First Samurai in America and Europe: Tragic Story of the Keicho Embassy (1613 - 1620) DOCUMENTARY

[Music] word had arrived in mexico city almost a year before the japanese were coming hundreds of them led by a noble ambassador from the great emperor their sovereign lord a great galleon of 500 tons was being prepared the news had set off a friction of excited chatter and expectation in the capital of new spain what had once been the great aztec city of tenochtitlan and now they were here the native nahuatl lord chimalpahin gaped in awestruck fascination as the procession wound across the roads that poked their heads above the great watery expanse of lake texcoco to enter mexico city as the visitors got closer he could see that the first men marching held black lances straight up before them like roman lichters then came the ambassador himself in a coach and finally a great mass of others bringing up the rear leading hundreds of heavily laden pack animals they are long-haired their hair reaches their neck from letting it grow long they look like girls because of the way they wear their hair they wear something like an ornamented jacket doublet or long blouse which they tie at the middle their waist where they place a katana an asian cutlass of metal they seem bold not gentle and meek people going about like eagles the japanese ambassador in the carriage looked straight ahead gazing opaquely into middle distance as if the sights of this strange city meant little to his world-weary soul the tension was palpable all mexico city had turned out to greet the embassy but as with all great occasions there was ample room for mistakes to be made indeed aside from the mission's leaders the japanese had already been forced to surrender their weapons in acapulco the primitive seasonal west coast port which traded with asia after an unfortunate disagreement over who should present the diplomatic gifts they brought this event culminating in a brief battle several severe wounds and one fatality jamal suspected that the badly injured spaniard viscayno had double-crossed the japanese just as the spanish had double-crossed his own people a century before to claim the great prize of mexico itself he wondered if the spanish had designs on the japanese islands he thought it likely their appetite for others lands was insatiable but it was hard to conceive of them sending a force strong enough to such remote parts and he had heard that the population of japan was immense with boys and even girls taught to kill from childhood it was said that they were even happy to turn their sharp blades on themselves to atone for wrongs the procession continued to the very center of the city the embassy was to be housed in comfort and honor on the way to its ultimate destination rome cimalpahin felt this great embassy marked a new era all powerful god in his great wisdom had allowed the spanish to conquer mexico and drive out the devilry and idol worship that had held the aztec people in subjugation jamal pahin or to go by his christened name domingo francisco de san anton munyon chimal pahin was himself a faithful servant to this new deus and now the word of jesus could be spread even further across the great ocean to japan to drive out distant idolatry he lowered his head and gave a silent prayer of thanks before crossing himself god was coming [Music] this video is sponsored by magellan tv the documentary streaming service question what was the largest empire in the world at the time of hasakura suninaga's globe trotting adventure was it a ming china b the iberian union or c the dutch yes the answer is the iberian union i think the huge combination of portugal and spain that broke up in 1640 and so my recommendation this week for magellan's exhaustive collection is magnificent three cities that shaped history it's a fascinating 400-year-long epic that tracks the centers of three important empires amsterdam london and new york an epic tale and an epic series that explains the foundations of the modern world and magellan have more than 3 000 other documentaries to check out too and this christmas voices of the past viewers can take advantage of a special holiday offer buy one get one free gift cards for an annual membership by clicking on the link in the description thanks [Music] the japanese lord ambassador hasakura suninaga sitting upright and stiff in his coach attempted to stretch his legs without the crowds outside seeing he had been traveling for five months already first through the accursed desert of salt water they call the ocean then through the interminable dusty mountainous roads of new spain now he'd arrived in mexico city glorious unquestionably but still nowhere near his ultimate destination of rome asakura was there to redeem his family name from the disgrace his father had wrought through fraudulent dealings and subsequent seppuku short years ago hasakura had watched him passively as his father kneeling and dressed in a ritual white kimono had pierced his own belly with a tanto knife before a kaishaku second had spared him more agony by swiping off his head lord date masamune the arbiter of all justice and hasakura's liege lord had simply nodded and left later hasakura himself had been summoned to his lord's presence but instead of receiving the same sentence as he had expected he was given orders which were perhaps nearly as bad as death itself lord date ordered him to journey around the world to the lair of the catholics rome to talk with the man they called their holy father the pope an attempt to get his support for opening the pacific ocean trade routes between asia and north america and if the price of that was hosting more catholic missionaries than so be it hasakura's mission would take many years and the chances of returning were slim he had fought with distinction in korea in his youth but this mission was something else but it was his only chance to redeem his family name what was more lord daate had briefed him on the shogun's suspicion that the spanish had designs on japan suninaga was not only an ambassador but a spy