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2 unusual facts about James Clavell


James Clavell's Shōgun

In sharp contrast to Douglas Adams' close work with Steve Meretzky on Infocom's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game, James Clavell contributed little to the design of the game, although he and Dave Lebling met several times.

The feelies included with Shōgun were a map representing John Blackthorne's "known world" of 1600, and The Soul of the Samurai, a booklet describing the history and significance of samurai swords.


Black Ships

A TV miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain entitled Shōgun (1980) was based on a novel of the same name by James Clavell, described the fictional experiences of an English sea pilot named John Blackthorne, shipwrecked in Japan around 1600.

Shikata ga nai

The phrase is also introduced or explained by Japanese or Japanese-American characters in books such as the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, James Clavell's Shōgun and David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars.


see also

Gaijin

It forms the title of such novels as Marc Olden's Gaijin (New York: Arbor House, 1986), James Melville's Go gently, gaijin (New York : St. Martin's Press, 1986), James Kirkup's Gaijin on the Ginza (London: Chester Springs, 1991) and James Clavell's Gai-Jin (New York: Delacorte Press, 1993), as well as a song by Nick Lowe.