Premieres on PBS in Spring 2004. |
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Premieres on PBS in Spring 2004. |
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Narrator Richard Chamberlain 
Commanding shoguns and fierce samurai warriors, exotic geisha and exquisite artisans—all were part of a Japanese renaissance between the 16th and 19th centuries when Japan went from chaos and violence to a land of ritual refinement and peace. But stability came at a price: for nearly 250 years, Japan was a land closed to the Western world, ruled by the shogun under his absolute power and control. Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire brings to
life the unknown story of a mysterious empire, its relationship with the
West, and the forging of a nation that would
EPISODE ONE:
EPISODE TWO:
EPISODE THREE:
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| EPISODE ONE: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI
In the early 16th century, Japan is a warlike society ruled by samurai and their daimyo warlords. When Portuguese merchants arrive in 1543, they are the first Europeans to set foot in Japan. Missionaries quickly set out to convert the nation to Christianity. In the same year, a samurai boy named Tokugawa Ieyasu is born to a low ranking daimyo family. To prove his family's loyalty to their ruling warlord, Ieyasu is given as a hostage where he remains for most of his childhood. When he is finally freed, he reclaims his family's domain and allies himself with the most powerful rulers in Japan: Oda Nobunaga, and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi awards him a small fishing village named Edo, later to be known as Tokyo, and provides him with a vast area to rule. But Hideyoshi and Ieyasu are uneasy allies. On his deathbed, Hideyoshi, places Ieyasu in command until Hideyoshi's true heir—his young son, Hideyori—will rule. When daimyo rebels challenge Ieyasu's control, Tokugawa Ieyasu's samurai armies defeat them at the Battle of Sekigahara. The victory brings to Ieyasu the title of shogun. Ieyasu's only remaining obstacle for total control of Japan is Hideyori. In 1614, Ieyasu renounces his allegiance to Hideyori and attacks Osaka Castle, slaughtering more than 100,000. It is the beginning of a dynasty that will endure for more than 250 years. |
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Literary Sources
Bryant, Anthony, Sekigahara 1600, Osprey Press, 1995. Cooper, Michael, They Came to Japan: An Anthology of European Reports on Japan 1543-1640, University of Michigan Press, 1995. Hurlimann, Martin and Francis King, Japan, Thames & Hudson Ltd., London, 1970. Kuno, Yoshio, Japanese Expansion on the Asiatic Continent, Vol. 1, Regents of the University of California, Univ. of California Press, 1937, renewed 1965. Lu, David, Japan: A Documentary History: From the Dawn of History to the Late Tokugawa History, M.E. Sharpe, New York, 1996. Musashi, Miyamoto, A Book,of Five Rings, Overlook Press, 1974. Oan, translated by Izumi Tanaka, Oan Monogatari, Japan. Sato, Hiroaki, Legend of Samurai, Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 1995. Totman, Conrad, Tokugaway Ieyasu Shogun, Heian International Inc., 1990. Tsunoda, Ryusaku, Wm. Theodore, De Bary, Donald Keene, Sources of Japanese Tradition, v. I and II, Columbia University Press, 1967. Turnbull, Stephen, Samurai: The Warrior Tradition,
Cassell Group, London, England, 1996.
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