and so with this weight on his shoulders hasakura stared straight ahead as his carriage rumbled on but he could not stop his eyes being drawn to this new city as it unfolded around him it wasn't rome but it was like nothing he had seen before one approached a shallow lake on raised promontories before being encircled with ingenious man-made islands on which stood a hodgepodge of houses and markets docks and warehouses passing onto the main island wide promenades revealed themselves tall houses churches mounted with great crosses and palaces of stone and brick with carved facades surrounded them nothing like the wooden one-storied buildings of japan and what a diverse range of peoples natives of these lands black-skinned people spaniards and even some men who clearly look japanese though they could be korean or chinese the coach which he had ridden in the last few leagues drew up he alighted stiffly and entered the edifice they were in mexico city for several months following orders hasakura permitted his men to be baptized much to the delight of the local people it was the diplomatic thing to do and it also made a lot of sense to placate the local gods when traveling far from home the japanese kami clearly had little power here he himself declined despite the council of priests who warned him of the dangers of the journey ahead and urged him to look to the safety of his immortal soul he was steadfast in his refusal for hasakura had more weighty matters on his mind than the rescue of his soul already condemned to disgrace by his earthly lord he wanted the drama of being baptized in the presence of king philip iii of spain this act alone would go a long way towards redeeming his family name and establish the glory of his lord date masamune in europe to a japanese warrior of the time these two things were far more precious than a mere token shot at the unproven but promising christian afterlife baptism could wait a little they proceeded to seville the only port permitted to accept ships and people from outside europe having left the jurisdiction of the viceroy of new spain they had taken up their weapons again and hasakura and his men proudly entered the city dressed as samurai with swords in their sashes bows and spears held high in ceremony [Music] after a whole year of travel they had at last reached europe only the second embassy in japanese history to land upon the continent they all breathed a huge sigh of relief their journey's end could not be much further surely hasakura though fretted and worried he knew that mexico was one thing here in europe's heart where true power lay his credentials might be better scrutinized his lord's bluff could be called for his clan lord date masamune was not a king and hasakura was not really a representative of the entirety of japan how would he be received would they receive him at all [Music] king philip iii holed up in his study and pondered the japanese problem as a six-year-old he had been fascinated to meet the first japanese embassy in europe four japanese princes who had travelled to rome with the jesuits in 1584 and had even embraced them at his father's bidding they had been charming pious easy to communicate with and not at all threatening youthful representatives of god's new children at the very ends of the known world [Music] then the news of christian persecutions in japan had started tales of great hardship forced apostasy by torture and glorious martyrdom it seemed that the conversion of the heathens was not going as smoothly as the young princes and the priests who accompanied them had claimed catholic europe reacted with horror japan had been the great hope of rome a well of souls to replace the cursed protestant heretics in northern europe but japan had turned from missionary heaven to missionary hell and if that wasn't enough those northern heretics had taken heart at news of rome's problems in the region and redoubled their efforts to reach the fabled lands of riches a battle for the soul of these new heathens was coming phillips sighed and returned to the problem at hand a tough-looking official japanese ambassador in outlandish clothes was requesting an audience with a formal armed retinue and making no attempt whatsoever to speak in a civilized european tongue to assure him that all was well and ask him to send missionaries and trade he had a suspicion that trade was by far the most important of the two and furthermore he knew the truth a disgruntled man called viscaino who had previously led a semi-official diplomatic mission to japan from new spain had written from mexico to divulge the reality this proud ambassador did not represent the great emperor he was merely the vassal of a minor prince hasakura jaded and exhausted saw the way the wind was blowing but he could no more inform philip of the truth than philip would be able to understand it japan's true so-called great emperor lived in poverty far from the beating heart of japanese power and the clan who did wield power the tokugawa could not be seen to send an embassy to a catholic monarch who officially at least they harbored great suspicions of and wished to hold at arm's length instead the tokugawa had shared ocean-going shipbuilding technology so that their relatively minor vassal lord daate could send the mission on their behalf lord date in his turn had sent an already disgraced underling as his envoy hasakura did represent the mighty shogun through smoke and mirrors but should anything go wrong the blame would fall on hasakura alone and leave his lord's reputation intact the tokugawa could deny everything multiple slights of hand which philip couldn't or wouldn't understand [Music] eventually the king granted hasakura the reception of a minor prince's envoy but try as he might the revelation by the ambassador that lord daate requested king philip to sponsor his baptism and hasakura's own sincere wish for immediate christening melted the proud king's heart and so on february the 17th 1614 hasakura knelt dressed in a pure white kimono head bowed in submission in the church of the disgalthus