Nossa Senhora da Graça incident

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The , alternatively called the , was a four-day naval battle between a Portuguese carrack and Japanese

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

junks belonging to the

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near the waters of Nagasaki in 1610. The richly laden "great ship of commerce", famed as the "black ship" by the Japanese, sank after its captain André Pessoa set the gunpowder storage on fire as the vessel was overrun by samurai. This desperate and fatal resistance impressed the Japanese at the time, and memories of the event persisted even into the 19th century.

Background

In 1543 Portuguese traders arrived in Japan initiating its first contacts with the West. Soon they established a trade post in

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

, linking it with their headquarters in

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

via Malacca. Large carracks engaged in the flourishing "

Nanban trade or the , was a period in the history of Japan from the arrival of Europeans in 1543 to the first '' Sakoku'' Seclusion Edicts of isolationism in 1614. Nanban (南蛮 Lit. "Southern barbarian") is a Japanese word which had been used to desig ...

", introducing new goods and ideas into Japan, the most important of them being

arquebus An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier. Although the term ''arquebus'', derived from the Dutch word ''Haakbus ...

es and Christianity. Later, they engaged in

triangular trade Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset ...

, exchanging silver from Japan with silk from China via the Portuguese settlement of

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...

on the Chinese coast near Canton, since China banned direct trading with Japan. As Nagasaki grew from a fishing village to a bustling community of Jesuit missionaries and Portuguese traders, its autonomy and religious influence eventually drew the ire of the top powers of Japan. Portuguese control of the settlement was revoked in 1588, and a ''

bugyō was a title assigned to '' samurai'' officials during the feudal period of Japan. ''Bugyō'' is often translated as commissioner, magistrate, or governor, and other terms would be added to the title to describe more specifically a given offic ...

'' (governor) assumed control of Nagasaki in 1605. In addition to the Nagasaki ''bugyō'', local municipal affairs were managed by the ''daikan'' (代官; magistrate or lieutenant-governor). At the same time, the Portuguese near monopoly on East Asian maritime trade was increasingly being contested by new entrants. The Dutch, who had been at war with the Portuguese, made a chance landing in Japan for the first time in 1600 on the ''Liefde'', and the

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...

of that ship, the Englishman William Adams, managed to become a key advisor in the shogunal court and therein advocate for Dutch interests. The Spanish, based in the Philippines, also sought to make a presence in the Japanese trade at the expense of Portugal despite the union of the crowns of Spain and Portugal (the news of which was coolly received in

Portuguese Macau Portuguese Macau (officially the Province of Macau until 1976, and then the Autonomous Region of Macau from 1976 to 1999) was a Portuguese colony that existed from the first official Portuguese settlement in 1557 to the end of colonial ru ...

). Japan itself toyed with the idea of foreign trade, issuing trading permits to a select list of worthies who would then send off "

red seal ships were Japanese armed merchant sailing ships bound for Southeast Asian ports with red-sealed letters patent issued by the early Tokugawa shogunate in the first half of the 17th century. Between 1600 and 1635, more than 350 Japanese ships went ...

" to waters as far as Malacca and the Moluccas.

Incident in Macau

The direct cause of the ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' incident was the waterfront fracas on 30 November 1608 in Macau, resulting in the deaths of 50 Japanese samurai under the orders of the

Captain-major A donatary captain was a Portuguese colonial official to whom the Crown granted jurisdiction, rights, and revenues over some colonial territory. The recipients of these grants were called (donataries), because they had been given the grant as a ( ...

André Pessoa. Since Macau did not have a permanent governor at the time, the Captain-major of the Japan Voyage acted as governor while he was in town, overriding the Senate of Macau. In 1608, a red seal ship belonging to the Hinoe ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominal ...

Arima Harunobu was a Japanese samurai lord who was the daimyō, daimyo of Shimabara Domain and the head of the Hizen-Arima clan''.'' In his early years, he was a retainer of Ryūzōji clan. Biography Harunobu was born in Hinoe Castle, the Hizen-Arima clan, Ar ...

weathered in Macau after coming back from Cambodia to fetch a cargo of

agarwood Agarwood, aloeswood, eaglewood or gharuwood is a fragrant dark resinous wood used in incense, perfume, and small carvings. This resinous wood is most commonly referred to as "Oud" or "Oudh". It is formed in the heartwood of aquilaria trees wh ...

