Tanaka Shōsuke (田中勝介) was a Japanese merchant in the early

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. He is the first recorded Japanese to have travelled to the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

in 1610 (although some Japanese, such as

Christopher and Cosmas Christopher and Cosmas were two Japanese men, only known by their Christian names, who are recorded to have travelled across the Pacific on a Spanish galleon in 1587, and were later forced to accompany the English navigator Thomas Cavendish to Engla ...

, are known to have sailed across the Pacific on Spanish

galleons Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal. They were first used as armed cargo carriers by Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail, and they were the principal vessels drafted ...

as early as 1587). Returning to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in 1611, he again went to North America in 1613, with the embassy of

Hasekura Tsunenaga was a kirishitan Japanese samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, the daimyō of Sendai. He was of Japanese imperial descent with ancestral ties to Emperor Kanmu. Other names include Philip Francis Faxicura, Felipe Francisco Faxicura, and Ph ...

. In total, he accomplished two round trips between Japan and North America and helped establish trade and diplomatic relations between Japan and the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered ...

. According to ''Sumpu-ki'', he was a representative of the great Osaka merchant Gotō Shōsaburō.

Background

Before the travels of Tanaka Shōsuke, Japan had few contacts with the Spanish, and had instead relied upon the Portuguese, the

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

, and to a much lesser extent the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

and the English for her foreign trade during the first part of the " Nanban trade period". Japan had also been very active sailing red seal ships throughout Asia, original Japanese ships that were broadly similar to Chinese

junks A junk () is a type of Chinese sailing ship characterized by a central rudder, an overhanging flat transom, watertight bulkheads, and a flat-bottomed design. They are also characteristically built using iron nails and clamps. The term applie ...

, but incorporating various Western techniques and designs (such as square and lateen sails), but had never ventured as far as the

. The ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

was eager to develop trade with foreign nations, and was particularly looking forward to an opportunity to develop trade with the Spanish Empire. He had already asked William Adams to exchange trade proposals with the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

in 1608, without great success. An opening finally came when the former interim governor of the Philippines Rodrigo de Vivero y Aberrucia was shipwrecked on the coast of Japan in 1609. Rodrigo de Vivero y Aberrucia remained in Japan for 9 months, and took the opportunity to negotiate the first treaty of exchanges between Japan and

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

, involving offering extraterritorial privileges for a Spanish shipyard and a Naval base in the eastern Japan in exchange for transpacific trade and Mexican silver mining technology.

First Japanese to the Americas (1610)

In August 1610 Tanaka Shōsuke was ordered by the retired ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ieyasu to accompany Rodrigo de Vivero y Aberrucia back to New Spain (Nueva España), together with 22 other Japanese representatives, on board the '' San Buena Ventura'', a 120-ton ship built in Japan under the supervision of William Adams a few years earlier. Also among them was Father Muños, a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

Father, sent by Tokugawa Ieyasu as a representative to negotiate the establishment of trade between Japan and Nueva España. Following their arrival in New Spain in November 1610, Luis de Velasco, the viceroy of New Spain received the 23 Japanese and expressed his great satisfaction at the treatment the Spanish sailors had received in Japan. He decided to send an embassy to Japan in the person of the famous explorer

Sebastián Vizcaíno Sebastián Vizcaíno (c. 1548–1624) was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast and Asia. Early career Vizcaíno was born in ...

. The viceroy confiscated the ''San Buena Ventura'' however, fearful that the Japanese would manage to master the art of trans-oceanic navigation. Spanish sources indicate that Tanaka Shōsuke studied

silver mining Silver mining is the extraction of silver by mining. Silver is a precious metal and holds high economic value. Because silver is often found in intimate combination with other metals, its extraction requires the use of complex technologies. In ...

techniques in New Spain before returning to Japan, obtaining knowledge which would have been very useful to Japan as it relied on silver (and copper) for the payment of her imports. Tanaka Shosuke is also reported as having brought back mulberry wood from the New World, which he offered to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who used it to build a bath in his Palace. A contemporary journal, written by the historian Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, a noble

Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...

born in

Amecameca Amecameca is a municipality located in the eastern panhandle of Mexico State between Mexico City and the Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl volcanos of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It is located on federal highway 115 which leads to Cuautla, ...

