‘Shōgun’ Caps Record Emmy Run With Win No. 18 For Outstanding Drama Series As Star Hiroyuki Sanada Pays Homage To Samurai Period Dramas

Its place in the Emmy record books already secured after the Creative Arts, Disney/FX’s Shōgun went for a historic sweep, adding four more wins tonight for a staggering total of 18 Emmys in one season, a bench mark that may never be reached again.

That included the Outstanding Drama Series trophy, accepted onstage by series co-creator/executive producer/showrunner Justin Marks and star/producer Hiroyuki Sanada. They were joined by fellow cast members and producers, including executive producer Michaela Clavell whose father, the late James Clavell, wrote the Shōgun book and executive produced the 1980 NBC miniseries adaptation, winning the Outstanding Miniseries Emmy alongside the late Eric Bercovici.

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Marks thanked Disney and FX executives for greenlighting “a very expensive subtitled Japanese period piece whose central climax revolves around a poetry competition.”

“We share this award with our extraordinary cast and crew from Japan and North America,” he added. “Shōgun is a show about translation, not what is lost, but what is found when you do safety meetings in two languages and you learn not to walk on tatami mats with your utility booths.”

RELATED: ‘Shōgun’s Anna Sawai Makes History As First Actress Of Asian Descent To Win Lead Actress In A Drama Series Emmy: “To All The Women Who Expect Nothing And Continue To Be An Example”

Added Sanada in Japanese, with Marks reading the translation, “We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all the crew directors and masters who have inherited and supported our samurai period dramas up until now. The passions and dreams that we have inherited from you have crossed oceans and borders.”

You can watch the speech above.

Earlier tonight, Shōgun won Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Sanada, who also shared in the Drama Series Emmy in his role as producer; Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Anna Sawai and Directing for a Drama Series for Frederick E. O. Toye.

This marks the first directing Emmy nomination and win for prolific TV director Toye who was recognized for helming the eventful and emotional penultimate episode, “Crimson Sky.” He previously shared in the 2018 Drama Series nomination of HBO’s Westworld as a producing director on the sci-fi series.

In addition to the cast and crew, Toye thanked “my heroes who taught me how to direct, David Lean, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa and Robert Wise,” adding, “thank you for letting me steal from them every day.”

RELATED: Lead Actor In A Drama Emmy Winner Hiroyuki Sanada Calls ‘Shōgun’ “An East-West Dream Project With Respect” Says “We Can Create A Better Future”

The NBC miniseries received 14 Emmy nominations, winning three awards, Miniseries, Costume Design For a Series as well as Graphic Design and Title Sequences.

Its FX successor, which started as a limited series before being renewed for Season 2 and switching to drama, nabbed 25 Emmy nominations. It won all but two categories it was nominated for at the Creative Arts to break the previous record for most wins in a single year with 14 Emmys under its belt ahead of the main telecast.

That previous record, 13 wins, was set in 2008 by HBO’s limited series John Adams. During the decade and a half since, several acclaimed series came close but no one could match the feat. HBO’s Game Of Thrones scored 12 wins three different years (2015, ’16 and ’19), with The Crown, The Queen’s Gambit and Watchmen among six drama/limited series that each won 11 Emmys in a year, followed by several shows at 10, including FX’s The Bear, setting a record for a comedy series.

With tonight’s haul, Shōgun has separated itself from the field by a gap that will be hard to bridge.

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