Information AboutHasekura Tsunenaga |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT HASEKURA TSUNENAGA | |
| edo period | |
| japanese diplomats | |
| history of the foreign relations of japan | |
| colonial mexico | |
| christianity in japan | |
| 1571 births | |
| 1622 deaths | |
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Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga (支倉六右衛門常長, 1571 – 1622 ) was a Japanese Samurai and retainer of Date Masamune , the Daimyo of Sendai . He led an Embassy to Mexico and then Europe between 1613 and 1620 , after which he returned to Japan . He was the first-ever Japanese official envoy to The Americas , and the first recorded instance of Franco-Japanese Relations . Little is known of the early life of Hasekura Tsunenaga, except for the fact that he was a Veteran Samurai of the Japanese Invasion Of Korea under the Taiko Hideyoshi , in 1592 and 1597 . SPANISH APPROACHES The Spanish started Trans-Pacific voyages between Mexico (" New Spain ") and China , through their territorial base in the Philippines , following the travels of Andrés De Urdaneta in the 16th Century . Manila became their definitive base for the Asian region in 1571 . Spanish ships were periodically shipwrecked on the coasts of Japan due to bad weather, initiating contacts with the country. The Spanish wished to expand the Christian faith in Japan. Efforts to expand influence in Japan were met by stiff resistance from the Jesuits , who had started the Evangelization of the country in 1549 , as well as the Portuguese and the Dutch who did not wish to see Spain participate in Japanese Trade . In 1609 the Spanish Galleon ''San Francisco'' encountered bad weather on its way from Manila to Acapulco , and was wrecked on the Japanese coast in Chiba , near Tokyo . The sailors were rescued and welcomed, and the ship's captain, Rodrigo De Vivero , met with Tokugawa Ieyasu . A treaty was signed on 29 November 1609 , whereby the Spaniards could establish a Factory in eastern Japan, Mining specialists would be imported from Nueva España , Spanish ships would be allowed to visit Japan in case of necessity, and a Japanese embassy would be sent to the Spanish court. THE EMBASSY PROJECT Immediate context A Franciscan monk named Luis Sotelo who was Proselytizing in the area of Tokyo convinced the Shogun to send him as an Ambassador to Nueva España (Mexico). In 1610 he sailed to Mexico with the returning Spanish sailors and 22 Japanese aboard the ''San Buena Ventura'' , a ship built by the English adventurer William Adams for the Shogun. Once in Nueva España, Luis Sotelo met with the Viceroy Luis De Velazco , who agreed to send an Ambassador to Japan in the person of the famous explorer Sebastian Vizcaino , with the added mission of exploring the "Gold and silver islands" that were thought to be east of the Japanese isles. ''San Juan Bautista'' , in Ishinomaki , Japan .]] Vizcaino arrived in Japan in 1611 , and had many meetings with the Shogun and feudal lords. These encounters were tainted by his poor respect for Japanese customs, the mounting resistance of the Japanese towards Catholic proselytism, and the intrigues of the Dutch against Spanish ambitions. Vizcaino finally left to search for the "Silver island", during which search he encountered bad weather, forcing him to return to Japan with heavy damage. The mission The Shogun decided to build a galleon in Japan in order to bring Vizcaino back to Nueva España, together with a Japanese embassy accompanied by Luis Sotelo . The Daimyo of Sendai , Date Masamune , was put in charge of the project. He named one of his retainers, Hasekura Tsunenaga, to lead the mission. The Galleon, named ''Date Maru'' by the Japanese and later ''San Juan Bautista'' by the Spanish, took 45 days work in building, with the participation of technical experts from the Bakufu , 800 Shipwright s, 700 Smith s, and 3,000 Carpenter s. The objective of the Japanese embassy was to discuss trade agreements with the Spanish crown in Madrid , and to meet with the Pope in Rome . Sotelo, in his own account of the travels, emphasizes the religious dimension of the mission, claiming that the main objective was to spread the Christian faith in northern Japan: :"I was formerly dispatched as ambassador of Idate Masamune, who holds the reins of the kingdom of Oxu (which is in the Eastern part of Japan) —who, while he has not yet been reborn through baptism, ''has'' been catechized, and was desirous that the Christian faith should be preached in his kingdom—together with another noble of his Court, Philippus Franciscus Faxecura Rocuyemon, to the Roman Senate & to the one who at that time was in charge of the Apostolic See, His Holiness Pope Paul V." (Luis Sotelo ''De Ecclesiae Iaponicae Statu Relatio'', 1634 ''Nempe fuisse me quondam Idate Masamune, qui regni Oxu (quod est in Orientali Iaponiæ parte) gubernacula tenet, nec dum quidem per baptismum regenerato, sed tamen Catechumeno, & qui Christianam fidem in suo regno prædicari cupiebat, simul cum alio suæ Curiæ optimate Philippo Francisco Faxecura Retuyemon '' ad Romanam Curiam & qui tunc Apostolicæ sedis culmen tenebat SS. Papam Paulum V. qui ad cœlos evolavit, Legatum expeditum.'' ([http://wwwopac.tulips.tsukuba.ac.jp/cgi-bin/limedio/limewwwopac/page?sessionId=20060301.0007;sessionSeq=3475;sessionLang=eng;sessionCode=jis;bookid=697422;tocid=0;pageseq=3;sessionId=20060301.0007 p. 1 )). TRANS-PACIFIC VOYAGE Upon completion, the ship left on 28 October , 1613 for Acapulco in Mexico with around 180 people on board, including 10 samurai of the Shogun (provided by the Minister of the Navy Mukai Shogen Tadakatsu ), 12 samurai from Sendai, 120 Japanese merchants, sailors, and servants, and around 40 Spaniards and Portuguese. The ship arrived in Acapulco on 25 January 1614 after three months at sea, and the embassy was received with great ceremony. The ultimate mission for the embassy was to go on to Europe. The embassy spent some time in Mexico, and then went to Veracruz to board the fleet of Don Antonio Oquendo. The fleet left for Europe on the ''San Jose'' on the 10th of June. Hasekura had to leave the largest parts of the Japanese group behind, who were to wait in Acapulco for the return of the embassy. MISSION TO EUROPE Spain .]] The fleet arrived in Sanlucar De Barrameda on October 5, 1614. "The fleet arrived safely finally, after some dangers and storms, to the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda on the 5th of October, where residing Duke de Medina warned Sidonia of the arrival. It sent ships to honor them, to receive them and had a somptuous lodging prepared to accommodate the Ambassador and his gentile men" "The Japanese embassador Hasekura Rokuemon, sent by Joate Masamune , king of Boju, entered Seville on Wednesday 23 of October 1614. He was accompanied by 30 Japanese with blades, their captain of the guard, and 12 bowmen and halberdiers with painted lances and blades of ceremony. The captain of the guard was Christian and was called Don Thomas, the son of a Japanese martyr" The Japanese embassy met with the King Of Spain Philip III in Madrid on 30 January , 1615 . Hasekura remitted to the King a letter from Date Masamune, as well as offer for a Treaty . The King responded that he would do what he could to accommodate these requests. Hasekura was baptized on 17 February by the king's personal Chaplain , and renamed ''Felipe Francisco Hasekura''. France After traveling across Spain, the embassy sailed on the Mediterranean aboard three Spanish Frigate s towards Italy . Due to bad weather, they had to stay for a few days in the French harbour of Saint Tropez , where they were received by the local nobility, and made quite a sensation on the populace. The visit of the Japanese Embassy is recorded in the city's chronicles as led by "Philip Francis Faxicura, Ambassador to the Pope, from Date Masamunni, King of Woxu in Japan". Many picturesque details of their movements were recorded: "They never touch food with their fingers, but instead use two small sticks that they hold with three fingers". "They blow their noses in soft silky papers the size of a hand, which they never use twice, so that they throw them on the ground after usage, and they were delighted to see our people around them precipitate themselves to pick them up". "Their swords cut so well that they can cut a soft paper just by putting it on the edge and by blowing on it." :("Relations of Mme de St Troppez", October 1615 , Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, Carpentras Extracts from the Old French original:
The visit of Hasekura Tsunenaga to St Tropez in 1615 is the first recorded instance of Franco-Japanese Relations . Italy in Rome in 1615 . Japanese painting, 17th Century .]] , 1615 , Vatican .]] The Japanese Embassy went on to Italy where they were able to meet with the Pope Paul V in Rome , in November 1615 . Hasekura remitted to the Pope a gilted letter, containing a request for a trade treaty between Japan and Mexico and the dispatch of Christian missionaries to Japan. The Pope agreed to the dispatch of missionaries, but left the decision for trade to the King of Spain. The Pope wrote a letter to Date Masamune, a copy of which is still visible at the Vatican . The Roman Senate also gave to Hasekura the honorary title of Roman Citizen, in a document he brought back to Japan, and which is preserved today in Sendai. The Italian writer Scipione Amati, who accompanied the embassy in 1615 and 1616, published in Rome a book titled "History of the Kingdom of Voxu". In 1616 , the French publisher Abraham Savgrain published an account of Hasekura's visit to Rome: "Récit de l'entrée solemnelle et remarquable faite à Rome, par Dom Philippe Francois Faxicura" ("Account of the solemn and remarquable entrance in Rome of Dom Philippe Francois Faxicura"). Sotelo also described the visit to the Pope, in his 1634 book ''De ecclesiae Iaponicae statu relatio'': :"When we got there by the aid of God in the Year of Our Salvation 1615, not only were we kindly received by His Holiness the great Pope, with the Holy College of the Cardinals and a gathering of bishops and nobles, and even the joy and general happiness of the Roman People, but we and three others (whom the Japanese Christians had specially designated to announce their condition with respect to the Christian religion) were heard, rested, and just as we were hoping, dispatched as quickly as possible." (Sotelo, ''De ecclesiae Iaponicae statu relatio'' ''Quo tandem cum anno Salutis 1615. iuvante deo pervenissemus, à SS. Papa magno cum Cardinalium Sacri Collegij Antistitum ac Nobilium concursu, nec non & Rom. populi ingenti lætitia & communi alacritate non modo benignè excepti, verùm & humanissimè tam nos quam etiã tres alij, quos Iaponii Christiani, quatenus eorum circa Christianam Religionem statum Apostolicis auribus intimarent, specialiter destinaverant, auditi, recreati, & prout optabamus, quantocyus expediti.'' ( p. 1 )). Second visit to Spain For the second time in Spain, Hasekura met again with the King, who declined to sign a trade agreement, on the ground that the Japanese Embassy did not appear to be an official embassy from the ruler of Japan Tokugawa Ieyasu , who, on the contrary, had promulgated an edict in January 1614 ordering the expulsion of all Missionaries from Japan, and started the persecution of the Christian faith in Japan. The embassy left Seville for Mexico in June 1617 after a period of two years spent in Europe but some of the Japanese remained in Spain, in a town near Seville ( Coria Del Río ), where their descendants to this day still use the surname ''Japón''. RETURN TO JAPAN In April 1618 the San Juan Bautista arrived in the Philippines from Mexico , with Hasekura and Luis Sotelo on board. The ship was acquired by the Spanish government there, with the objective of building up defenses against the Dutch. Hasekura returned to Japan in August 1620 . By the time Hasekura came back, Japan had changed quite drastically: an effort to eradicate Christianity had been under way since 1614, and Japan was moving towards the " Sakoku " period of Isolation . Because of these persecutions, the trade agreements with Mexico he had been trying to establish were denied. In the end, his embassy seems to have had little result, although his eyewitness accounts of Spanish power and colonial methods in Nueva España ( Mexico ) may have precipitated the Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada 's decision to sever trade relations with Spain in 1623 , and diplomatic relations in 1624 . What became of Hasekura is unknown and accounts of his last years are numerous. Some say he willingly abandoned Christianity, others that he was martyred for his faith, and others that he practiced Christianity in secret. Sotelo, writing years later, in 1634, give an account of Hasekura returning to Japan as a hero who propagated the Christian faith: :"My other colleague, the ambassador Philippus Faxecura, after he reached his aforementioned king ( Date Masamune ), was greatly honored by him, and sent to his own estate, to rest after such a long and tiring journey, where he made his wife, children, servants, and many other vassals into Christians, and advised other nobles who were his kith and kin to accept the faith, which they indeed did. While he was engaged in these and other pious works, a full year after his return, having provided much instruction and a great example, with much preparation, he piously passed on, leaving for his children by a special inheritance the propagation of the faith in his estate, and the protection of the Religious in that kingdom. The King and all the nobles were greatly saddened by his passing, but especially the Christians and Religious, who knew very well the virtue and religious zeal of this man. This is what I heard by letters from the very religious who administered the sacraments to him, and who had been present at his death, as well as from others." (Luis Sotelo, ''De ecclesiae Iaponicae statu relatio'' ''Collega alter legatus Philippus Fiaxecura '' postquam ad prædictum Regem suum pervenit, ab ipso valdè est honoratus, & in proprium statum missus, ut tam longâ viâ fessus reficeretur, ubi uxorem, filios, domesticos cum multis aliis vasallis Christianos effecit, aliisque nobilibus hominibus consanguineis & propinquis suasit ut fidem reciperent; quam utique receperunt. Dum in his & aliis piis operibus exerceretur ante annum completum post eius regressum magna cum omnium ædificatione & exemplo, multa cum præparatione suis filiis hæreditate præcipua fidei propagationem in suo statu, & Religiosorum in eo regno pretectionem commendatam relinquens, pie defunctus est. De cuius discessu Rex & omnes Nobiles valdè doluerunt, præcipuè tamen Christiani & Religiosi, qui huius viri virtutem & fidei Zelum optimè noverant. Ab ipsis Religiosis, qui eidem sacramenta ministrarunt, eiusque obitui interfuerant; & ab aliis sic per literas accepi.'' ([http://wwwopac.tulips.tsukuba.ac.jp/cgi-bin/limedio/limewwwopac/page?sessionId=20060302.0014;sessionSeq=14051;sessionLang=eng;sessionCode=jis;bookid=697422;tocid=0;pageseq=10;sessionId=20060302.0014 p. 16 )). Hasekura Tsunenaga died in 1622, and his grave is visible in the . NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS
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