Hasekura Tsunenaga

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson
and I'm Holly Frye. I have made an accidental new
theme in a lot of research the episodes that I've
researched recently, and that theme is seventeenth century historical figures
with just big, big gaps in the record. So that
there was Mary Dyer and all the question marks about

(00:35):
her life before she got to Boston and where exactly
she was executed. And then Michelina Wattier, who I decided
to do a podcast on even though we have almost
no biographical detail about her now today it is hasekur
Rokuwae Monsunanaga, who was a samurai who led a diplomatic

(00:55):
delegation to New Spain, Spain, and Rome in the sixteen
teens and twenties. These delegates, who were with Hasikura Sudanaga,
were probably the first Japanese people to visit Cuba and
to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but a lot of the
Japanese records about their mission were lost or destroyed after

(01:16):
they got back. At the same time, though, this is
a situation where if we were Japanese or living in Japan,
we might have access to some more information. There are
a number of Japanese scholars who have written about this
over the last four or five decades, but that's research
that was printed in Japanese in Japan, and a lot

(01:39):
of it just isn't available in any language in libraries
in the United States. This delegation took place just before
Japan started closing its borders in the seventeenth century, and
it was between waves of violent and sometimes truly horrifying
persecution of Christians in Japan. And all of that connects

(02:02):
to why those records were destroyed, which of course we
will be getting to so to.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Set the stage for what was happening in seventeenth century Japan.
Portugal had started trading with Japan in the fifteen forties
after Portuguese merchants were blown off course and landed in
Japan by accident. Spain established a trading relationship with Japan
not long after, with much of that trade taking place
via the Philippines. Ferdinand Magellan had claimed the Philippines for

(02:29):
Spain in fifteen twenty one, and trade between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico,
known as the Manila Gallean trade, was established in fifteen
sixty five. Spanish trading ships carried silver, gold, and other
precious metals from the Americas to Asia, and porcelain, silk, ivory,
and other goods from Asia back to the Americas, and

(02:50):
then from the Americas onto Europe. We talked about this
trade and its influence in our twenty fifteen interview with
Dennis Carr, who at the time was a curator at
the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. As Portugal and Spain
established trading relationships with Japan, missionaries started arriving there as well.

(03:10):
The first Catholic missionary in Japan is recognized as Francis Xavier,
who was one of the founders of the Society of
Jesus or the Jesuits. He arrived in Japan in fifteen
forty nine. More Jesuit missionaries followed, as well as Franciscans
and Dominicans, and by the end of the sixteenth century
there were about two hundred thousand Catholics living in Japan.

(03:34):
That included missionaries from outside of Japan as well as
local people who had converted. But the relationships among these
three religious orders were not always harmonious. As a general trend,
most of the Jesuit missionaries were Portuguese, while most of
the Franciscan and Dominican missionaries were Spanish, and there were
a lot of disagreements among the three of them as

(03:57):
they each essentially competed with one another. There were also
disagreements between Spanish and Portuguese clergy, and between Spanish and
Portuguese people in Japan. More generally, Spain and Portugal were
united under Habsburg monarch Philip the Second in fifteen eighty,
but that didn't stop the Spanish in Portuguese in Japan
and elsewhere from seeing one another as rivals. There were

(04:20):
also missionaries from other countries. One was Italian Jesuit visitor
Alessandro Vallignano. A visitor was essentially someone who visited and
inspected Jesuit missions, and Ballagnano was responsible for the Jesuit
missions and most of Southeast and East Asia except for
the Philippines. During the ten Show era of Japanese history,

(04:45):
which spanned from fifteen seventy three to fifteen ninety two,
Ballianiano arranged for four Japanese seminary students to visit Europe.
He wanted to impress Jesuit leadership with what the order
was doing in Japan, and also impressed the four Japanese
delegates by touring them through some of Europe's major Catholic cities.

