The Erasmus, a Dutch ship, piloted by an English sailor (John Blackthorne) wrecks on the coast of Japan (near Ajiro) in 1600. The Portuguese are the only Europeans doing business in Japan. The Taikō has recently died leaving his young son and heir in the hands of five regents. Blackthorne is taken prisoner by the local ruler who passes him along to his uncle, Kashigi Yabushige.
A Portuguese priest denounces Blackthore and encourages Kashigi to execute him. One of the other surviving sailors from the Erasmus is executed in Blackthorne's place. Blackthorne is taken by ship to Osaka but before they get there the ship goes through a violent storm.
Rodrigues, a Spanish pilot who works for the Portuguese takes charge of Blackthorne and later reveals to Blackthorne that he knows that that Erasmus wasn't a merchant ship as Blackthorne claims, but sent on a mission to disrupt the operations of the Spanish and Portuguese around the world.
The episode ends with Blackthorne meeting Yoshii Toranaga, one of the five regents of the heir to Taikō. Toranaga is in a perilous position as the other four regents are getting ready to turn against him in unison.
Thoughts
A fair amount of the episode is in Japanese with subtitles. I assume that will continue to be the case. Blackthorne does not speak Japanese.
I'm pretty sure that I saw some of the 1980s Shōgun miniseries which starred Richard Chamberlain. I might have even read part of the novel but I'm fairly certain that I didn't finish reading it. I think I might have read a third of it.
I'm intrigued but not won over by the first episode. There is a bit more to the story than what I described but I think I captured most of the major plot points.
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