{"id":160990,"date":"2024-02-27T04:41:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T09:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=160990"},"modified":"2024-02-28T09:41:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T14:41:34","slug":"from-lake-andrews-to-17th-century-japan-two-student-built-boats-now-part-of-tv-series-shogun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2024\/02\/27\/from-lake-andrews-to-17th-century-japan-two-student-built-boats-now-part-of-tv-series-shogun\/","title":{"rendered":"From Lake Andrews to 17th-century Japan, two student-built boats now part of TV series Sh\u014dgun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two traditional Japanese river boats, handcrafted by Bates students and launched into Lake Andrews five years ago, are part of the re-creation of feudal Japan for the TV adaptation of Sh\u014dgun, <\/em>which debuts today (Feb. 27) on FX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2019, Douglas Brooks, an author and expert in Japanese boatbuilding, led the Short Term course \u201cApprentice Learning: Building the Japanese Boat.\u201d During the course, one of the practitioner-taught courses arranged by the Center for Purposeful Work, Brooks\u2019 students built two long, narrow, flat-bottomed boats and then, in a ceremony reflecting Shinto tradition, guided them on a maiden voyage on the Puddle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
At the launch of the two traditional Japanese boats on May 22, 2019, Grace Murnaghan \u201920 handles the pole as her boat executes a turn before the eyes of a crowd assembled on the Lake Andrews shore. At the bow, Alex Platt \u201922 is paddling. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From then until spring 2021, the two 21-foot boats remained in storage at Bates. In the meantime, FX, a subsidiary of Disney, was ramping up production of a 10-part TV series based on James Clavell\u2019s 1975 novel, which is set at the dawn of the 17th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the novel and in the TV series, traditional Japanese wooden boats are a central part of the seascape and riverscape, used for both transportation and military purposes. To ensure the authentic presentation of this important prop, the producers hired Brooks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He provided Disney with traditional boat drawings that their scenic boat builders, overseen by prop master Dean Eilertson, used to create a fleet of small samurai warships. Disney also asked if there were any existing traditional Japanese boats available in North America. \u201cI told them about the boats at Bates,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This image, taken on Aug. 20, 2021, shows some of the traditional boats on the set of Sh\u014dgun<\/em> on Vancouver Island. Of the four boats in the lower foreground, the two Bates boats are next to the dock and furthest from the dock. (Photograph by Dean Eilertson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Disney reached out to Bates and negotiated a purchase in spring 2021. Brooks traveled to Lewiston to oversee their shipment to the filming location in Vancouver, British Columbia; later, he was flown to the set to teach a few dozen extras how to use the Japanese sculling oar to propel other boats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To recreate feudal Japan, the filmmakers chose the rural west side of Vancouver Island, thick with wilderness. There, they created a town with a castle; a palace; and a coastal fishing village. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This image, taken on Oct. 5, 2021, shows the two boats that the Sh\u014dgun<\/em> producers bought from Bates resting near the film’s re-creation of Osaka, Japan, in Port Moody, near Vancouver Island. (Photograph by Dean Eilertson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Bates boats are a traditional fishing boat, which was often used at the mouth of the Shinano River in Niigata Prefecture, \u201ca huge farming region,\u201d said Brooks, where the river skiffs \u2014 often called honryousen<\/em>, or \u201ctypical fishing boat\u201d \u2014 were used for transport, fishing, hauling rice, and dredging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as Brooks could tell during his time advising on the filming in and around Vancouver, the Bates boats won\u2019t appear on screen enough for viewers to create a drinking game (\u201cBates boats!\u201d) of their appearance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This production image, taken on October 13, 2021, shows actor Cosmo Jarvis as the character John Blackthorne, seated in a traditional Japanese flat-bottomed boat, on the set of the FX series Sh\u014dgun<\/em> on Vancouver Island. (Katie Yu\/FX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was told on set that the Bates boats would most likely be used to \u2018dress\u2019 the set, that is, provide a look of boats pulled up on a beach,\u201d said Brooks. \u201cI suspect if you see them anywhere, they will be at the fishing village.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many traditional Japanese boats are used throughout the series, most are of a different style used in battle scenes. \u201cPrimarily what you see in the film are small Samurai war ships.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1996, Brooks has apprenticed with Japanese boat builders and written several books on the practice<\/a>. Back in 2019, just prior to the campus launch, he described the experience as \u201cfantastic,\u201d drawing the syllables out for emphasis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"(Phyllis
Prior to the May 22, 2019, launch of the boats that students built for a Short Term course, Douglas Brooks performs a Shinto purification ritual. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the organization of this course, working with the Center for Purposeful Work, to the collegiality of faculty who contacted me with an interest in my course, to the students, who really were wonderful and worked very hard,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Additional reporting by senior writer Deirdre Stires.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two traditional Japanese river boats, hand-crafted by Bates students and launched into Lake Andrews five years ago, are part of the historical re-creation of feudal Japan for the TV adaptation of Sh\u014dgun, which debuted this week on FX.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":161012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"Two traditional Japanese river boats, handcrafted by Bates students are part of the new FX series.","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":160993,"_bates_seo_share_title":"Bates-built boats make TV debut in FX's 'Shogun'","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,166,6,224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-humanities-history","category-maine-world","category-society-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160990"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161022,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160990\/revisions\/161022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}