Comments by "TheEvertw" (@TheEvertw) on "This SHOCKED Me! SHOGUN EP. 1 In Depth Historical Review and Analysis" video.

  1. You are very right in pointing out where the film got the anti-Catholic actions by Blackthorne wrong. But there definitely would have been enmity between the Jesuits and Blackthorne, for three reasons: 1). Blackthorne / Adams came from the Netherlands which was actively fighting a war of liberation, mainly to regain the freedom of religion. 2). The VOC was part of this war, attacking the Catholic empire and building the Dutch empire. The Jesuits were there to gain Japan for their empire, Blackthorne for his. Blackthorne's captain would more than likely have carried letters of mark, authorizing him to attack Spanish & Portuguese outposts and ships. 3). the Catholics actively persecuted and murdered Protestants all over the world at the time, so Blackthorne had to fear for his own safety. And more than likely, Blackthorne / Adams wouldn't mind to do a bit of his own proselytizing, at least in the beginning. So, their (adoptive) nations, their employers and them personally were in a state of open war against each other, and both were trying to gain support for their respective religions. No, their interactions would not have been friendly. In the book, one Jesuit seems friendly towards Blackthorne (i.e. not intent on burning him on the stake), but Blackthorne does not trust him and remains antagonistic. Other Jesuits he meets do want to have him killed, but the Japanese protect him. So Blackthorne has good reason to be hostile towards the Jesuits.
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  2. About the languages used: The funny thing is that Blackthorne would not have spoken English at all. The ship he worked on was Dutch, so with his colleagues he would have spoken Dutch with perhaps a few English words for good measure. With the Portuguese, Spanish and the Lady Kariko, they would have spoken Latin. The Japanese amongst themselves and with the foreigners would have spoken Japanese.
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  3. About the number of cannons: The VOC ships were first and foremost cargo vessels, they were not naval ships. Mary-Rose was a naval Ship of the Line, a different class of ship. Superficially, cargo and military vessels were similar, but on closer inspection the cargo ships had different lines increasing their holds, and military ships were more built for speed and coping with a lot of mass relatively high in the ship (cannon had to be above the water line). The slightly later (1628) Batavia carried 32 cannon of various types, with 24 being cast iron, 6 cast bronze, and 2 "composite". For the bigger cannon lower in the ship, cast iron would have been the preferred metal (cheap). The Dutch had been at war for some 30 years by the time, and cost mattered. I have seen quite a few cannon of the period (they are still littered around the country), and NEVER have a seen a highly decorated piece like the one shown in the movie clip. That, as you say, looks like a renaissance cannon from the 15th century. An actual early 17 century Dutch bronze cannon looks like this: https://www.levedevestingbrielle.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/aus-6.jpg. Very boring, straight-forward and functional.
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  4.  @markiec8914  I haven't seen the show, but read the book.
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