(ancient Chalco province) in 1579, whose Spanish name was Domingo Francisco de San Anton Muñon, gives some account of the visit of Tanaka. He explains that Tanaka, retailer and merchant, was considered and treated as an ambassador for the commercial exchanges between Japan and New Spain:

Today, Thursday in the afternoon, the 16th of the month of December of the year 1610, at 6 o'clock, was when perhaps as many as nineteen people from Japan, China, arrived and entered here in the city of Mexico. A noble, their lord, the ambassador, from the court of the great ruler the emperor of Japan, who brought them, came to make peace with the Christians so that they would never make war but always be at peace and esteem each other, so that Spanish merchants will be able to enter Japan and none of the people there will be able to impede them. And likewise the people of Japan will be able to come enter New Spain to do business, to come here to sell goods that are made there, and no one here will be able to impede them, for thus the lord Viceroy don Luis de Velasco, Marqués of Salinas, whom they came to see, informed them

He also says that they were allowed to walk with their sword at the side, something not usually permitted to traders, and that they were in formal Japanese attire:

And they came gotten up as they are gotten up up there; they wear something like an ornamented jacket, doublet, or long blouse, which they tie at their middle, their waist; there they place a
katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...
of metal, which counts as their swords. ... They seem bold, not gentle and meek people, going about like eagles

Several of the Japanese (at least three according to Chimalpahin's account) chose to be baptized in New Spain, starting with the head of the delegation, who took the Christian name of Don Alonso:

They were baptized in true splendour. It was done in the presence of all the different ecclesiastics who dwell in Mexico, who all appeared here. The first baptized was a noble and lord of Japan whose name upon baptism became don Alonso; don Hernando Altamirano, then captain of the guard, became his godfather.

Tanaka Shōsuke was also baptized, and took the Christian name of "Don Francisco de Velasco Josuke". According to the account, three Japanese from the mission of Tanaka chose to remain in New Spain. He relates the departure of the group:

Today, Monday, the 7th of the month of March of the year 1611, was when Sebastián Vizcaíno, citizen of Mexico, set out and left Mexico here, appointed general of the China boats going to China he Philippines At that time he then took the Japanese; he placed next to himself the Japanese nobleman whose name was now Don Alonso and who now went dressed as a Spaniard, to return to his home; here he threw away his outfit that he wore coming here. He was the only one to change is clothinghere in Mexico. They had been here in Mexico just two months when seventeen of them returned home; three stayed in Mexico.

Tanaka Shōsuke returned to Japan in 1611 with Sebastian Vizcaino. Vizcaino had a mission to return 4,000 ducados that Tokugawa Ieyasu had lent to the previous mission, and to research "gold and silver islands", supposedly to the east of Japan. They left for Japan on 22 March 1611, and arrived in the harbour of Uraga.

Second travel (1613)

Tanaka Shosuke helped prepare the first official Japanese embassy to the Americas and Europe, by meeting extensively with

, who was in charge of the project. He is recorded as again having left for the Americas in 1613 on board Hasekura's Japanese-built 500-ton

galleon Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal. They were first used as armed cargo carriers by Europe, Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail, and they were the principal vessels dr ...

'' San Juan Bautista'' with the embassy and a total of 140 Japanese. Sebastian Vizcaino, whose own ship had been disabled in a storm near Japan, was also on the ''San Juan Bautista'' to return to New Spain. Some of the Japanese traders who had been left behind in New Spain by Tanaka four years before took the opportunity of the return trip of the ''San Juan Bautista'' in October 1614 to return to Japan:

Today, Tuesday the 14th of the month of October of the year 1614, was when some Japanese set out from Mexico here going home to Japan; they lived here in Mexico for four years. Some still remained here; they earn a living trading and selling here the goods they brought with them from JapanChimalpahin diary, 14 October 1614, "Annals of his Time" p. 291

It is unknown whether Tanaka Shosuke continued with Hasekura to Europe, or stayed in New Spain waiting for the return of Hasekura, or returned to Japan in October 1614.

References

*''Annals of His Time: Don Domingo De San Anton Munon Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin'', Stanford University Press 2006,

Notes

External links