James Clavell’s Shogun concerns the rise of the Tokugawa (in the novel, “Toranaga”) Shogunate in Japan around 1600 AD. The Tokugawa dominated Japan for over two-hundred and fifty years until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, an event that set the stage for the modernization of Japan (and ultimately for the Pacific theater of WWII). Fittingly, Gai-Jin, the last of James Clavell’s novels, is a sequel to both Shogun and Tai-pan, taking place in the European enclave of Yokohama in the early 1860’s.

There are two major threads. The first concerns Toranaga Yoshi, a descendant of the first Toranaga and member of the Council of Five that governs the Shogunate. (The current Shogun is a petulant, not terribly bright boy of sixteen who was chosen for the convenience of the Council of Five.) His goal is to abolish the Council of Five and become Shogun himself.

He is opposed not only by other members of the Council and a variety of daimyos (feudal lords) but also by the shishi, ronin samurai who have dedicated themselves to restoring the power of the Japanese Emperor and to the expulsion of the gai-jin, that is, the Westerners.

In fact, the presence of the gai-jin is the dominant political issue of the day, and the various powers in Japanese life are divided primarily about how to expel them and the extent to which it will be necessary to adopt Western ways and technology in order to do so.

The second major thread involves Malcolm Struan, grandson of Dirk Struan, the first tai-pan of the Noble House, and son of Culum and Tess Struan. As the book begins, Malcom is riding near Yokohama when he is attacked by a shishi and is nearly killed; his father dies, and he becomes the ostensible tai-pan of the Noble House; and he falls in love with a beautiful French girl, Angelique Richaud. Tess Struan opposes the marriage vehemently, and Tess usually gets what she wants. Naturally, the Brock family also has a presence in Yokohama, leading to additional conflict.

The two threads are woven intricately together, as both Europeans and Japanese struggle to learn about each other for their own benefit. The result is an entertaining if slow-paced novel; I enjoyed it more than Noble House, if less than Clavell’s other novels.