(05:06):
The four boys, all age fourteen or fifteen, were carefully selected.
At this point, the Japanese ruling class was the daimyo,
who were essentially powerful feudal lords. Some of the daimyo
had converted to Catholicism, and the delegates had connections to
the most powerful of those. These four young men all
had both a Japanese and a Spanish Catholic education, including

(05:29):
Japanese language and literature, Spanish Latin, music and art.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
The senior delegate was Mancillo Ito Sukamatsu, and the junior
delegate was Michael Tgus Suzieimon. The other two boys, Julian
Nakura and Martin Haro, were selected as their companions, but
in practice all four of the boys were basically treated
as though they were part of the same delegation. This
became known as the Ten Show Embassy of fifteen eighty

(05:56):
two or the Ten Show era Boys Embassy. It wasn't
really an embassy though, there wasn't a diplomatic goal beyond
just introducing these boys to Catholic Europe and vice versa.
The embassy left from Nagasaki in February of fifteen eighty two.
Tracy wasn't able to piece together the entire route that

(06:16):
they took to Europe, but they traveled south and west
from Japan, making stops in Macau and Malacca before arriving
in Goa on the western coast of India. Veliinyano left
the delegation there after, receiving orders to transfer to a
new assignment, and the rest of the embassy continued on,
finally arriving in Lisbon on August eleventh, fifteen eighty four.

(06:37):
So it took them about two and a half years
to travel from Japan to Portugal, with some relatively lengthy
stops along the way. After arriving in Europe, this delegation
met with King Philip Icond of Spain, Pope Gregory the
thirteenth and Gregory's successor sixth is the Fifth. The gifts
that they brought for these and other people included painted

(06:59):
folding screens or byobu for each of them, and this
might have been the first introduction of these painted screens
into Europe. This delegation wasn't an official effort on Japan's part,
although later on Valinnano wrote about it as though it
had been and officials in Europe seemed to have seen
it that way. A lot of European accounts described the

(07:20):
boys as kings or princes, which they definitely were not.
There were also people who compared them to the biblical Magi,
the wise men from the East who followed a star
to Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus Christ. This delegation
traveled in Europe before returning home, including to Lisbon, Madrid, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Genoa,

(07:41):
and Venice. They arrived back in Japan on July twenty first,
fifteen ninety but anti Catholic and anti Western attitudes had
really started increasing in Japan while they were away. For example,
Daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who is known as one of the
three Unifiers of Japan, issued an edict expelling missionaries from

(08:04):
Japan three years before the delegation's return. Toyotomi was apparently
motivated by concerns about the number of daimyo who were
converting to Christianity and about reports that some of the
daimyo were forcing their subjects to convert as well. This
initial edict wasn't strictly enforced, though, and all four of

(08:26):
the boys from the ten Show Embassy ultimately joined the
Jesuit Order as they had planned to.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Circle back to Toyotomi Hideyoshi Hideyoshi and the unification of
Japan that was happening right around the same time as well.
From fourteen sixty seven to fifteen sixty eight, there had
been so much conflict and warfare among all of Japan's
domains and their ruling daimyo that it came to be
known as the Sengoku period or the Warring States period.

(08:55):
This period came to a close as three daimyo conquered
and otherwise unified the days. Toyotomi Hideoshi was one and
the other two were Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Iyeyasu.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
As Japan was becoming more unified, some of its leaders
started working to increase trade with other nations to send
more Japanese ships rather than relying largely on merchants from
countries like Spain and Portugal. But Spanish officials were concerned
about whether an increase in the number of Japanese ships

(09:28):
would threaten the ports of Manila and Akapolco. Both of
these ports were already considered to be vulnerable to attacks
by the English or the Dutch. The loss of either
of the ports would completely disrupt the Manila galleon trade.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Spanish authorities were also wary of entering into a deeper
relationship with Japan because the status of Catholics in Japan
was already precarious. Although there were some daimyo who had
converted to Christianity and some who protected Christians within their
domains while not themselves being Christians, in some places Christians
faced deep hostility and even violence, beyond the edict expelling

(10:07):
missionaries that wasn't really being enforced. As one of the
most horrifying examples, in fifteen ninety seven, twenty six Catholics,
including clergy and lay people, were rounded up in Nagasaki,
publicly mutilated and then crucified. Six of them were from Spain, Mexico,
or Portugal, and the rest were Japanese or Korean. This

(10:30):
is usually interpreted as a response to what's known as
the San Felipe incident. The San Felipe was a Spanish
galleon that had wrecked in Japanese territory the previous year.
The ship's captain was reportedly outraged after his cargo was confiscated.
He either threatened local authorities with Spain's military might or

