can accept his punishment with honor.

“Isn’t Kiku just a falcon to you? Prized, yes, unique yes, but just a falcon that you feed from your fist, to fly at a prey and call back with a lure, to cast adrift after a season or two, to vanish forever?”

Toranaga compares Kiku to one of his falcons. She mostly serves a purpose, a temporary tool to further his ends. He is fond of her, but their relationship will always be that of master and servant. As he compares the other falcons to his other vassals, he knows that he cherishes the birds but never loses sight of the fact that they are tools.

“This is a day for truth, neh? The answer is because you make me laugh and I need a friend. I daren’t make friends among my own people, or among the Portuguese. Yes, I will whisper it down a well at noon but only when I’m certain I’m alone, that I need one friend.”

Toranaga’s inner monologue while contemplating the destruction of the Erasmus shows that he had a personal reason for keeping Blackthorne close: Toranaga has grown genuinely fond of him. He cannot afford to have traditional friends among his own people, who are often plotting his downfall. Blackthorne could be a friend, however, even if Toranaga never admits it to him.