Séamas O'Reilly: I was so engrossed in 'Shōgun' that I forgot I don’t speak Japanese

It is the highest compliment I can give to any show

Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga in Shogun.

I was about 20 minutes into Shōgun, the new historical epic from Disney+, when I realised something that struck me to my core. Engrossed in the show’s thrilling feudal intrigue and bracing samurai action, I’d become fully subsumed into its richly populated world. So fully, in fact, that I thought nothing of turning to my laptop to see if it was based on real historical events.

Prior to this show, I didn’t know much about Samurai. The one thing I did know was that they were abolished in 1867. I know this because the fax machine was patented in 1843, while Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, and that there exists a 22-year window in which a Samurai could have sent a fax to Abraham Lincoln, might well be my all-time favourite fact.