As if her character might get any cooler, Mariko is definitely primarily based on a real-life girl named Hosokawa Gracia, a Japanese noblewoman and Christian convert. A courageous and honourable girl, when her father and his males had been killed in battle, she took of their daughters and widows as her ladies-in-waiting, giving them a spot in court docket — a element not within the books that Frederik subtly included within the present. Her personal demise later was, in reality, a catalyst for the Battle of Sekigahara, the biggest and most essential battle in Japanese feudal historical past, which in the end ushered in a brand new, peaceable period.
Some audiences had been additionally shocked to see Mariko wield a spear within the present, assuming it was fictionalised for dramatic impact, however the scene is loads much less farfetched than one may think. “Highborn women learned the art of the naginata and would always have a dagger with them to protect themselves if they needed,” mentioned Frederik.
As for her costume, Carlos wished her to look “ghost-like” at first as she navigated her disgraced previous. “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 mentioned.
OCHIBA
FX
Girl Ochiba, or the queen regent to the inheritor in Shogun, was primarily based on Yodo-no-kata, a samurai princess and daughter of a robust warlord. Her function within the present may be some of the advanced, as she tried to take care of her seat of energy by manipulating the warring lords to do her bidding. Maybe some of the delicate dynamics depicted is the one between Ochiba and the Daiyoin — the previous queen who failed to provide a viable male inheritor for the late Taiko, or emperor. The connection will not be explicitly defined within the present, and is one fairly particular to how girls revered one another in feudal Japan. Many viewers, together with myself, had been left scratching our heads — shouldn’t there be bitter in-fighting between the 2 girls primarily occupying the identical 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 proven, time and time once more, that one among its girls’s biggest strengths is their capacity to place apart their very own ego for the better good. Within the final moments of the collection, Ochiba sends one fateful letter to Toranaga asserting her change of loyalties, which modifications all the course of the struggle — and historical past.
