“Shōgun” had a historic night at the 2024 Emmys.
FX’s historical drama set in feudal Japan won the Emmy for best drama series on Sunday. The win caps a night that also saw awards for best lead actress and lead actor in a drama series go to series stars Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada, as well as an Emmy for director Frederick E. O. Toye. “Shōgun,” which featured mostly Japanese dialogue, is the second non-English-language series the Television Academy has named the year’s best drama after Netflix’s “Squid Game.”
Accepting the award for best drama series for “Shōgun,” showrunner and co-creator Justin Marks thanked the executives who “greenlit a very expensive, subtitled Japanese period piece whose central climax revolves around a poetry contest.”
“‘Shōgun’ is a show about translation,” said Marks, who co-created the series with Rachel Kondo. “It’s not about what you lose, but what you find when you conduct safety meetings in two languages and learn not to walk on tatami mats in your work boots.”
When the microphone was handed over to the show's star and producer, Sanada, the Japanese actor took the opportunity to express his gratitude in Japanese to all those who have continued the art of Jidaigeki — samurai period dramas — over the years, including directors, crew members, and other masters of the craft.
“The passions and dreams we have inherited from you have crossed oceans and borders,” Sanada continued in Japanese.
“Arigato gozaimasu,” Marks added in gratitude after reading translations of Sanada’s comments.
Both Sanada and Sawai’s wins were also historic. Sawai is the first actress of Asian descent to win her category, while Sanada is only the second Asian actor to win his (Lee Jung-jae of “Squid Game” was the first).
Sunday’s wins bring “Shōgun’s” Emmy win total to 18, the most ever awarded to a show in a single year. The series, which follows Sanada’s Lord Toranaga as he patiently outmaneuvers his political rivals in his rise to power, had topped the list when nominees were announced in July with 25 total nominations and had already notched 14 wins at the Creative Arts Emmys earlier this month.
Anna Sawai accepts the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama for her role in “Shōgun” at the 76th Emmy Awards.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“I am beyond honored to be here with such amazing nominees,” said Sanada, who played warlord Yoshii Toranaga, as he accepted the award for best drama actor. “Thank you to the entire crew and cast of ‘Shōgun.’ I am so proud of you. … ‘Shōgun’ taught me that when people work together, we can make a miracle. We can create a better future together.”
Sawai, who burst into tears as soon as Sanada's victory was announced, joked about his crying on stage afterwards.
“I was crying before my name was announced. I’m a mess today,” said Sawai, who played the troubled translator Toda Mariko. After thanking her mother, she paid tribute to “all the women who hope for nothing more than to continue to be an example for everyone.”
FX's adaptation of James Clavell's bestselling novel centers primarily on a central trio that includes Sanada's strategic warlord Toranaga, his vassal and disgraced noble Lady Mariko (Sawai), and stranded English pilot John Blackthorne (Cosmo nominee Jarvis).
Clavell's 1975 novel was adapted into an Emmy Award-winning limited series in 1980.
In a previous interview with The Times, Sanada spoke of his admiration for Tokugawa Ieyasu, the real-life shogun on whom Toranaga is based.
“He was a hero of my childhood,” Sanada said. “He created a peaceful era long after the war period. He is still a hero in Japan and I hope that playing him and presenting what he did will convey a very important message to the world.”
Speaking to The Times ahead of the show's launch, Sawai said the role was “quite difficult” and said Mariko's story felt very personal to her.
“I don’t think I knew how deeply Mariko would affect me,” Sawai said. “It felt very real to me and the weight of her death [her story] “It was very heavy.”
Sawai joins Ali Wong, who won an Emmy for her performance in the limited series “Beef” in January, as the only women of Asian descent to win lead actress Emmys.
Other Emmy wins for “Shōgun” include guest actor in a drama series (Nestor Carbonell), casting for a drama series, production design for a period or fantasy narrative program, sound editing for a comedy or drama series, cinematography for a series, sound mixing for a comedy or drama series, special visual effects for a season or movie, picture editing for a drama series, stunt performance, period or fantasy/sci-fi hairstyling, period or fantasy/sci-fi makeup, period costumes for a series, prosthetic makeup and main title design.
In May, FX and Hulu announced that “Shōgun” had been renewed for at least two more seasons. While the first season already covered all of the events of Clavell’s novel, Marks and Kondo told The Times in a previous interview that there had been ideas they were unable to include in Season 1.
“The show [is] “It’s not necessarily a reflection of the world as it is today,” Marks said. “Sometimes it’s nice to go to a world like this, where people have principles and really stand up for them and, in some cases, die for them.”
“You want to spend time with people who desperately and passionately believe in something, and I don’t think you can find deeper believers than these characters,” Kondo said.
