'Shōgun' is set in the era of the samurai and tells of the confrontation between several leaders for a throne at stake. The story begins in the year 1600, in the final stages of the warlike Sengoku period and the moments before the luminous Edo period.

The main characters of the television version are transcripts of the great Japanese figures of that relevant moment in the country's history. It is, in short, the moment in which capitalism sowed its seeds in Japan.