“Shōgun,” the nearly 1,200-page tome published by James Clavell in 1975, is a work of fiction, but one faithful to the context and circumstances of Japan circa 1600. The protagonist, English sailor John Blackthorne, is based on William Adams, the rare Westerner to successfully enmesh himself within the cloistered society. Blackthorne’s patron and ally, the warlord Toranaga, is modeled after Tokugawa Ieyasu, whose namesake shogunate would last for two and a half centuries.
Source: ‘Shogun’ Review: Transportive Epic Matches ‘Game of Thrones’