shÅ gun takes viewers back in time, to Japan in the 1600s. We travel alongside English navigator John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) on his journey from the small fishing village of Ajiro to the exquisite and cosmopolitan Osaka. There are moonlight battles, trembling seas and dreamy baths in natural hot springs. Have you found yourself watching the foreign exchange show asking you how you too can travel like John Blackthorne. Well, there is good news and bad news. Japan is one hundred percent a real place that you can visit. However, shÅ gun It wasn’t filmed in Japan…
shÅ gun 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 story was filmed entirely in Japan. After all, the story follows an intrepid English sailor who ends up on the shores of feudal Japan. He falls in love with a powerful and brilliant daimyo named Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) and falls in love with his translator, Mariko (Anna Sawai).
so yes shÅ pistol wasn’t filmed in Japan, where did the FX series find its version of Ajiro, Osaka and, in the future, Edo (aka Tokyo)? Here you will find everything you need to know about where shÅ gun was shot…
Where was it shÅ gun Filmed?
Although shÅ pistol Taking place in feudal Japan and featuring a large Japanese cast, the FX series was actually filmed somewhere closer to Hollywood. shÅ pistol was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a mainstay of many televisions.
Variety reports that it was filmed on Vancouver Island and in the suburbs of Vancouver. Production designer Helen Jarvis “ended up transforming two exterior lots and two sound stages to build the world of shÅ pistolwhich included a fishing village, a port, royal palaces and samurai houses.”
Although shÅ pistol was filmed in Canada, star and executive producer Hiroyuki Sanada continued to push for the production to bring in crew from Japan. During a post-screening Q&A session attended by Jugo Mobile for the show in December 2023, shÅ pistol Showrunner Justin Marks revealed that although they tried to make it work with only Canadian crew, they soon brought in experts from Japan, specifically for costumes.
“We are in Vancouver. There aren’t many days to shoot in winter, so you’re always looking at your watch as we prepare to take our first shot. And sometimes we have 150 extras in a given scene, which is a lot of people to disguise. That’s a lot of nakazori to put on your head, you know, the caps. “It’s a lot of makeup to put on,” Marks said.
“I remembered it as a conversation about tying obi, you know, the belts, the kosodes, and something like that, there are YouTube videos for that. “We can all see that, and we can all understand these things… Three days into production, we have riggers leaving Japan in armies because we just couldn’t get the people together fast enough.”
Marks explained that the Canadian team was able to learn these classic techniques much faster from the Japanese professionals and ultimately the entire production benefited.
“Hiro-san, you were the one who said, no, we really need them from Japan,” Marks said.
So instead of flying to present-day Japan, shÅ pistol They created their version of feudal Japan in Vancouver with the help of “armies” of helpers flown in from Japan.