reales the harmony of the baso continuo rose around him and enveloped the space giving glory to god for his mercies and the miracle of having a pagan japanese samurai except the holy rights asakura could not help thinking back to the last time he had seen someone in a pure white kimono the public seppuku of his father back in japan white was the colour of death here in christendom it was the colour of purity and a symbol of the cleansing of sin the latter at least was related his father had purged his misdemeanors through suicide it did not do well to dwell on such things hasakura had been ordered to do this by lord daate and he obeyed but the church's angelic music the elited atmosphere of sanctity the ghostly flickering of the candles in their sconces all hinted at the divine and as the priest intoned the prayer of exorcism hasakura's heart fluttered and he felt lightening pass up his spine perhaps there was something in this deuce perhaps this god was indeed the all-powerful being these barbarians claimed the king embraced him followed shortly by his new godparents he would henceforth be known as francisco felipe hasakura and so philip permitted hasakura to proceed to rome despite the protests of his council of advisors madame de santropay clapped her hands in pleasure as she sat in her carriage her face glued to the glass before her was a magnificent sight the japanese ambassadorial train was passing through town having been forced to make for port due to bad weather on the mediterranean san tropez had never seen anything like it and never would again crowds surrounded them wherever they went but they seemed not to notice or care they continued dignifiedly on their tour of the town every now and again one of them would nonchalantly take a small piece of soft paper wipe his nose then discard it the crowds of goping commoners pounced on each foul disposal of tissue fighting for the privilege of possessing it madame did not know which was more amusing the sight of grown adults fighting over a snot rag or the fact that the japanese would use and discard such an expensive and rare commodity with so little thought was paper really so cheap in the orient when she had visited them in their temporary residence they had let her touch a piece of this paper it was so soft almost like silk the japanese ate alone in splendid isolation admitting none to their dining room save their spanish escorts and the seven cooks and servants they brought with them but madame had heard rumors that they didn't eat with hands and knives not even touching the food at all but used two dainty little sticks held in three fingers how wonderfully exotic and clever what would these delightful orientals think of next after a few days the weather calmed and a small corner of france suitably wowed hasakura and his retinue continued on their roman journey accompanied by the pope's cousin cardinal borgese and ten beautifully mounted knights the japanese mission processed piously as pilgrims through rome's porta angelica to the sound of fanfares and drums hasakura was once more granted the high honor of a personal carriage as the trumpets continued their curt calls of salute cannon fire joined in as kasakura's men progressed through the streets warping despite themselves at the magnificent saint peter's basilica and the five-pointed fortress of castel sant'angelo rome's citizens lined the route craning their necks from upper windows and balconies to see the wondrous event the japanese were here freshly shaved heads shining in the autumn sun march through the streets almost like toga-bound dignitaries and lichter-bearing guards of rome's own distant past [Music] a few days later deep within the quirinal palace garbed in a white silk kimono decorated with motifs of birds in flight and gambling animals hasakura slowed and solemnly approached the papal throne the lord ambassador went down on one knee bowing his head humbly three times before kissing the pope's feet as he offered the lord's letter of greeting and submission to his holiness hasakura waited reverently as the latin version of his letter from date masamune was read out [Music] kissing the holy feet of the great universal most holy lord of the entire world pope paul in profound submission and reverence i date masamune king of oshu in the empire of japan humbly declare the franciscan padre luis sotelo came to our country to spread the faith of god on that occasion i learned about this faith and desired to become a christian but i still haven't accomplished this desire due to some small issues however in order to encourage my subjects to become christians i wish that you send missionaries of the franciscan order i guarantee that you will be able to build a church and that your missionaries will be protected i also wish that you select and send a bishop as well further as our country and new spain and neighboring countries could you intervene so that we can discuss with the king of spain for the benefit of dispatching missionaries across the seas for all the rest i thoroughly rely on hasakura and sotelo and shall ratify anything they may conclude and ratify in my name when the reading was finished after a moment of silence in the thronged courtroom the pope rose and warmly welcomed the japanese ambassador who had traveled so far to his presence nay he stated hasakura's very arrival was testament to the power of the christian faith to bring together lords and kingdoms from opposite ends of the earth hasakura's heavy heart danced a speedy jig and he felt the weight of all those thousands of miles of travel lift from his shoulders to be welcomed in this way by the pope himself was to have at least achieved something on this epic but often lonely and fruitless seeming voyage later that night a candle fluttering in the sconce the venetian ambassador pondered the words of dartay's letter for all the rest i thoroughly rely on hasakura and sotelo and i shall ratify anything they may conclude and ratify in my name this was clearly an appeal to the pope to supply secret aid should his holiness be bold