Shogun is an American historical drama television miniseries. The series is a fresh adaptation of the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell. The storyline follows the intersection of two ambitious men from different worlds, John Blackthorne, an English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, and Lord Toranaga, a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals. The character of Blackthorne is loosely based on the historical English navigator William Adams, who rose to become a samurai under a powerful daimyo in Japan.