Shōgun characters

Also known as Anjin-san, the Anjin

Appears from the start

John Blackthorne, the English pilot-major of a Dutch trading ship, the Erasmus, which is wrecked on the coast of Japan in 1600 after a disastrous voyage. Able, proud, hot-tempered, and a skilled navigator and seaman, he is the first Englishman most Japanese have ever seen. A Protestant, he is the natural enemy of the Portuguese Catholics already established in Japan, and his knowledge of the wider world quickly makes him a valuable and dangerous pawn. Unable to say his name, the Japanese come to call him Anjin-san, 'Mr Pilot.'

Also known as Kasigi Omi

First appears in chapter 2

Kasigi Omi, a young, ambitious samurai and nephew of the local lord, beside whose village the Erasmus washes up. Intelligent and coldly capable, he takes charge of the foreign captives and enforces his authority with casual, shocking brutality, giving Blackthorne his first hard lesson in how differently life and death are weighed in Japan.

Also known as Kasigi Yabu

First appears in chapter 3

Kasigi Yabu, the daimyo of Izu and Omi's uncle, a cunning, cruel and ambitious lord who covets the guns, cannon and silver aboard the wrecked ship. Treacherous and self-serving, forever calculating which side in the coming struggle for power will best serve his ambitions, he becomes one of the shifting, unreliable figures around Blackthorne.

Also known as Vasco Rodrigues

First appears in chapter 6

Vasco Rodrigues, a Portuguese pilot - profane, generous and superb at his trade - who is ordered to conduct Blackthorne by sea and finds himself liking the Englishman despite their nations' enmity and their rival faiths. A seaman's fellow-feeling repeatedly cuts across the politics that ought to make the two men enemies.

Also known as Yoshi Toranaga, Lord Toranaga

First appears in chapter 10

Yoshi Toranaga, the Lord of the Kwanto and the most powerful of the five regents governing Japan in the name of a child heir after the death of the Taiko. Patient, brilliant and endlessly subtle, a master of politics who thinks many moves ahead, he is manoeuvring against his rivals for control of the realm. He recognises at once that the strange Anjin and his knowledge of the world beyond Japan could be a decisive piece in his game.

Also known as Ishido Kazunari

First appears in chapter 11

Ishido Kazunari, the general who holds Osaka Castle and guards the young heir, and Toranaga's chief rival among the regents. Risen from common soldier to great lord - rigid, able and implacable - he commands a coalition determined to isolate and destroy Toranaga, making him the central opponent in the struggle for mastery of Japan.

Also known as Martin Alvito, Tsukku-san

First appears in chapter 10

Father Martin Alvito, a senior Jesuit and the fluent interpreter trusted by the great Japanese lords, known as Tsukku-san. Devoted to his Church and to its lucrative position in Japan, he sees the heretic Blackthorne as a genuine threat to everything the mission has built, and the two become wary adversaries even as Alvito's skills keep him indispensable at the centre of power.

Also known as Toda Mariko, Lady Mariko

First appears in chapter 12

Toda Mariko, a noblewoman of high and tragic lineage and a devout Christian convert, assigned by Toranaga to serve as Blackthorne's interpreter. Cultured, courageous and self-possessed, bound by absolute duty yet carrying a shameful family history, she becomes Blackthorne's guide to the Japanese world, his teacher, and in time far more than that. Her intelligence and grace make her one of the story's central figures.

Also known as Toda Buntaro

First appears in chapter 24

Toda Buntaro, Mariko's husband, a formidable and utterly loyal warrior and archer whose violent temper and brooding jealousy make him a hard and often frightening man. His troubled marriage to Mariko and his simmering hostility toward Blackthorne become a source of danger and tension.

Also known as Usagi Fujiko

First appears in chapter 30

Usagi Fujiko, a young widow of samurai family whom Toranaga assigns to Blackthorne as consort and manager of his household. Proud and at first unwilling, she comes to run his affairs with fierce competence and loyalty, and her devotion to duty gives Blackthorne another window into the code by which the samurai live and die.

Also known as Carlo Dell'Aqua, the Father-Visitor

First appears in chapter 12

Father Carlo Dell'Aqua, the Father-Visitor and head of the Jesuit mission in Asia, a shrewd and worldly churchman balancing faith, Portuguese trade and the delicate politics of the Japanese lords. He guides the Church's response to the threat Blackthorne represents while trying to keep the mission's influence intact.

Also known as Lady Ochiba

First appears in chapter 52

Ochiba, the mother of the child heir and widow of the late Taiko, a proud and formidable noblewoman whose loyalty Ishido's cause depends upon. Her private history and her wary judgement of the rival lords make her a quiet but decisive force in the struggle over Osaka and the fate of the realm.