Hiroyuki Sanada has won his first Emmy. On Sunday, he took home the award for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role in the FX drama series Shogunwhere he also acts as a producer.

“It was an East-West dream project with respect,” he said while accepting the award, “and Shogun taught me that when people work together, we can do miracles. We can create a better future together.”

FX’s epic drama series, based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell, stars veteran Japanese actor Sanada as Lord Toranaga, the ultimate strategist whose intricate web ultimately serves to unite 17th-century Japan. Tadanobu Asano also stars as Lord Kashigi Yabushige, Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko and Cosmo Jarvis as shipwrecked Portuguese explorer John Blackthorne, better known as “Anjin.”

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Sanada was already familiar with the character Toranaga, since the 1989 film Oda Nobunagahe played Tokugawa Ieyasu, the real-life man who inspired the character Toranaga. Sanada has been acting since he was six years old, when he started doing commercials in Japan, and is best known internationally for films such as The Last Samurai, Speed ​​Racer And bullet trainalong with the shows Lost And Westworld.

In addition to his starring role, Sanada also served as a producer on the series, which has been renewed for a second season. Maintaining authenticity was vital to him, he told Deadline earlier this year. And that authenticity started with language.

“First of all, we discussed a lot what percentage of Japanese (language) was possible,” he said. “In the end, we decided on 70% with subtitles. It was kind of a gamble. But we also believed in the audience — their knowledge, intelligence, and imagination. And then, yeah, it worked.”

In his Emmy acceptance speech on Sunday, he also paid tribute to everyone who made it possible, saying, “Thank you to my team for always supporting me. And thank you to all the crew and cast of Shogun“I’m so proud of you.”

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Sanada, who has appeared in many samurai films since he started acting, said he used all the knowledge he had gained to instruct the show’s team on cultural accuracy. “I had done everything myself before, but now I have a title as a producer and I was able to hire Japanese samurai drama specialists for every department: costumes, wigs, props, for every department. So I had a team for the first time — so much easier and smoother. I was able to merge between the Japanese crew and cast with the Western crew and cast. So I put all my experience in my life into Shogunas an actor and as an advisor for the past 20 years.”

Shogun also made Emmy history this past weekend at the Creative Arts Emmys, winning 14 awards, the most Emmys ever for a single season of a television series. There are six more potential wins on the schedule tonight.