(10:52):
sort of implied that Spain was using merchants and missionaries
to pave the way for an invasion. So this Tree
of Christians was kind of a response to what was
perceived as as a genuine threat. More violence followed these crucifixions,
including the burning of churches. Oda Nabunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi
had both died by fifteen ninety eight, living Tokugawa Ayasu,

(11:16):
the last of the three unifiers in the first shogun
of the Tokugawa Shogunate also called the Edo Shogunate because
its capital was in the city of Edo. Japan still
had an emperor, but under the Tokugawa Shogunate, the shoguns
and the Tokugawa family were really in control.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Tokugawa Yeyasu was somewhat more tolerant of Catholicism, although he
did prohibit Daimyo from converting. This tolerance was largely because
he wanted to encourage more trade between Japan and Europe,
and that was in part because Japan had lost China
as one of its major trading partners. Japan had invaded

(11:54):
Korea in fifteen ninety two and China had sided with Korea,
so that trading relationship was at least for the time over.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
And it was in the wake of all of this
that Hasakura Tunanaga undertook his mission. We'll talk more about
that after a sponsor break.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Hasakura Sunnaga was born in fifteen seventy one. He's described
as being descended from Emperor Kamu. Kamu was Japan's fiftieth
emperor and reigned from seven thirty five to eight oh six.
Beyond that, we really don't have much biographical information about
him at all. As a samurai, he would have had
lots of combat training, and in this case this also

(12:42):
involved firearms training. He was in the gun core of
the daimyo he served dat Masamune. Dat Masamune had lost
an eye as a child due to an illness. Sometimes
this illness has specified as smallpox. For that reason. As
an adult he was nicknamed the one eyed Dragon. He
had military experience and became Daimyo of Sendai on the

(13:04):
northern part of Hanshu Island, which is the largest of
the four main islands of Japan. Although he was not
Christian himself, he did allow Christians in his territory, including
allowing a church to be built there in sixteen eleven.
As was the case with Tokugawa Ayasu, this was probably
more about wanting to increase trade to his region than

(13:25):
about any kind of religious conviction. Daatem Masamune was also
a patron of the arts and letters, and was himself
a poet. In sixteen twelve, Hasakura Stunanaga's father, Hasakurra Sunanari,
was accused of corruption, stripped of his land in title,
and ordered to take his own life, and this is

(13:46):
reportedly what led to hasakurras Stunanaga going on this mission
to Spain and its colonies. Date Masamune ordered him to
do it as a way to redeem his family, and
if he refused, he would be punished for his father's
disgrace as well. Spanish Franciscan Friar Lewis Soleto acted as
an interpreter for this delegation. He had arrived in Japan

(14:09):
in sixteen oh six after spending three years in the Philippines.
It's possible that like Hasakura Tsunanaga. His participation in this
mission was not entirely voluntary. Soleto had agreed to go
on an earlier voyage to New Spain that Tokugawa Ayasu
authorized in sixteen ten, but then he pulled out due
to an illness. That voyage went on as planned, but

(14:32):
without Luis Soleto, and in some accounts he was essentially
forced to go on this mission as punishment for failing
to go on the previous one. In other accounts, it
was punishment for something else, proselytizing at a colony for
people with leprosy after being ordered not to, and he
was given the choice of either going on this mission
or being executed. There are also some accounts that put

(14:56):
a somewhat more positive spin on this, though Soleto seems
to have been ambitious. He was hoping to be named
bishop of Japan once that bishopric was established. In some
versions of all this, one of Dati Masumune's concubines had
been ill and Soleto had healed her, and then Date
had thanked him by advocating for him to be part

(15:19):
of this delegation, so in this version it wasn't really
a punishment. Soleto was hoping to use the delegation as
a stepping stone to becoming Bishop of Japan.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
The galleon built for this voyage was initially called the
Date Maru, and it may have started by rebuilding the
hull of an earlier shipwreck. Construction took forty five days,
supervised by shogun Admiral Mukai Shogen. Later the ship was
renamed the San Juan Baptista, and it sailed with about
one hundred and eighty total people on board, including about