, intending to winter there until the

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal osci ...

of 1609. The Japanese crew behaved rowdily and walked insolently through the town in armed bands of thirty or forty. The Chinese inhabitants, greatly concerned by this, urged the Senate of Macau to curb these activities or expel the Japanese altogether. The Senate merely advised the Japanese to moderate their behaviour and disguise themselves as Chinese, but this was flatly ignored. Since appeasement only appeared to encourage the Japanese crew, who were joined by their compatriots from a nearby shipwreck, the Portuguese authorities hardened their stance in response, lest the Japanese tried to take over Macau. On November 30, the Japanese gang got into a serious brawl. When the Portuguese ''ouvidor'' (magistrate) came to stop the fight, he got injured and his retainers killed. Church bells were sounded in alarm following this incident, and Captain-major André Pessoa arrived at the scene with all available armed reinforcements. The Japanese fled and took refuge in two houses, which were quickly surrounded by Portuguese soldiers. Pessoa offered quarter to those who would surrender, but 27 of those in the first house refused and were gunned down when they were forced out of the house by fire. The Jesuits and the Bishop of Macau intervened as Pessoa prepared to storm the second house, and the Japanese there, numbering around 50, were induced to surrender on the promise of life and freedom. However, Pessoa had the suspected ringleaders strangled in jail, while the rest were allowed to leave Macau after signing an

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a stateme ...

absolving the Portuguese from all blame.

The Japan voyage of 1609

Due to Dutch activities in Cantonese waters in 1607 and 1608, no Portuguese ship left for the Japan voyage for over two years, so the Macau carrack of 1609 was unusually richly stocked with two years' supply for the Japanese market. This carrack, variously called the ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' (''Our Lady of Grace'') or the ''Madre de Deus'' (''Mother of God''),In Boxer 1951, Boxer notes that "it is still not absolutely clear by which name the carrack was really called" (p. 487, note 20), though he used the name ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' in his later works as opposed to ''Madre de Deus'' as in his 1929 "The affair of the Madre de Deus" and its reprints. In "Affair", Boxer notes at least 5 ships using the name ''Madre de Deus'' during the Iberian Union (all meeting catastrophic ends), including the subject of this article and the carrack captured by the English in 1592 (pp.84–86). left Macau on May 10, six weeks ahead of schedule because its captain André Pessoa heard news from Malacca that the Dutch were planning to attack his ship. It was the Dutch '' modus operandi'' at the time to intercept the annual Portuguese trading fleet, especially since their capture of the '' Santa Catarina'' in 1603 had been so profitable its booty sold for more than half of the original capital of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

(VOC). When the admiral of the Dutch fleet in the East learned that the Portuguese were loading an exceptionally rich carrack in Macau, he sent orders to Abraham van den Broeck, in command of two Dutch vessels in the waters of

Johor Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the northwest. Johor shares maritime ...

, to find this ship. If they missed the carrack, the Dutch were to proceed to Japan and try to open trade there. Van den Broeck, with

Jacques Specx Jacques Specx (; 1585 – 22 July 1652) was a Dutch merchant, who founded the trade on Japan and Korea in 1609. Jacques Specx received the support of William Adams to obtain extensive trading rights from Tokugawa Ieyasu, the ''shōgun'' emeritu ...

in tow, set sail on May 10, stopping by

Patani Patani Darussalam ( Bahasa Malayu Arabic : , also sometimes Patani Raya or Patani Besar, "Greater Patani"; th, ปาตานี) is a historical region in the Malay peninsula. It includes the southern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala (Jal ...

to get a supply of some silk, pepper, and lead to trade in Japan. They then laid around the

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a ...

in wait for the Portuguese carrack to no avail, then made way into the Japanese harbour of

Hirado is a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. The part historically named Hirado is located on Hirado Island. With recent mergers, the city's boundaries have expanded, and Hirado now occupies parts of the main island of Kyushu. The component ...

on July 1. As it happened, the Dutch only missed the ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' by two days, since Pessoa sailed right into a monsoon that carried the carrack way to the south, offsetting his early lead, and landed in the harbour of Nagasaki on June 29.

