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Hasekura's portrait during his mission in Rome in 1615, by Claude Deruet , Coll. Borghese, Rome.Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga (支倉六右衛門常長, 1571– 1622) was a Japanese samurai and retainer of the daimyo of Sendai Date Masamune. He led an embassy to Mexico and then Europe between 1613 and 1620, after which he came back to Japan. He was the first-ever Japanese official envoy to the AmericasThe Americas (sometimes referred to as America is the area including the land mass located between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, generally divided into North America and South America. The term also usually includes the Caribbean, the islands.
Little is known of the early life of Hasekura Tsunenaga, except for the fact that he was a veteranA veteran refers to a person who is experienced in a particular area, particularly referring to soldiers in the armed forces. From Latin vetus meaning "old. Upon leaving the armed forces veterans have needed to find a new place in society. For most of his samurai of the Japanese invasion of KoreaThis article is about the 1592 1598 war in Korea. For the 1756 1763 world war, please see Seven Years' War. The Seven-Year War (called Imjin Waeran "Japanese Turmoil of the Year Imjin", in Korean) was the conflict from 1592 to 1598 on the Korean peninsula under the TaikoThe word taiko means simply "big drum" in Japanese. Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums (, 'wa-daiko', "Japanese drum", in Japanese) and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming (sometime Hideyoshi, in 1592Events January 30 The death of Pope Innocent IX during the previous year had left the Papal throne vacant. Ippolito Aldobrandini is elected Pope Clement VIII. Founding of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland's oldest university Thomas Kyd publishes The Spanis and 1597Events January 24 Battle of Turnhout. Maurice of Nassau defeats a Spanish force under Jean de Rie of Varas in the Netherlands The first opera is considered to have been written. Bali discovered by the Dutch explorer Cornelis Houtman Births Pieter Saenreda.
1 Spanish approaches
The SpanishThe word Spanish can mean: The Spanish language (also known as Castilian) The ethnic Spanish people Spaniards , see also list of Spanish people From or related to Spain. started trans-Pacific voyages between Mexico (“New Spain”) and China, through their territorial base in the Philippines, following the travels of Andres 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, a Spanish galleon, the San Francisco, was taken in 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 November 29, 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.
