What is the Flux in Shogun?

The Flux is an old English slang for the illness of dysentery.

Shogun is an acclaimed historical fiction series set in early 17th-century Japan during the tumultuous period of political intrigue and power struggles. The series, adapted from the same novel written by James Clavel in 1975, shows the power struggle between the lords of Japan to grab the highest seat in the hierarchy, which is the Shogunate. Amidst all this chaos, we have our protagonist, John Blackthorne who ends up washed on the shores of Japan after a shipwreck and is taken to one of the Lords as a prisoner.

Learning his English descent, Lord Toranaga counts John as a blessing from above to get him out of the power struggle by enforcing his troops with the modern and more barbaric way of fighting, by guns, and cannons. The series has a list of acclaimed actors including Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Takehiro Hira, Tommy Bastow, and Fumi Nikaido among many others.

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What is the Flux in Shogun?

The term Flux in Shogun is an outdated English medical term for the disease of dysentery. In the series, this term was used by John Blackthorne in one of the episodes when he was invited to stay at Lord Yoshii Toranaga's home as an esteemed guest. During his stay, John was offered a bath before dinner which he instantly refused out of fear. Even though the water arriving at the Lord's house would have been the purest, John’s fear of getting the flux stopped him from taking a bath there. John did not take baths regularly and only had the practice of doing it once a week.

Why was John Blackthorne afraid of flux?

In the early 1600s and before, the disease of flux or dysentery was one of the main reasons for people dying from illness. While in present times, this illness is not that great of an issue, with the lack of advanced medical treatment back then, the flux was fatal to many people across the world. John Blackthorne’s fear of flux would have arisen by losing people that he knew from the disease, which comes from a parasite called Entamoeba histolytica. Around the time Shogun was set in, dysentery was one of the biggest concerns for English people as the illness had taken their King John. Considering that the illness was practically not treatable at the time, it could be understood why John was afraid of taking multiple baths throughout the week.