Anjin (Shōgun)

In 1600 Osaka, the reigning Taikō has died, leaving five equal regents to maintain control of Osaka Castle. The Dutch trading ship Erasmus gets stranded off the coast of Ajiro after running into fierce storms and running out of food. Only a dozen sailors remain, including English pilot John Blackthorne, who manages to collect white sand and confirm to the ship's captain that they are near Japan. However, doubting their chances and with no food, no water and only one ship remaining, the captain shoots himself in the head as Blackthorne looks over the horizon.

Later, a Christian fisherman named Muraji does his morning prayer while collecting fish, only to witness the Erasmus finally make landfall in Japan; several samurai warriors appear with weapons drawn and approach the ship, led by the daimyo of Ajiro, Kashigi Omi, who personally joins his men in exploring the ship. Alarmed by the presence of foreigners in their country, the warriors imprison the sailors and loot the ship of weapons, riches and other goods.

One of the regents, Yoshii Toranaga, lord of the Kantō, is summoned before his colleagues: his chief rival Ishido Kazunari, lord of Osaka Castle; Kiyama ukon Sadanaga, a Catholic convert exploiting wealth from the Portuguese; Sugiyama Josui, descended from the richest samurai clan in the country; and Ohno Harunobu, a once great warrior who turned to Catholicism after developing leprosy. Toranaga has been accused of consolidating his power and the other regents are considering a motion by Ishido to impeach him, which would also condemn him to seppuku. Toranaga is not scared of their threat, as he claims his sole purpose is to protect the Taikō's young heir, Nakamura Yaechiyo. One of Toranaga's men, Usami Tadayoshi, insults Ishido out of loyalty to Toranaga and is forced to commit seppuku for not only himself but also his infant son, devastating his wife, Fuji, who threatens to kill herself when her husband forces her to hand over their son, but is prevented from doing so by Toranaga's translator, Toda Mariko.

Blackthorne is released from his cell and taken to face Kashigi Yabushige, Lord of Izu, a powerful vassal of Toranaga's clan and Omi's vicious uncle. He realizes that Japan and Portugal have formed a secret trade route, with the Catholic Church's Jesuit order being the political and religious rivals of the Protestant Blackthorne. Yabushige's translator, a local Jesuit priest, immediately condemns Blackthorne as a pirate and suggests his execution; however, Blackthorne indirectly saves himself by taking the priest's cross and stomping it into the ground, amusing Yabushige, who chooses another sailor to be executed in his place by being boiled alive in a pot of water, with the sailor banging his head on the pot to end his suffering.

Toranaga's top general, Toda "Iron Fist" Hiromatsu (who is also Fuji's grandfather), arrives in Ajiro and forces Yabushige to turn over ownership of both the Erasmus and Blackthorne to him; the latter is placed under the supervision of Spanish navigator Vasco Rodrigues. As they return to Osaka, the ship is hit by a severe storm, forcing Blackthorne to assume command as he reorganizes the crew. However, Rodrigues is swept by the tides and washes ashore near a cliff. Blackthorne manipulates Yabushige into helping him rescue Rodrigues, and Yabushige's rope breaks, causing him to fall into the water; unable to swim, he draws his sword to commit seppuku. However, he and Rodrigues are saved when a group of samurai bring them more ropes. Blackthorne is then taken to Osaka Castle. Coming face to face with Toranaga and Mariko, he bows before them.

In January 2024, Hulu confirmed that the episode would be titled "Anjin", and was to be written by series developers Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks and directed by co-executive producer Jonathan van Tulleken.^[4] It was Kondo's first writing credit, Marks' first writing credit, and van Tulleken's first directing credit.^[5]

Justin Marks explained that the writers hoped they would not make tropes related to the "stranger on a strange land" depictions on other projects. Marks said he wanted "a story about globalization", exploring the culture through different lens.^{[6]: 3:43–4:40} For the Japanese dialogues, the writers would make the scripts in English and, after consulting with researchers, send them to a team of translators in Tokyo to change it to a modern Japanese. Subsequently, the scripts were sent to an unnamed Japanese playwright specialized in jidaigeki to rewrite the dialogues into "a more polished prose."^{[6]: 5:50–7:18}

Hiroyuki Sanada, also serving as producer, was essential in the authenticity of the series. He convinced the crew in hiring Japanese crew in different departments, and showed on set every day to check on the production values, even before the director arrived. Before filming started, actors were subjected to a boot camp to train. One of the requirements were learning falcon training, and Sanada explained that the scene with the falcon was his first day of filming.^{[6]: 8:51–12:50}