Intrigues in Japan

In Nagasaki, the ''bugyō'' Hasegawa Fujihiro ( 長谷川藤広) gave Pessoa more trouble than was usual for Europeans in Japan at the time. Hasegawa repeatedly tried to inspect the contents of the ship, but Pessoa always rejected, and Hasegawa temporarily relented. When all the merchants and merchandise were unloaded, Hasegawa paid the Portuguese scant courtesy and bought all the best silk at low fixed prices, ostensibly on behalf of the retired ''shōgun''

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

. For reasons not entirely clear, Hasegawa and his colleague, the ''daikan''

Murayama Tōan Murayama Tōan Antonio (村山等安)Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, João Paulo Oliveira e Costa p.7/ref> was a 17th-century Japanese magistrate of the city of Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Nagasaki (''Nagasaki daikan'', 長崎代官). He was born i ...

showed enmity to the Portuguese traders at this time whereas previous relations had been amiable. Their behaviour may have been motivated by jealousy against the influential Jesuit father João Rodrigues at Ieyasu's side, desire for a larger share of the Portuguese trade, or merely be a reflection of Ieyasu's increasing impatience with the Portuguese. Hasegawa and Murayama complained to Ieyasu of Portuguese insolence, pointing out that they acted with virtual extraterritoriality in Nagasaki and accusing them of hiding the best silk to sell in the black market for higher prices. They added that if Ieyasu adopted a harder line against the Portuguese, the red seal ships could compensate for some of the potential losses in the Portuguese trade. Faced with the Dutch establishment of trade at Hirado, Pessoa reconciled with Hasegawa and Murayama through the intercession of the Jesuits and a monetary bribe. When Pessoa explained his version of events of the Macau incident to Hasegawa and suggested to forward the affidavit to Ieyasu (who was retired, but still in charge), Hasegawa advised Pessoa to do nothing of the sort. Hasegawa explained that while Ieyasu was mindful of the truculent behaviours of the Japanese abroad, he would be forced to take his countrymen's side as a matter of principle if the matter was brought up officially. Pessoa was not fully convinced by this argument, and drew up an unofficial memorandum of the Portuguese case for

Honda Masazumi (1566 – April 5, 1637) was a Japanese samurai of the Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period, who served the Tokugawa clan. He later became a ''daimyō'', and one of the first rōjū of the Tokugawa shogunate. Masazumi was born in 156 ...

, Ieyasu's handler of foreign affairs, much to the displeasure of Hasegawa and Murayama, who wrongly suspected that Pessoa had also complained about the two in the memorandum. In any case, Honda, with authorization from Ieyasu, gave Pessoa's envoy written assurances that Japanese sailors would be forbidden to travel to Macau, and any who did could be handled according to Portuguese laws. Outwardly, Hasegawa still put Portuguese interests in mind as it was in his best interests to keep the Portuguese trade alive in Nagasaki. He arranged to have the Portuguese envoys arrive in Ieyasu's court at Sunpu before those of the Dutch trading party, even though Ieyasu chose to grant an audience to the Dutch envoys first. The Dutch entry provided Ieyasu an opportunity to break the Portuguese monopoly on Chinese silk, and the delighted ex-''shōgun'' gave the Dutch permission to establish a trading post anywhere in Japan without the restriction on prices like the Portuguese had. Hasegawa apparently took the Portuguese side and relayed information of Dutch activities to the Portuguese; however, Pessoa and the Macanese merchants were still suspicious of Hasegawa's intentions and resolved to petition Ieyasu directly to complain about Hasegawa and Murayama. The Jesuits were horrified when they found out about Pessoa's decision due to their knowledge that Hasegawa's sister Onatsu (お夏) was a favourite concubine of Ieyasu, "so much so, that if she said black was white, eyasuwould believe it". The fathers used all sorts of rhetoric they could muster, including the threat of

