James Clavell’s bestselling 1975 novel Shōgun and the 1980 miniseries that followed did wonders for bringing Japan to the West. True, movie
buffs and Hollywood directors had already tapped the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa and others. But was a blockbuster book followed by a blockbuster TV show. It’s credited with helping start a 1980s tsunami of Japanophilia in the West and