enough to persuade king philip to send troops from new spain and manila perhaps spain would find a new colony and the pope millions more souls [Music] there followed a round of congratulatory feasts masses present giving and honor bestowing hasakura became a citizen of rome gained a new coat of arms and was portrayed in paintings engravings and print all over the continent but he got little else nothing that date had asked for nothing more than effusive but meaningless words of encouragement the pope had passed the buck back to king philip and hasakura could do little but wait his fate was out of his hands even more so than he could understand for back in his home islands on the other side of the world another globe-trotting explorer was playing his hand before his visit hasakura had known little of europe but he had heard of a place called england for on his travels with lord daate he had by chance met one of the strangest men in japan the englishman called me ura anjin [Music] william adams otherwise known as mira anjin sat with his new english colleague richard cox in the recently founded english trading post in western japan and tried to remember how to speak english he had hardly done so since the death of his brother on the long voyage that had trapped him in japan that had been 14 years ago in those years he had first managed to persuade lord tokugawa he was not a pirate then he had learned japanese swiftly being used as a shipwright gunnery expert navigational authority and diplomatic advisor and was swiftly promoted to high rank he had been given his japanese name a wife and a thief with hundreds of farmers and warriors under his control not bad for a lad from the small town of gillingham in southern england the subject under discussion with richard cox this evening filled him with fire they were discussing the catholic problem cox had been sent undercover into japan by king james's government to undermine catholicism end spanish and portuguese trade in the country and to persuade the japanese to invade the philippines thus ending spain's rich trade with china it was a lot to accomplish and there was no time to lose as soon as the first official english trade ship reached japanese shores in june 1613 four months before hasakura set sail for north america cox had sought out adams and filled him in on the 15 years of english news he had missed during his long isolation and now they plotted cox asked adams to take every measure possible to inform those in power in these distant islands about the nefarious jesuit and spanish attempts to assassinate english monarchs back home and if possible to arrange for cox to personally speak with certain lords in the shogun's inner circle and so the english spent the next few years feeding the increasingly wild flames of anti-spanish feeling at the japanese court with a drip drip drip of information as fuel the shogun hidetada and his retired father ieyasu were especially unimpressed with the information that the jesuits believed regicide was an acceptable tactic what business did these unwashed foreign barbarians have effectively claiming their distant laws applied in japan and threatening the stability and future of the newly forged peace asakura could not know it but everything he was working for on the other side of the world was being carefully destroyed by that strange man he had met briefly so many years ago and the english machinations in japan [Music] signs of trouble didn't take long to appear despite their roman triumph hasakura and his men were no longer welcome in spain that much was made clear by the refusal of their request to stay in or near madrid to await king philip's reply to date masamune's letter they were sent to seville instead spain's exit gate and told to await king philip's pleasure there while hasakura had been touring europe king philip had been receiving more and more reports of the increasing plight of the catholics in japan the highest ranking christians were giving up their faith being forced into exile or executed and sometimes justified sometimes trumped up charges it was a long wait but eventually philip consented to a letter it contained little meaningful in it besides requests to support catholic propagation but it was a letter and not unfriendly in tone a victory of sorts [Music] though many of hasakura's men had left for new spain in 1616 the lord ambassador himself eventually took ship with his letter in july 1617 remaining in spain were dozens of samurai whom hasakura had allowed to stay he was not to know it but no new japanese person would set foot on european soil for hundreds of years [Music] at the same time as hasakura was sailing back across the atlantic shogun hidetada decided to suppress catholicism and expel the jesuits once and for all it happened on september the 8th only a day after englishman richard cox himself had briefed key shogunal advisors on new information from europe about spanish and jesuit involvement in regicide and interference in sovereign nations government cox had been ecstatic but hidetada had decided to take no risks he also confined the english and dutch to the remote island of gerardo and closed all the other english trading posts throughout japan with immediate effect this was a death knell to england's japanese presence over the coming weeks a desperate cox has repeatedly refused an audience even william adams was unable to change the shogun's mind asakura remained in mexico city for five months while there he was informed of the catholic disaster by a certain diego santa who had been expelled from japan as a result of cock's machinations significantly all of king philip's gifts had been returned with the deported priests it was a strong message of rejection and dismissal from a superior to an inferior the message was that japan would have nothing more to do with spain and its impertinences and so the missionaries who had been earmarked to accompany hasakura to open their new missions in date masamune's territory were assigned to new tasks hasakura had truly failed there would clearly be no