(15:51):
one hundred and twenty Japanese merchants, servants, and the likes
in about twenty samurai. One of the merchants was Tanaka Shosuke,
who had been on that earlier mission in sixteen ten.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
The ship also had a crew of about forty Spanish
sailors under the command of Sebastian Vizcaino, and there was
a lot of strife between Viskayino and the Japanese delegation.
Some of this seems to have been just prejudice on
his part, but he had also tried to get permission
to search for gold and silver along the Japanese coastline,

(16:25):
or maybe to search for islands of gold and silver
that were believed to be in the waters off of Japan.
That request had been denied, and Viskayno was bitter about it,
And then, to make things worse, he wound up stuck
in Japan after his ship was damaged and he couldn't
get funding to make it seaworthy again. So Sebastian Viscayino

(16:46):
is yet another person who was just under a lot
of external pressure to embark on this voyage. For his part,
this was basically his ride back to the Americas so
he could make his way from there back to Europe.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
The San Juan Baptiste to set sail from the port
of Tsuki, Noura in the fall of sixteen thirteen. It
crossed the Pacific Ocean to what's now California and then
sailed to Acapulco, arriving there on January twenty eighth, sixteen fourteen.
The delegation had brought gifts for authorities in Acapulco, as
well as the royals, religious leaders, and others they would

(17:20):
encounter later on in their expedition. They included painted biobu screens, weapons, armor,
and furniture. After arriving in Acapulco, they traveled across Mexico
to Vera Cruz via Mexico City.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
One of the people who chronicled their time in New
Spain was the prolific Nahua historian and chronicler known as
Chamalpine Quadlajuan Eitzen, who lived in Mexico City. Chamalpine wrote
about day to day life among Nahua communities, as well
as Spanish colonial efforts in Mexico. He wrote in both
Nawatl and in Spanish. Chamalpine created some of the most

(17:58):
comprehensive chronicles of New Spain written by an indigenous person
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and much of what
he wrote and incorporated in his annals included eyewitness accounts
from other indigenous people. His work is also noteworthy because
he wasn't a member of the nobility, so his point
of view represented everyday people rather than the elite. He

(18:22):
had also documented that earlier sixteen ten delegation that had
included to Nakashosuke. Chamalpine's account of the delegation includes a
description of a violent incident between viz Kayano and some
of its Japanese members not long after their arrival. Apparently
this had something to do with who was going to
take control of the gifts that the delegation had brought

(18:43):
with them. Someone stabbed viz Kayino with a sword, and
a Spanish official who tried to intervene was killed. This
Kayino and the rest of the delegation quickly parted ways,
with viz Kayino traveling across Mexico separately from them to
return to Europe. Jamalpine was also one of the people
who wrote about members of the delegation being baptized while

(19:06):
in Mexico. According to Chamalpine, forty four of them were
baptized in Mexico City in the spring of sixteen fourteen,
more than half of them baptized by Archbishop Juan Perez
de la Cerna. Most accounts suggest that, with the exception
of the most high ranking samurai in this group, which
included Hasakura, all the Japanese entourage were baptized while in Mexico, apparently,

(19:32):
though there aren't official church records to back that up.
It's like there are a lot of accounts that describe it,
but according to the sources that I read, not church
records to confirm it.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
There are some things that are not fully clear about
these baptisms. Some of the delegation's members may have already converted,
or at least been interested in doing so before leaving Japan,
But we don't really know everyone's reasons for going on
the voyage or what everyone's thoughts and feelings were in
terms of religion, So we don't really know whether all
these baptisms came about because of a sincere religious conviction

(20:05):
or more as an attempt to encourage the trade agreement
that they were there to.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Secure authorization of That kind of a trade agreement needed
to come from Spain itself, not from colonial authorities in
the Americas. So a group of samurai plus about twenty
other Japanese delegates departed from Vera Cruz in the late
spring of sixteen fourteen. That July, they became the first

(20:29):
Japanese people known to visit Cuba, and then the first
Japanese people known to have crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
We will talk about their time in Europe after a
sponsor break.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
When Hussaker Asunanaga's delegation had been in Mexico, they had
been welcomed and treated as honored guests, and that really
continued in the first place they visited in Europe, which
was Luis Sileto's hometown of Seville, where they presented letters
of introduction to the Council on September thirtieth, sixteen fourteen.
There was a lot of hype in Seville around their visit,