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

, to dissuade Pessoa from lodging the complaint. Pessoa desisted, but the damage had already been done, since the Japanese interpreter hired to translate the list of grievances showed it to the ''bugyō'' himself. Hasegawa, in great anger, swore to get even with Pessoa dead or alive. In September 1609, the Japanese survivors of the Macau affair of 1608 had come back to tell their version of events to their lord Arima Harunobu, and the news was reported to Ieyasu. The ex-''shōgun'' reprimanded Hasegawa for trying to hide the matter, and ordered him to make a full investigation. Hasegawa drew up a lengthy report taking the side of Arima, who wanted revenge for his men, saying the Macau affidavits had been obtained by the Portuguese under duress and should be considered void. Both Hasegawa and Arima advocated for the forcible takeover of the ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' and its cargo, but Ieyasu was hesitant on this point since such a move could endanger the annual Nagasaki-Macau trade. The final push Ieyasu needed came unexpectedly, when a Spanish ship sailing from Manila to Mexico was wrecked off the coast of eastern Japan in the same month. When Ieyasu received the Spanish survivors in his court at Sunpu, he asked their leader

Rodrigo de Vivero y Aberrucia Rodrigo de Vivero y Aberrucia, 1st Count of Valle de Orizaba ( es, Rodrigo de Vivero y Aberrucia, primer conde del valle de Orizaba) ( Tecamachalco?, New Spain, 1564–1636) was a Spanish noble who served as the 13th governor and captain-gener ...

, the newly replaced governor of the Philippines, if the Spaniards could supply the bulk of silk imports to Japan like the Portuguese. Aberrucia rashly replied that they could easily send three ships to Japan yearly. Ieyasu, now convinced that he could replace the Portuguese merchants with the Spaniards, the Dutch, and his own red seal ships, ordered Hasegawa and Arima to arrest Pessoa at all costs.

The battle for the black ship

Preparations and actions of the first night

Through the Christian community in Japan, Pessoa was informed of the intrigues against him and promptly prepared for defence and departure. He prepared a large quantity of hand grenades and ammunition aboard the ship, but due to the large size of the cargo, the ship was not ready to sail until after New Years Day in 1610, whereas previous Macanese vessels usually returned before Christmas. While the ship was being loaded, Arima tried to entice Pessoa to come ashore with offers of hospitality, saying that he had been sent to Nagasaki only to negotiate silk prices, and that the high officials in Sunpu only wanted Pessoa to give his account of the Macau events in person—he would be pardoned as a foreigner even if he was found guilty. Many Portuguese believed Arima, but not Pessoa, who knew Arima had assembled a force of 1200 samurai against him. Pessoa now would not go ashore even for

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

, and ordered his crew to come aboard the carrack to set sail. However, this was delayed as some crew believed that the current crisis was merely Pessoa's personal feud and dragged their feet, while most who had wanted to embark were obstructed by Japanese guards. By the time Arima attacked the carrack on January 3, only about 50 Europeans were on board with some black slaves and

lascar A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland, or other land east of the Cape of Good Hope, who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the ...

s. Before they struck, Arima, Hasegawa, and Murayama jointly sent a message to the Jesuits justifying their impending attack on the carrack with the fact that Pessoa was trying to escape Japanese justice. They followed with another message suggesting that if the Portuguese crew would give up their captain, the matter would be settled. The Jesuits responded that it was not in Portuguese culture to surrender their captains. At night, Arima's armada of junks full of shouting men approached the ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'', which was unlit and quiet in stark contrast. Some of Pessoa's officers wanted to fire on the mob, being lit by the torches they carry, but Pessoa refused to take the responsibility of opening hostilities, and so the procedures of setting sail and weighing anchor continued quietly in the darkness. The Japanese shot first, firing two volleys of muskets and arrows, and Pessoa responded with two successive

broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...

s of five guns apiece, with flutes and trumpets playing after each volley to add insult to injury. The Japanese flotilla scattered and retreated for the night as the Portuguese carrack anchored off Fukahori ( 深堀) for lack of wind. Hasegawa assumed that the battle was lost and sent a courier to Sunpu carrying the news. Ieyasu received the news in great rage, and ordered all Portuguese in Nagasaki to be executed, including Jesuit missionaries. This order was never carried out, as the courier returned to Nagasaki to find the situation greatly changed.

