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In 1598 when he was 34 and bored with being just a pilot of English woolens to Barbary, William Adams heard rumors of a fleet setting sail to the fabled Spice Islands and rushed off to the Netherlands to join the fleet, which was suspiciously silent on its true intended destination. Yet, he and his brother got employment and set sail aboard the Hoop (Hope) and later transferred to the Liefde (Love). They were accompanied by three other ships as well - Geloof (Faith), Trouw (Fidelity) and Blijde Boodschop (Merry Messenger),
Through hostilities from indigenous people, shortage of food and water, the Liefde (the only ship to make it so far) finally floated into a Japanese harbor, with just 26 men and Adams among them barely alive and unable to even row the boat or defend themselves. They were sick from starvation, scurvy, dysentery and on the verge of death. A band of silken-robed and oil-scented warriors boarded the derelict ship and, ignoring the sick and dying men, stripped the ship of anything valuable and good. No men were bothered, all were systemically ignored. Fortunate for Adams and his men, the local brigand who controlled the strip of land their ship was floating near, heard of the pillaging and with curiosity of the other-worldly appearance of such a strange sea-faring vessel, ordered the goods be returned, and thus began the slow opening of the wharves of Japan to the outside world.
Already the Jesuits were well established in the land, and they had the ear of the shogun. They were not there as traders but as religious adherents spreading their religious fervor. However, it wasn't to the Jesuits' advantage for the protestant Englishmen and Dutch to be entering into the land of Japan for then the shogun would learn that things were not as presented by the Jesuits. In becoming accepted and entrenched into the Japanese society, Father Valignano had ordered that all Jesuits become as Japanese as possible - being robed in silks, eating three grains of rice at a time and sitting back on one's heals while dining, and he even wrote a handbook on decorum to meet that end, Advertimentos. The Jesuits were therefore by this time well in-tuned with the language and had attained a high level of decorum. And Father Valignano was a confidant and advisor to the shogun. No, the Jesuits didn't want the British and Dutch ruining any of their connections or letting Japan know that other religions outside of Catholicism existed, and especially one(s) so contested by the Papacy.
William Adams, however, had the fortune to be listened to by the local authority, who sent him off to the shogun for a hearing. The shogun was interested in Adams sea-faring stories and his documentations for charting the seas and navigating. Father Valignano was the translator but quickly Adams realized Valignano's subtle treachery in undermining the good vibes between him and the shogun and determined to learn the Japanese language. He seemed to have a prowess for languages as he quickly made himself communicable and almost as quickly replaced Father Valignano as confidante and advisor to the shogun. Adams was duly honored with the title hatamoto or bannerman, a prestigious position that made him a great retainer to the shogun's court. This linked him to the great warrior class that had dominated Japanese history for centuries, for his fellow hatamoto were all samurai -- battle-hardened warriors -- whose role was akin to an elite officer corps, or a military bureaucracy.
And the for the next several years, Adams served the shogun, marrying a local Japanese woman and having two more children, (one baby daughter and his wife remained clueless of his life and desire but inability to return to them in England). It was not until July 1613, 13 years later when the Clove anchored in Japan that he next saw any fellow Englishmen. He had romanticized about meeting his countrymen but when they arrived, reeking of body sweat and dressed like animals, (eating that way to) and having low manners and big egos did he realize that he had gone native. The sailors were likewise delighted to see a fellow Englishmen in such distant, forbidden waters but they were even more shocked by his "going native". Neither could they understand the propriety of patience and gift-giving to garner respect before slowly introducing the "business" of opening trade. Adams became an invaluable advisor for them and a go-between them and the shogun, who was interested in cultivating foreign trade.
Years passed. At 55 William Adams (1564-1620) was no longer youthful. He had suffered the ravages of diseases as a sailor and more recently picked up a kind of debilitating malaria in Cochinchina on a voyage he made for the shogun. Never returning to his family back in England, Adams died among the British sailors/traders he was helping. (His son was soon afterwards given the titles and lands that Adams had held, continuing and honoring the legacy of the man who had helped Japan in many more ways than just opening the ports for foreign trade.)
Adams survived Ieyasu (1543-1616), his patron and shogun, by four years. In those four years, Ieyasu's son, Hidetada, had ruled which established that the shogunate was to be a hereditary title. Hidetada didn't have the same brilliance and acumen for business, control (war), and organization as his father and he was soon replaced by his sadistic son, Iemitsu, who had a keen hatred for foreigners and proceeded to hound them out of his territory. However, the British, due to the more and more restrictions placed on their trade and being reduced only to one port, withdrew from England in 1622, a few short years before Iemitsu became shogun.
After Iemitsu became Shogun, foreigners were no longer welcomed. The Jesuits and their converts were the first to feel the barbarity of Iemitsu, soon followed by the expulsion of the Portuguese traders in 1637. The Dutch were quickly limited to a Deshima Island in Nagasaki bay and not allowed to have contact with Japanese. And so, the Land of the Rising Sun entered a period known as sakoku, the closed country. After a century of contact with foreigners, Japan closed her windows to the outside world and denied traders, and in upcoming years, the few mariners unlucky enough to be blown onto her shores were arrested, tortured and killed.
Not until some 200 years later could the Englishmen and other foreigners reestablish trade with the eastern realm. However, when they did, they were astonished to discover that William Adam's name was still famous throughout the land. They listened to marvelous stories of Adam's rise at court, his role as a spokesperson, advisor, tutor and oracle. His title, estate and extraordinary friendship with the shogun had left a deep and lasting impression on the Japanese. As a mark of their respect, they had named an area of Tokyo, Anjin-cho, in this honor. They also kept his name alive in prayers at the Jodoji temple, said to have been where Adams made his devotions and close to where Adams once had a townhouse. A crowd of believers gather in his honorable memory once a year, and amidst air thickened with incense and the clanging of bells, the pilgrims to the temple pray annually for the soul of Anjin Adams.
Proof that Japan remembers: Anjin Festival - August 8-10
Anjin Festival commemorates the launching of the first western-style Japanese ships by sending festival lanterns down the Matsukawa River, and culminates in a splendid display of fireworks over the sea. The ships were designed and built by William Adams, and the shogun was so impressed with Adams that he gave him a house in Tokyo, two swords, and a badge of rank and authority. The English pilot became Samurai Miura Anjin and had a fief in Hemi (today, Yokosuka) as well as an appreciable salary.
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| Today, a monument marks the foundation of Anjin's townhouse in Anjin-cho, and his grave is marked with his Japanese name in Hirado, Nagasaki prefecture. Source |