(21:13):
including formal receptions and a pamphlet written about them that
was basically propaganda. This pamphlet made it sound like they
were official emissaries sent by the Emperor of Japan and
that Datte Masimune was next in line to be Emperor
of Japan. It is not entirely clear whether Europeans understood

(21:35):
the distinction between the emperor and the shogun, or whether
they were using emperor to mean shogun. It kind of
reminds me of how like when we read colonial accounts
from North America, people will describe indigenous leaders as kings
and queens, when that wasn't really how they saw their
own role at all. And it's not clear to me

(21:55):
what the situation is here.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
And some of this may have been a misunderstanding on
the part of the people of Seville, but Luis Soleto
and his family also may have been exaggerating things intentionally.
Aside from overinflating the rank of date Masamune and of
the delegation. All of this publicity totally concealed the fact
that Hasakura and Soleto were likely doing this, because if

(22:19):
they didn't, they would have faced execution.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
One thing to note here is some scholars have concluded
that this delegation may have had another objective entirely, that
it wasn't just about securing a trade agreement, and also
it didn't really have a religious element so much that
it was to get the Pope to recognize Date Masimune's
domain as independent from the Tokugawa Shogunate. If that's the case,

(22:44):
this propaganda in Seville may have been less of a
just overstatement of what their rank was and more like
trying to frame Date Masimune as shogun of his own domain.
This was the first time that Soleto had returned home
since leaving in fifth ninety nine to pursue missionary work
in Asia, so friends and family were probably genuinely eager

(23:06):
to see him. Some of the receptions and other entertainment
were also arranged by his family or other personal connections,
and a lot of these really sound like they were
more about Sletto than about the Japanese delegation and This
was a two way street, with Soleto and the delegation
implying that Seville was being particularly honored by being there
first stop after arriving in Europe. But this really warm

(23:30):
welcome didn't extend beyond Seville very much. Once they got
to Madrid. Officials there seemed to have seen through all
of this hype really quickly. Some of them had also
received letters from other missionaries in Japan and Mexico that
made them suspicious and distrustful of Soletto. This included messages

(23:50):
from other Franciscans who found him to be overly ambitious, scheming, untrustworthy,
and self serving. They warned that his active vities could
jeopardize the Franciscan's work in the Americas.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
In Asia.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Various letters received in Europe also made it clear that
Date Masimune wasn't a Christian, definitely wasn't in line to
be emperor, that he was more like the equivalent of
a minor noble in Europe.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Some of the people who had written two authorities about
Soleto also seemed to dislike him personally because they found
him tactless and rude. This came up in Madrid as well,
when Soleto requested that Hasukura be inducted into the Order
of Santiago, which is a military religious order, but only
Spanish nobles were allowed to join the Order of Santiago,

(24:39):
and they were required to prove their quote purity of blood.
Hasakuta was a Japanese man who had not even been baptized,
so Soletto's suggestion was seen as appalling.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
In spite of all this, Hasakura did meet with King
of Spain, Philip the Third, delivering a letter from Datee
Masimune requesting open trade between Japan and Spain's colonies and
the Americas. This letter was also very flattering, describing Hasakura
as particularly blessed to be able to experience the glory
of a Christian nation. The King wouldn't give the delegation

(25:15):
a firm answer, though he apparently said that the Pope
would need to weigh in, so the delegation asked to
travel to Rome so that they could ask the Pope
to approve a trade agreement, as well as an increase
in the number of Franciscan friars sent to Japan and
more financial support for those missionaries work. They also planned
to ask for Spanish navigators to be sent to Japan

(25:37):
to teach Japanese sailors and captains about European navigation methods.
Before they left for Rome. On February seventeenth, sixteen fifteen,
Hasakura Sunanaga and some of the other samurai were publicly baptized.
Issagari's baptism was performed by the King's chaplain, and the King,
the Queen, and the royal family were all present at

(25:59):
his baptism. He took the name Francisco Felipe Fahikura. When
the delegation left for Rome, about six of them stayed
behind in Spain, settling around Corea del Rio outside of Seville. Today,
there are people living in that area that have the
surname Hapon that spelled Japo n so it clearly is
a reference to Japan, and they're believed to be descended

(26:21):
from members of this delegation. However, not all of them
seem to have fared well in Spain. There is one
written reference to a Don Toma Felippe Happon, who wrote
to the Council in sixteen twenty two saying that he
had been one of the Japanese envoys baptized along with
Hasekura and that he had since been enslaved in the
town of Zafra. He asked for his freedom and permission

