Shogun - Orientalist Interpretation

Visit modern day Japan and it is easy to be attracted to the flashing lights, and futuristic-looking cities. But stroll through a traditional Japanese garden, with its tranquil atmosphere and closeness to nature, and one can walk into the past. It is easy to imagine kimono-clad men, their heads shaven bald except for a queue on the top of their heads, two swords hanging by their sides, shuffling around in wooden sandals. This is feudal Japan, where everyone and anyone live by bushido, the way of the samurai. Merchants and traders coming back from Japan described it as an exotic and fantasy-filled land. So why was popular opinion (up until as recently as the early post-World War II period) of the Japanese so negative? The Japanese were considered so alien and so fundamentally different to the West to the point that they were deemed non-human. James Clavell, an author fascinated by Asian culture, reverses this perception of the Japanese in his novel, Shogun.
Shogun, based in pa...