The Finale of Shogun can be summed up in the words, “ Flowers are only flowers because they fall.” This nihilistic haiku perfectly encapsulates what happened to this series. While it is coded message to Toranaga, denoting an alliance offered by Ochiba-no-kata is sadly also the prevailing spiritual path upon which Ajin San, also known as John Blackthrone takes. In the beginning and for most of the series, Blackthorne was a Protestant in a predominately Catholic and Pagan world. His love was Mariko, a Catholic, and yet in the end he becomes not a papist or pagan, he adopts the most idiotic of all beliefs universalism. He tells the Jesuit Priest, “Its all a shame real, Protestant, Catholic, Shitic, it should change, but it will never change will it father?” The one character that was a sounding board, who’s lens we are suppose to look through in the end abandons all faiths. This not only is bizarre for the time period its set in; people has strong religious sensibilities, and while Ma