Japan celebrates record Emmy wins for ‘Shogun’

TOKYO (AP) — Japan erupted with pleasure Monday because the samurai sequence “Shogun” gained a document 18 Emmys for its first season.

It took residence prizes together with Excellent Drama Collection, as star and co-producer Hiroyuki Sanada grew to become the primary Japanese actor to win the Emmy for greatest lead actor in a dramatic sequence. Co-star Anna Sawai gained greatest actress in a dramatic sequence, additionally a primary for Japan.

“You probably did it. You probably did it. Congratulations,” Takashi Yamazaki, director of ” Godzilla Minus One,” wrote on social media.

Individuals adopted the awards dwell because the wins made nationwide headlines. Leisure media Oricon proudly reported {that a} work whose spoken strains had been largely within the Japanese language “made Emmy historical past.”

“The grand scale of Hollywood mixed with the top quality of the manufacturing, together with costuming, props and mannerisms; the collaboration between the Japanese skilled workforce, headed by producer Sanada, and the native manufacturing workforce; in addition to the performing that delivered a robust sense of actuality, all got here collectively,” the report stated.

Actor Kento Kaku, who starred within the 2024 sequence “Like a Dragon: Yakuza,” stated he was feeling impressed to pursue Hollywood desires.

“After seeing how cool that was, who’s not going to wish to take up the problem,” he wrote on X.

Actress Tomoko Mariya stated she broke into tears the second Sanada’s win was introduced.

“What hardships you have to have endured, selecting to depart your total profession behind in Japan and going to America alone. However it has borne fruit,” she wrote, referring to Sanada’s transfer to Los Angeles 20 years in the past.

The accolades for “Shogun” replicate not solely the rising range in American leisure, but in addition the legacy of Japan’s “jidaigeki” samurai movies, which have influenced administrators worldwide.

The primary Asian actor to win the Emmy for Greatest Lead Actor in a Dramatic Collection was Lee Jung-jae, for the hit 2022 Korean sequence “Squid Recreation.”

Sanada is one in every of a handful of Japanese actors to land main Hollywood roles, together with “The Final Samurai,” launched in 2003, and “The 47 Ronin,” starring Keanu Reeves in 2013.

The function Sanada performs in “Shogun” was first portrayed by Toshiro Mifune within the Eighties.

Sanada, who additionally starred in Yoji Yamada ’s 2002 “Twilight Samurai,” alluded to those that went earlier than him in his acceptance speech.

“I thank all those that supported and saved the legacy of jidaigeki alive,” he stated in his speech in Japanese, clutching his trophy.

“The fervour and desires we inherited traveled throughout the seas and crossed borders.”

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Yuri Kageyama is on X: