Hasekura Tsunenaga
Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga (Japanese支 仓 六 右卫门 常 长, * 1571, † 1622) was a samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, the daimyo of Sendai. He led 1613-1620 an embassy to Mexico and then to Europe. He then returned to Japan. He was the first official ambassador of Japan in America and it was the first time that arose between France and Japan relations.
- 5.1 Spain
- 5.2 France
- 5.3 Italy
- 5.4 Second visit to Spain
Early life
From previous life Hasekura Tsunenagas little is known except that he was a veteran of the Japanese invasions of Korea under Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the years 1592 and 1597.
Spanish overtures
The Spaniards began after the voyages of Andrés de Urdaneta in the 16th century through its base in the Philippines with transpacific travel between Mexico ( " New Spain " ) and China. Manila was in 1571 definitively to their base in Asia.
Spanish ships suffered regularly due to bad weather on the coasts of Japan shipwreck, which first contacts with this country originated. The Spanish wanted to spread the Christian faith in Japan and expand its economic sphere of influence. Efforts of the Spaniards to expand its influence in Japan, met the firm opposition of the Jesuits, who did missionary work here since 1549, as well as the Portugese and the Dutch, who both wished no participation of Spain in the Japan trade.
1609 came the Spanish galleon San Francisco on its way from Manila to Acapulco in bad weather and sank off the coast of Chiba prefecture near Tokyo. The sailors were rescued and treated kindly, the captain Rodrigo de Vivero even met with Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.
On November 29, 1609 a treaty was signed by which the Spaniards were allowed to build a trading post in eastern Japan, mining leaders from Mexico should come to Japan and it should be Spanish ships were allowed to visit Japan in need. A Japanese embassy should be sent to the Spanish court.
The Embassy Project
Context
The Franciscan friar Luis Sotelo, the missionary work in the area of Edo ( Tokyo), convinced the shogun him as ambassador to New Spain (Mexico) to send. In 1610 he sailed with the returning Spanish sailors and 22 Japanese aboard the Japanese warship San Buena Ventura, which had been built by the English adventurer William Adams for the Shogun, from. In Nueva España met Luis Sotelo with the Viceroy Luis de Velazco, who agreed to send an ambassador to Japan. For this task, the famous explorer Sebastian Vizcaino was selected. He also was given the task to explore the " gold and silver islands ", which were thought to east of Japan.
Vizcaino met in 1611 in Japan and had many meetings with the Shogun and other feudal lords. These meetings were overshadowed by his little respect for Japanese customs, the growing resistance of the Japanese against the Catholic missionary and the intrigues of the Dutch against the Spanish aspirations. Vizcaino finally left Japan in search of the " Silver island ", but suffered severe damage due to bad weather and was forced to return to Japan.
The Mission
The Shogun decided to build a galleon in Japan to bring Vizcaino back to Nueva España and a Japanese embassy, which was accompanied by Luis Sotelo. Date Masamune, the daimyo of Sendai, was entrusted with the management of the project. Who named one of his followers, Hasekura Tsunenaga, as Head of Mission. The galleon, originally called Date Maru by the Japanese, and later by the Spanish San Juan Bautista, was built in just 45 days with the support of technical experts from the Bakufu, 800 shipwrights, 700 smiths and carpenters 3000. To the captain of the ship San Samurai Yokozawa Shogen was. The goal of the Japanese legation was to take on commercial agreements with the Spanish crown Madrid and the Pope in Rome. The monk Sotelo stressed in his own narrative of the journey, the religious dimension of the mission and claimed that the main purpose was the spread of Christianity in northern Japan:
" I used to be an ambassador of Idate Masamune, who has dominion over the kingdom of Oxu (which is the eastern part of Japan 's ), who, although he is not yet born again through baptism as a Christian is taught already in the faith and was eager that the Christian faith should be preached in his kingdom, together with another gentleman at his court, Philip Francis Faxecura Rocuyemon to the Roman Senate and the one held at the time of the Holy See, his Holiness Pope Paul V. "
The spelling Faxecura Rocuyemon follows the then Japanese pronunciation (Central Japanese Language ) with / h / as [ ɸ ] / se / as [ ɕe ] and a free / s / as [ ever ].
Transpacific travel
After its completion, the ship ran on October 28, 1613 Acapulco in Mexico. There were about 180 people on board, including 10 of the Samurai Shogun ( selected by the Secretary of the Navy Mukai Shogen Tadakatsu ), 12 samurai from Sendai, 120 Japanese merchants, sailors and servants, and about 40 Spanish and Portuguese.
