He boils a man alive in the first episode of FX’s vaunted 10-part series “Shōgun,” but somehow we’re still charmed by Kashigi Yabushige, played by Tadanobu Asano. Like all samurai, he lives by a strict code. Unlike others, he’s willing to bend that code to survive in a land where life is cheap and death is glorious.
Such a land is feudal Japan. The year is 1600, the events that unfold a mixture of fiction and fact based on James Clavell’s bestselling novel. The series has been nominated for a record 25 Emmy Awards, including a supporting actor nod for Tadanobu, best known to American audiences as Hogun in the Thor movies, or Lord Raiden in “Mortal Kombat” and its upcoming sequel.
A longtime punk rocker in his homeland, he formed the band Mach 1.67 with filmmaker Sogo Ishii in 1996 and later played in the bands Peace Pill and Safari. Recordings include 1999’s “Bloodthirsty Butchers” and “Codeine Slash” with Joujoku.
“I talked to the costume department and they were like, ‘Yabushige’s a rocker.’ I was delightfully surprised that we were going in that direction. I loved that,” Tadanobu tells The Envelope.
With five regents in Osaka united against him, Lord Yoshii Toranaga, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, angles for the title of shōgun in an effort to undermine a corrupt power structure and unify Japan under one leader, ending cycles of internecine warfare. Leading his forces are men like John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), a shipwrecked English sa.