This post contains spoilers for the finale of Shōgun.
Many years ago, when I first finished reading James Clavell’s historical epic Shōgun, I felt slightly puzzled. The novel had taken well over 1000 pages building to a civil war in feudal Japan between the wise Lord Toranaga and his ambitious rival Lord Ishido, and then it stopped right as the war was beginning, offering only the briefest of epilogues detailing what happened next? How was this good storytelling?, I wondered. Maybe there’s a sequel I don’t know about?
Soon, though, I began to recognize that depicting the battles was utterly besides the point. Shōgun is a war story, but one where the war gets won or lost before swords are even drawn. It is about Toranaga the chess master seeing 12 moves ahead, and ensuring the board will be in his favor by the time his opponent begins to press the attack. We see…