The ship arrived after about three months' journey on January 25, 1614 in Acapulco, and the embassy was received with great ceremony. The aim of the mission, however, was to travel on to Europe. The embassy spent some time in Mexico, and then went on board the fleet of Don Antonio Oquendo to Veracruz. The fleet then ran on June 10, to Europe. Hasekura had most of his Japanese companion leave, which should await his return in Acapulco.
Mission to Europe
Spain
The fleet arrived in Sanlucar de Barrameda on 5 October 1614.
The Japanese embassy met on January 30 with King Philip III in Madrid. Hasekura handed the king a letter of Date Masamune, as well as an offer of contract. The king replied that he would do what he could to meet these requests.
Hasekura was baptized by the chaplain of the king on 17 February and was named Felipe Francisco Hasekura.
France
After a journey through Spain, the embassy sailed on three Spanish frigates across the Mediterranean to Italy. Due to bad weather, they were forced to look for a few days in the French port of Saint- Tropez protection, where they were received by the local nobility and created a great stir among the population.
The visit to the Japanese embassy is listed as out of " Philip Francis Faxicura, Ambassador to the Pope by Date Masamunni, King of Woxu in Japan" in the town chronicle.
Many were then considered remarkable details of their behavior were recorded: touch the food never with her fingers, but instead use two small sticks that they hold with three fingers. You blow her nose with soft, silky paper the size of a hand, which she never twice used and throw them on the ground after use, and they were surprised that our people were looking around them to excel in repealing this. Their swords cut so well that they can cut soft paper when it is placed only on the cutting edge and it blows. ( Relations of Mme de St- Troppez, October 1615, Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, Carpentras ).
The visit of Hasekura Tsunenaga in Saint- Tropez in 1615 is the first recorded case of Franco- Japanese relations.
Italy
The Japanese delegation traveled to Italy, where she received an audience with Pope Paul V in Rome in November 1615. Hasekura handed the Pope a gilded letter, which expressed interest in a trade agreement between Japan and Mexico and the dispatch of Christian missionaries to Japan. The Pope said to the sending of missionaries, but the decision on the trade agreement he left the Spanish king. The pope wrote a letter to Date Masamune, a copy of which can still be seen today in the Vatican.
The Roman Senate was Hasekura the honorary title of a Roman citizen. The document he brought back to Japan - it is to this day preserved in Sendai. The Italian writer Scipione Amati, of the embassy in 1615 and 1616 accompanied, in Rome published a book with the title "History of the Kingdom of Voxu ". Published in 1616, the French publicist Abraham Savgrain a report on Hasekuras visit to Rome: " Recit de l'entrée et solemnelle Remarquable faite à Rome, par Dom Philippe Francois Faxicura " ("Report of the ceremonial and remarkable collection of Dom Philippe Francois Faxicura in Rome ").
Sotelo described in his book from 1634 De ecclesiae statu relatio Iaponicae also the visit to the Pope:
Second visit to Spain
After returning to Spain, to Hasekura met a second time with the king, who, however, refused to sign a trade agreement because all the Japanese embassy as official embassy of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the ruler of all Japan, appeared. This was indeed - as opposed to the objectives of the embassy - issued an edict in January 1614, which decreed the expulsion of all missionaries from Japan and allowed the persecution of the Christian faith in Japan. The embassy left Seville in June 1617 towards Mexico. They had spent two years in Europe. Some of the Japanese remained in Spain, in a town near Seville called Coria del Río, where their descendants use to this day the surname Japón.
Return to Japan
In April 1618, the San Juan Bautista came from Mexico to the Philippines. On board were Hasekura and Luis Sotelo. The ship was acquired here by the Spanish Government to strengthen the defense against the Dutch. Hasekura returned in August 1620 to Japan.
During his absence, drastic changes had happened in Japan. Since 1614 they tried to eradicate Christianity in Japan. During the following " Sakoku " - time, Japan was moving towards its complete isolation from the outside. Because of the persecution and the trade agreement with Mexico was not agreed to. The embassy therefore seemed ultimately to have little success. Hasekuras eyewitness accounts of the Spanish colonial power and the methods in Mexico but may have Tokugawa Hidetadas decision to cancel the trade with Spain in 1623 and established diplomatic relations in 1624, with triggered.
What then exactly happened to Hasekura, is unknown, although numerous reports of his last years are circulating. Some say that he volunteered again renounced Christianity, others that he died as a martyr for his faith, and others that he had practiced Christianity in secret continue.
Sotelo are many years later, in 1634, can return a report that Hasekura as a hero after Japan, there propagated the Christian faith:
Hasekura Tsunenaga died 1622 - his grave is still in Buddhist temple Enfuku -ji (円 福寺) seen in Kawasaki of Miyagi Prefecture.