Where Was FX’s Shogun Filmed? Every Major Location, Explained

Few shows on television right now are operating on the high cinematic level of “Shōgun.” The FX and Hulu series, which was created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks based on the book by James Clavell, delivered some of the most stunning imagery of the year when it debuted back in February, and every episode was better than the one before it.

Originally described by many as a version of “Game of Thrones” in feudal Japan, “Shōgun” soon differentiated itself as a powerful, culturally-driven historical epic. Stars Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai (who’s been on a real roll of late between her roles in “Shōgun,” “Pachinko,” and “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”) deliver multifaceted performances as characters who are asked to make difficult decisions in the face of an age-old political system. Meanwhile, the show’s technical elements — from its score to its cinematography — are stunning. Plenty of technical magic went into making the world of “Shōgun” come to life, especially when shooting the majority of it on location in Japan was no longer an option. Here’s every major filming locale for “Shōgun” season 1.

The vast majority of “Shōgun” was shot around British Columbia on beaches and in forests with striking similarities to the locations the show’s creative team wanted to evoke in Japan. “They searched the world to do this show,” producer Erin Smith told CTV News, explaining that they eventually found the perfect spot in the U.S.’s northern neighbor:

“We wanted to open the show with the beautiful scenery of the Wya Point Beach in Ucluelet […] We have a lot of cast and crew from Japan that were quite fascinated and blown away by the resemblance of that spot to Japan.”

Star and producer Hiroyuki Sanada shouted out the Canadian filming locations in an interview with Yahoo News, saying, “I’d like to say thank you to Canada, especially Vancouver. […] it was a perfect place to make a samurai drama because they had a big, great, beautiful studio, and then 30 minutes drive from the studio they have everything, forest, river, beach, parks, mountains.” Sanada explained that major, authentic looking set pieces, from the Osaka harbor to an entire village, were made in Canada. He also emphasized the fact that the show employed many Japanese crew members “to make it authentic as much as possible.”

Port Moody was another major Canadian filming location (via the TriCity News). According to Esquire, when the “Shōgun” crew wrapped production, they planted a Japanese pine tree at one of the Canadian filming locations as a gesture of thanks to the land and local communities.

Very little of “Shōgun” was actually filmed in Japan, though (according to initial reporting from Backstage.com) an earlier iteration of the show planned to shoot mostly on location. The series underwent several creative overhauls after it was initially announced, and Variety’s breakdown of its path to production noted that the shooting plans moved from Japan to Canada during the year and a half in which the project was on hold during the COVID-19 lockdowns. According to TriCity News, rising infection rates in Japan inspired the original location change.

Esquire has reported that principal photography took place in Japan, while travel site Go Ahead Tours has stated that “some exterior shots” were filmed in the country that the show is all about. Judging by these articles, though, you likely will have a hard time spotting the parts of the show that were actually filmed in Japan since even some of the most instantly recognizable Japanese monuments (like Osaka Castle) were actually recreated in Canada.

Weirdly, “Shōgun” did just one day of filming in the United Kingdom. Initial reports on the series from 2018 indicate there were at one point plans to shoot in the UK, but merely one shot from the series ended up being filmed there — and it was done for a very inside baseball reason.

According to Variety, “Shōgun” took so long to make that by 2019, FX risked losing the rights to the Clavell novel on which it was based altogether. To side-step a tricky rights situation, Sanada shot a single sequence in London, albeit a memorable one. “We shot just myself on the horse in front of the fire,” the actor told Variety. “And then we kept the rights to the novel, then waited for the next chance.” This hail mary attempt to score more time allowed for the show to be fine-tuned, with new writers and executive producers coming aboard (now armed with additional time to research and ensure the show was as authentic as possible). It’s a move that paid off: the show won 18 Emmys this year, and despite originally being billed as a limited series, there’s even more “Shōgun” on the way now.

“Shōgun” season 1 is streaming in its entirety on Hulu.