Carlos Rosario (‘Shogun’ costume designer) on employing a ‘very monochromatic, very simple, very white’ palette for Anna Sawai’s Mariko [Exclusive Video Interview]
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“I’ve never done any project that was even remotely close to the Japanese culture, so that’s why this project actually was definitely a treat for me,” says Carlos Rosario about how familiar he was sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Japanese culture before taking on the costume design for FX’s “Shōgun.” His research process for the epic series began with “the paintings of that period, because that was the only reliable source that would really tell us about this period of transition.” He and his team ultimately ended up with “a 1,000-page book of research” into the “complex world” of the show. Gold Derby spoke with Rosario as part of our “Meet the Experts” TV costume design panel. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Shōgun” explores the power struggle that ensues after the death of the Taikō, whose heir is too young to rule. Rosario and his designers had only five months to prepare for production of the show, which he describes as “pretty ambitious.” His very first order of business was to “design all the armors within the first six weeks of work,” which entailed conducting research on the “different armors, the different ranks, and the armors that the Lords would wear, which are very different from the regular samurai.” The costumer had “illustrators working day and night” on these designs so that they could “put everything into the manufacturing as soon as possible.”
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“Shōgun” is inspired by the James Clavell novel of the same name. Though Rosario intended to read the book, he did not have enough time given the short period to prepare to go into production, and he feels “it was the healthier way to process designing the project.” The designer shares, “I didn’t read the book. I also didn’t watch the miniseries from the 80s. I wanted this project to have its own voice.” He explains that his design process is “more intuitive,” saying, “I need to understand the historical facts but after that, connecting with my characters is mostly psychological, so I didn’t want to have any mental references” to past iterations of the story.
One of the central characters of the series is Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), who becomes a translator for an English explorer, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), who has been enlisted in support of her Regent, Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), in the power struggle after the Taikō’s death. Rosario calls Mariko “the heart of the project” and explains that “the creative force behind the costumes for Mariko is actually more psychological than actually historical.” Because Mariko comes from a dishonored family, was forced to marry a violent man and thus “tried to commit seppuku every year,” the designer “started very monochromatic, very simple, very white color palette” for her costume design. As the character “finds her path and her purpose in being Blackthorne’s translator,” though, the costumer “could see that this character was starting to empower herself, find her inner voice,” and he thus “started incorporating more colors” and “more patterns.” He returns to those earlier, white colors toward the end of the season, too, though, because “empowerment is not a straight line.”
WATCH our exclusive video interview with Lauro Chartrand-DelValle, ‘Shōgun’ stunt coordinator
The sixth episode of the season, “Ladies of the Willow World,” features a performance at a Noh theatre as we see some of the history of the Taikō and Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido) reenacted. Rosario calls this sequence “one of our biggest scenes” which took “months to design” because he had to create “all the costumes for all the audience.” In Japanese culture, Noh costumes “are actually passed from generation to generation,” so the real Noh performers who traveled from Japan to Vancouver to appear in the episode wore the costumes “that belonged to generations of their family.” But since we are watching representations of those two characters from the universe of “Shōgun,” the designer had to “incorporate some pieces” that he designed to help the audience understand who was being portrayed in the theatrical performance.
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