The second and third days

The battle carried on with minor variations for the next two nights, with half-hearted parleys carried out in daytime since the Japanese apparently did not dare to attack during the day. In addition to repeating the manoeuvers of the first night, Arima tried a variety of different methods to subdue the ship. First he tried sending two samurai to board the ship in disguise and kill Pessoa on deck, but this failed as the two were not allowed onto the ship. He then sent divers to cut the cables of the ship's anchor, but this was also unsuccessful. On the third night Arima sent forth a flotilla of

fire ship A fire ship or fireship, used in the days of wooden rowed or sailing ships, was a ship filled with combustibles, or gunpowder deliberately set on fire and steered (or, when possible, allowed to drift) into an enemy fleet, in order to destroy sh ...

s, but they all drifted off in the wind save one, which slammed into the bow cable of the carrack but was cleared without much difficulty. During the third day Arima sent a message to Pessoa saying that he wished to renew negotiations about the silk prices, and was willing to send hostages aboard to prove his sincerity, provided that the carrack stayed where it was. Pessoa, in return, demanded the sons of both Arima Harunobu and Murayama Toan, and that he be allowed to take the ship to the neighbouring anchorage of Fukuda, where he could wait for favourable winds to go back to Macau. Arima gave no reply, but Hasegawa was furious when he heard about the exchange, telling Pessoa in a message that Arima had no authority to make such a proposal, and on the contrary had direct orders to kill Pessoa. Hasegawa added that if Pessoa surrendered himself and let the cargo be sold at a price decided by the Japanese, he could intercede on Pessoa's behalf. Pessoa politely declined further negotiations as long as the Japanese continued hostilities.

The final night

On the morning of January 6, 1610, a favourable breeze made it possible for Pessoa to move his ship to an inlet near Fukuda, but no further. Seeing that his prey was about to get away, Arima gave chase in a flotilla led by a huge tower-junk. This junk was built by lashing two large boats together, upon which a wooden

siege tower A Roman siege tower or breaching tower (or in the Middle Ages, a belfry''Castle: Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections''. Dorling Kindersley Pub (T); 1st American edition (September 1994). Siege towers were invented in 300 BC. ) is a specialized siege ...

as tall as the carrack's deck was erected. The tower was covered with wet hides to protect it against Portuguese fire, and had openings for the 500 archers and musketeers inside to shoot out of. With a total of around 3000 samurai due to reinforcements in the last three days, the flotilla tried to approach the carrack under the cover of the tower-junk. Between 8 and 9 o'clock at night the flotilla closed in at the carrack's stern, where only one of the two chase guns could be used to fend off the attack since the other had been moved to the

prow The bow () is the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is usually most forward when the vessel is underway. The aft end of the boat is the stern. Prow may be used as a synonym for bow or it may mean the forward-most part ...

to protect the ship's cables. A

Japanese Christian Christianity in Japan is among the nation's minority religions in terms of individuals who state an explicit affiliation or faith. Between less than 1 percent and 1.5% of the population claims Christian belief or affiliation. Although formally ...

captain led the charge, rallying his fellow coreligionists with the reasoning that if the carrack was not destroyed or captured, Ieyasu would turn his wrath onto the Christian community and the churches would be destroyed. A few Japanese succeeded in boarding the ship but were promptly cut down (Pessoa himself apparently killed two) or were forced to jump into the water. The Portuguese were able to fend off the smaller crafts with hand grenades, but they made little effect on the floating tower, which grappled the

poop deck In naval architecture, a poop deck is a deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear, or " aft", part of the superstructure of a ship. The name originates from the French word for stern, ''la poupe'', from Latin ''puppis''. Thus ...