more missionaries from catholic countries in japan he knew that if hidetada was serious enough to deport a representative of the king of spain then lesser priests would simply be executed torture crucifixion and burning awaited them and so it was with a heavy heart that hasakura boarded the date maru in acapulco he had considered staying in new spain and had allowed some of his men to do so they decided to become barbers of all things as he watched the waves laugh against the side of the ship and felt the cool breeze on his face he contemplated the debacle the hasakura name would now be besmirched twice fold failure of his mission and the criminality of christian conversion he had failed his lord his ancestors and his descendants and so after an extended stay in manila two years later hasakura at last made the final short leg of his journey to nagasaki and eventually wearily home to the far northern city of sendai date masamune's seat it had taken seven long years hasakura genuflected before his lord in the vast tatami matted chamber in front of him servants had placed the gifts from europe new spain and manila in lacquered boxes covered with silken cloth date masamune ordered his vassal to raise his head so they could talk his eyes took in the walls covered in gilt paintings of pine trees tigers and birds so intricate he felt they might fly out of the pictures and around the hall first date received the gifts among them a portrait of pope paul v and one of hasakura himself praying then the interrogation began it lasted all day as hasakura told of everything he had seen and all the events which had come to pass the pope and king philip's personal letters to date were submitted along with translations and received cautious approval but when it came to the details of the breakdown in trade talks the loss of the ship and the failure to bring missionaries date rose up in a fury hasakura knew that at the back of his lord's mind despite everything he had harboured hopes that the mission would bring back secret messages of support offers of weapons and the rights to trade over the ocean to new spain data's domain could have potentially become one of the most powerful in japan yet it was not to be seven years of travel diplomacy and an ocean of his lord's silver later all for nothing two days later catholic persecution commenced in earnest in date's domain all christians were ordered to abandon their faith if they did not nobles would be exiled and common as killed rewards for the denunciation of hidden christians were to be generous and henceforth no propagation whatsoever would be tolerated hasakura passed away two years later while he had not redeemed his family name he had not been punished further by his lord it was the best result that he could have hoped for in the circumstances [Music] cursed the day the barbarians had brought word of their god to date masamune's domain he cursed the day his grandfather had returned from the other side of the world and he cursed the fact that his grandfather had not kept his stories to himself despite the interdiction against catholicism hasakura had propagated to his family and they had in secret kept the faith in their hearts long after his death several of their servants had been caught and tortured hasakura's father suniori had been denounced now suninobu watched as his father the ambassador's son knelt for execution like a common criminal his crime was not to have denounced christians on his estate his wife had been put to death three years before for similar crimes but suni nori was not permitted the honor of seppuku and the family's title on land was to be confiscated the blade came down the head rolled slowly in the dirt of the execution ground and blood weld like an ocean around it this pool of blood was a symbol of the defenses that japan now built against visitors from overseas no more would ships be free to land nationwide like europe they would have designated ports depending on their place of origin unlike europe travel and settlement within japan would be prohibited and would remain so for more than 200 years and so the second japanese embassy to europe was quietly forgotten two centuries of isolation had finally come to an end the japanese ambassador iwakura tomomi in the midst of the grand world tour which would come to be called the iwakura embassy covering 120 cities and 12 countries across the globe stood in baffled silence the italian librarian standing before him with a quiet smile on his face had done something that despite all the incredible things he had witnessed on his tour truly surprised iwakura the grinning man had produced two letters from centuries ago in latin but clearly signed in japanese by a certain hasakura a samurai who was this man how had he been in contact with venice 250 years ago the japanese party conversed excitedly perhaps a christian refugee seeking aid against tokugawa persecutions perhaps a warrior from a defeated faction washed up on these far shores on returning home they determined to find out more about this strange mysterious and forgotten episode in samurai history and so back in japan later that year iwakura spearheaded the rediscovery of hasakura and his men's globe spanning adventure artifacts hidden away by the dartai clan for more than 200 years resurfaced including the portraits exotic weapons and catholic artifacts the emperor meiji himself made a point of viewing the treasures during his tour of the northeast in 1876 and hasakura's achievements became part of the fabric of the less than a decade-old newly formed empire of japan an old tale of global voyaging and diplomacy gave a new nation international ancestors and spurred it to a modern future hasakura would have given thanks to god for the delivery of his family name from disgrace and the honor done him by his future fellow countrymen and emperor a fitting end to his amazing tale it had been worth it after all [Music] you

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Length: 38min 48sec (2328 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 05 2021