(26:44):
to return to Japan, which was granted. To return to
the delegation. They formally entered Rome on October twenty ninth,
sixteen fifteen, and they had an audience with Pope Paul
the Fifth just a few days later, on November three.
This was there's a big contrast to what had happened
in Madrid, where they spent months waiting for an audience

(27:05):
with the King. Hasakura delivered their request for more missionaries
and for permission to trade with the colonies. While the
Pope refused to make a firm commitment on a trade agreement,
he did agree to send more missionaries.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
The Pope also noted the possibility of naming a bishop
of Japan, with Soleto recommended for that role, but he
didn't make a firm commitment on that either. This would
have been politically pretty challenging for the Pope, among other things,
since Portuguese missionaries had been the first ones in Japan,
Portugal thought that any new bishop sent to Japan should

(27:41):
be Portuguese, and Soleto, of course, was Spanish. The delegation
remained in Rome for a few more weeks after this,
receiving holy communion from the Pope during Christmas Mass. Hasakura
was also granted honorary Roman citizenship on January Tewod sixteen sixteen.
His portrait was also painted more than once while he

(28:02):
was in Rome. One portrait is attributed to either Clauderette
or Arquita Ricci and shows Hasekura in loose fitting embroidered
Japanese garments. He's carrying traditional swords and behind him is
a painting of a galleon with what looks like angels
in the sky above it. Another is credited to the
school of Giovanni Nicolo, and it shows Hasakura dressed in

(28:25):
black Western religious attire, kneeling before a crucifix with his
hands folded in prayer.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Hazakura, four other Japanese men, and Luis Sileto are all
depicted in a fresco in the Crinal Palace in Rome,
which is part of a series of frescoes depicting emissaries
that had been received by Pope Paul the Fifth. The
artists who worked on this series of paintings included Agostino Tassi,

(28:52):
Giovanni Lamfranco and others. These frescoes were painted by order
of the pope, and they were one of the ways
that he was sort of reen forcing his own legacy.
He was documenting how many delegations he had received from
other parts of the world and suggesting that under his direction,
the Church had been particularly successful in its missionary efforts

(29:13):
in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and northern Europe. The
delegation left Rome on January seventh, sixteen sixteen, and visited
Florence and other cities in Italy. Before leaving Europe. Pasecuta
returned to Madrid and made one final attempt to secure
a trade agreement with Spain. This time the king definitively refused,

(29:35):
apparently giving the reason that since Haskuta was representing only
the daimyo of one region, not the ruler of all
of Japan, he was just not authorized to make this
kind of agreement. Word had also reached Spain that persecution
of Christians in Japan was increasing, which might have been
another factor in the king's refusal. Hassakra's delegation left Europe

(29:57):
in the summer of sixteen seventeen, reversing their original route
to get back to Japan, but at first they only
got as far as Manila. They got there in sixteen
eighteen and stayed for more than two years. During that time,
the Catholic Council of the Indies ordered Silato to return
to New Spain and he left.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Christians in Japan had faced periods of persecution before the
delegation set sail in sixteen thirteen, and that had really
escalated while they were gone. Tokugawa Yasu had issued an
edict expelling not just missionaries but all Christians from Japan
in sixteen fourteen, right around the time that the delegation

(30:36):
reached Akapulco. Then Tokugawa Yasu died in sixteen sixteen and
was succeeded by his son, Tokugawa Hidetada. Yeashu had formally
resigned his position as shogun long before that point, but
he had still retained a lot of power. But after
he died, Hidetada took a much stronger stance against Christianity

(30:57):
in Japan. This was motivated in by concerns about whether
Spain would try to conquer Japan if they were allowed
to continue trading and sending missionaries. So Hasakaris Stunanaga was
seen as deeply suspect. Not only had he converted to
Christianity and been baptized, but he had also traveled to

(31:17):
Europe with the objective of expanding Spain's relationship with Japan
for reasons that aren't entirely clear. Shortly after having a
meeting with Hasakura after his return date, Masimune also outlawed
Christianity in his domain under penalty of exile or death.
A lot of this is, like real poorly documented, but