. Up to this point the Portuguese casualties had been few, with only four or five Portuguese along with a few Africans and

s killed, while the Japanese dead were estimated at several hundred. However, six hours into the fighting, a shot from the tower-junk hit a fire pot that a Portuguese soldier was about to throw, smashing it onto the gunpowder at his feet. This started a conflagration that spread through the deck and set the mizzen sail ablaze. Pessoa and his men retreated to the

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...

, where they realized that they did not have enough men to simultaneously fight the fire and the Japanese boarders. At this point Pessoa ordered the ship's magazine to be set on fire since he would rather die than surrender. When the ship's

purser A purser is the person on a ship principally responsible for the handling of money on board. On modern merchant ships, the purser is the officer responsible for all administration (including the ship's cargo and passenger manifests) and supply. ...

hesitated, Pessoa cast away his sword and shield and picked up a crucifix, then he exclaimed: "Blessed be thou, oh Lord, since thou willest that all this should end!" He then told his crew to save themselves as he went down to start the fire himself. The ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' then blew up in two successive explosions, split into two, and sank with cargo, crew, and boarders alike. The Japanese killed all they could see swimming in the water, but a few survivors made it onto the shore to safety. André Pessoa's body, however, was never found.

Aftermath

The remaining Portuguese merchants and missionaries were naturally quite concerned about their fates, especially since Ieyasu had personally ordered their execution. Arima, a Christian himself, apparently regretted what he had done and interceded on the Jesuits' behalf. Ieyasu himself had a change of heart since he was convinced that foreign trade would cease without the missionaries. Eventually, the merchants were allowed to leave for Macau with their property while the missionaries could stay. (With the notable exception of Ieyasu's Jesuit translator João Rodrigues, who was replaced by William Adams.) In March 1610, Hasegawa told the leaving merchants to "not cut the thread of trade, but arrange for at least a small vessel to come this year, and the Great Ship the next, when all would be well." Since the Portuguese settlement of Macau greatly depended on the Japan trade, the Senate of Macau decided it was prudent to send an envoy to Japan to negotiate the resumption of trade officially. They were not able to send a ship to Japan until summer 1611, when an embassy led by Dom Nuno Soutomaior reached the court of Ieyasu in August. By this time Ieyasu was quite disillusioned about his previous hopes of having the Dutch and Spaniards replace the Portuguese traders, since the Dutch could not come in 1610, as their ships intended for Japan were caught in

François de Wittert François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, Kin ...

's defeat in the First

Battle of Playa Honda The naval Second Battle of Playa Honda (Spanish: ''Segunda La Batalla Naval de Playa Honda''; Filipino: ''Ikalawang Labanan sa Playa Honda''), was the first of three known minor conflicts during the Eighty Years' War between the United Province ...

by Spain, and Spain's own contribution to the Japan trade in March 1611 was found to be disappointing. In addition, contrary to Hasegawa's previous assurances to Ieyasu, silk imports from red seal ships could not compare with those from the "great ship of commerce", since the Portuguese enjoyed a near-exclusive direct access to the Canton silk market due to the Chinese ban on Japanese trade. Therefore, both sides were eager to resume the annual Japan trade. Blame for the ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' incident was placed squarely on the dead André Pessoa for refusing to surrender when asked, and Ieyasu gave his permission for the "great ship" to come to Nagasaki as before. After another trip to the court of Ieyasu in 1612 to clear up the terms of trade, the ''São Felipe e Santiago'' became the first Portuguese carrack to trade in Nagasaki after the two-year hiatus. Nevertheless, Pessoa's resistance ultimately harmed Portuguese trade and missionary activities, since it reaffirmed that the Portuguese were a troublesome people in the eyes of the Tokugawa shogunate. The ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' incident was one of many incidents that made Ieyasu and his successors move away from their earlier toleration of the Portuguese in favour of the Dutch. In 1639, the Portuguese were expelled from Japan altogether as the Dutch, being resettled to Nagasaki, became the only European presence allowed in Japan during the shogunate's enforcement of their isolationist '' sakoku'' policy. For Arima's part in sinking the ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'', Ieyasu not only rewarded Arima Harunobu with a prized sword, but also presented his granddaughter Kunihime (国姫) as wife for Harunobu's son Naozumi. Harunobu apparently felt that his efforts during the ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' incident warranted further rewards – namely the return of territory in

Hizen was an old province of Japan in the area of the Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen and Chikugo. The province was included in Saikaidō. It did not incl ...

that was taken from the Arima during the Sengoku period. To this end, Harunobu approached and bribed Okamoto Daihachi, a Christian aide to Honda Masazumi. This led to the Okamoto Daihachi incident, in which the corruption case was discovered and caused Harunobu to be exiled in 1612, and executed the next year.

