Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Japanese rejected the attempt to modernize samurai techniques with guns and continued to fight with swords. During World War II, the Japanese proved they could fight very well with guns. After the war, the Japanese established a constitutional government, which prohibited them from having offensive military capabilities.

1. What is the role of technology in war? What is the current attitude in Japan towards the use of the military and sophisticated weapons systems?

2. Research the Tea Ceremony and the art of flower arranging in Japanese culture. How do these two arts function in Clavell's novel and why is Buntaro's mastery of them so important?

3. Clavell is an advocate of Objectivism. What is this theory of social relations? Does Shogun support this way of viewing society or not? How does the samurai code challenge Objectivism?

4. The Japanese in 1600 were intolerant of other nations...