Did FX really go to Japan to bring feudal Osaka, Ajiro and Edo to life?
Shōgun takes viewers back in time to 1600 Japan. We travel alongside English navigator John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) as he journeys from the small fishing village of Ajiro to the exquisite cosmopolitan of Osaka. There are moonlit battles, shivering seas, and dreamy soaks in natural hot springs. Have you found yourself watching the FX show wondering how you, too, can travel like John Blackthorne? Well, there’s good news and bad news. Japan is one hundred percent a real place you can visit. However, Shōgun was not filmed in Japan…
Shōgun is FX’s new adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel of the same name. In 1980, ABC aired a Peabody-winning miniseries adaptation of the book and that version of the tale was completely shot on location in Japan. The story, after all, follows an intrepid English sailor who winds up on the shores of feudal Japan. He falls in with a powerful, brilliant daimyo named Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) and falls in love with his translator, Mariko (Anna Sawai).
So if Shōgun wasn’t filmed in Japan, where did the FX series find its version of Ajiro, Osaka, and, in the future, Edo (aka Tokyo)? Here’s everything you need to know about where Shōgun was filmed…
Even though Shōgun takes place in feudal Japan and boasts a large Japanese cast, the FX series was actually filmed somewhere closer to Hollywood.