Salvage

When the ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' sank, its cargo mostly consisted of about 3000

picul A picul or tam is a traditional Asian unit of weight, defined as "as much as a man can carry on a shoulder-pole". History The word ''picul'' appeared as early as the mid 9th century in Javanese. Following Spanish, Portuguese, British and ...

s of unsold Chinese silk and 160 crates of silver bullion; altogether, the total loss was estimated at more than a million in gold. Recovery efforts have persisted from the night of the sinking—when 200 floating baskets of silk were picked up with grappling hooks—right down to modern times, but the majority of the treasure caches have yet to be found. These efforts centered around the area where the carrack was recorded to have sunk, under the sea off the island of

Koyagi, Nagasaki was a town located in Nishisonogi District, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, situated approximately 13 km south of the centre of Nagasaki City. The town was notable for the Mitsubishi shipyard which occupies 60% of urban areas. As of 2003, the town ...

. Of the 150 or 160 crates of silver known to be on board the vessel, 70 were retrieved by a merchant of Hirado in 1617. Later salvage efforts only turned up three bars of silver and a few trinkets in 1653, and a cannon and some silver in 1658. Modern attempts from 1928 to 1933 found another cannon (now placed at the front door of the

Tenri Central Library Tenri Central Library (天理大学附属天理図書館 ''Tenri Daigaku Fuzoku Tenri Toshokan'') is the library of Tenri University. It has notably extensive collections in antiquarian material, including original manuscripts from 13th-century Jap ...

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

), two iron helmets, an anchor, some oyster-shell window panes, and an astrolabe, among other artifacts. A suspected wreck of the ''Nossa Senhora da Graça'' was discovered by the local carpenter and amateur

underwater archaeologist Underwater archaeology is archaeology practiced underwater. As with all other branches of archaeology, it evolved from its roots in pre-history and in the classical era to include sites from the historical and industrial eras. Its acceptance has ...

Matsumoto Shizuo in the period of 1987–2000, 600 m from Fukuda and 45 m underwater. Matsumoto erected a life-sized

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

statue in the nearest island of Matsushima (松島) to commemorate the occasion.

Legacy

The British historian

C. R. Boxer Sir Charles Ralph Boxer FBA GCIH (8 March 1904 – 27 April 2000) was a British historian of Dutch and Portuguese maritime and colonial history, especially in relation to South Asia and the Far East. In Hong Kong he was the chief spy for the ...

noted the great effect that Pessoa's actions had on how the Japanese see Portuguese people. According to Boxer, the event apparently gave the Japanese an exaggerated impression of the fighting qualities of the Portuguese, as well as appealing to the Japanese samurai mentality due to Pessoa's rather un-Christian act of suicide. As such, stories of the event were told and retold again over the next hundred years, often in an exaggerated and wildly inaccurate manner, and found themselves embedded as part of local folklore. A direct reference to the event can be found in 1808, during Japan's period of self-imposed isolation, when the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

frigate entered Nagasaki harbour to ambush two Dutch merchant vessels that were expected to arrive in an offshoot of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. The Nagasaki ''bugyō'', somewhat inaccurately, threatened to sink the foreign warship "as the ''Madre de Deus'' had been burned and sunk some two hundred years before".

References

Notes

Works cited

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nossa Senhora da Graca incident 1610 in Asia 1610 in Japan 1610 in the Portuguese Empire Foreign relations of the Tokugawa shogunate Japan–Portugal relations History of Nagasaki Naval battles involving Japan Naval battles involving Portugal Maritime incidents in 1610 Arima clan 17th-century military history of Japan