(31:39):
it seems like he could have been trying to just
really distance himself from this whole thing in the face
of really changing expectations in Japan. Hasakuda had kept a
journal documenting his travels, but as we noted earlier, some
time after returning to Japan, this was destroyed, along with
other records of the mission. He most likely died in

(32:02):
sixteen twenty two, but there are wildly different unofficial accounts
about what happened to him. Some say that he had
been baptized in Spain only for the sake of securing
a trade agreement, and that after returning to Japan he
renounced his conversion to Catholicism. Others say that his conversion
was genuine, and that he became even more devoted to

(32:23):
Christianity after returning to Japan in spite of escalating threats
to his life. According to a surviving letter, he also
had a son who was forced to take his own
life for either harboring Christians or being Christian himself in
sixteen forty.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
By the time Hasakura returned to Japan, the members of
the Ten show Boys delegation that we talked about earlier
had either died, left Japan or left the Jesuit order,
with the exception of Julian Nakura, he was still in
Japan and was still a Jesuit, and during all of
this he was arrested, tortured, and killed in sixteen twenty three.

(33:03):
Although Luis Sileto had been ordered to return to New Spain,
he later went back to Japan in disguise, and soon
after that he was captured. He was burned at the
stake on August twenty fifth, sixteen twenty four. In sixteen
thirty seven, Catholics in the Domain of Shimabara rebelled against
high taxes and violent suppression of Catholicism. Japanese officials suppressed

(33:28):
the rebellion by dispatching more than one hundred thousand troops
with assistance from a Dutch warship. Although various edicts had
suppressed or expelled Christians before this point, this time Japanese
officials turned their attention to Europeans more broadly. Japan started
closing down its borders, entering a period of isolationism known

(33:49):
as sakoku. Eventually, the only trade that was permitted with
people outside of Asia was with the Dutch East India Company,
and then only at the port of Nagasaki. This policy
continued until the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet on
July eighth, eighteen fifty three. Because records of Hasakura Sunanaga's

(34:10):
voyage were destroyed during this period of isolationism, he mostly
disappeared from Japanese history until eighteen seventy three, when Prince
Irikura Tomomi found documents recounting the delegation in archives in Venice.
Emperor Meiji later made the discovery public. Today, there are

(34:30):
several statues and monuments to Hasakura Sunanaga and his delegation
around the world. A statue in Corea del Rio, Spain
was donated by the government of Japan in nineteen ninety two.
Another statue is in Havana, Cuba, and there's one in
Via Le Guilliemo Marconi near Porta Livorno in Italy. The
Hasakura Tunanaga Memorial Park is at the site of his

(34:52):
tomb in Osato, Japan, and a replica of the San
Juan Baptista was built at the port where the delegation
originally sets. These events are also dramatized in the nineteen
eighty novel The Samurai by Shushako Endo, which was translated
into English by Vancy Gessel two years later. While this

(35:12):
is a novel, it's grounded in as much historical fact
is as known about Hasakura and the delegation. This book
was also informed by Shushaku Indo's own experiences as a
Japanese person who was baptized at the age of eleven.
There's also a Japanese TV series about the Ten Show
Embassy called Magi The Ten Show Boys Embassy? Do you

(35:37):
also have listener mail for us? I do have listener mail. First,
I have a quick correction. This is from Christa Krista
wrote Hi, Tracy and Holly in Today's Six Impossible episodes.
You say George the Fourth was married to Catherine of Brunswick.
I think you meant Caroline of Brunswick. It's at thirty
two minutes and forty two seconds on my Apple podcast player.

(36:00):
I love six Impossible Episodes and I love your mother
Goo's serious best. Christa, Thank you so much, Christa. Indeed,
I did mean Caroline. This is not even a case
where it was right in the outline and the wrong
word came out of our mouths, which like that happens sometime.
The wrong word came out of my typing fingers into
the outline. So thank you for that correction about Caroline

(36:23):
of Brunswick. I also have an email from Catherine, and
this is about Outdoor Drama. Uh. And it's been a
bit since the episode came out where we talked about this,
but it feels like we're entering Outdoor Drama season. A
lot of that happens in the summer, for sure, so
I felt good about returning to it. Catherine. Note Hi,
Holly and Tracy. I've been a listener since the early days,

(36:46):
but I've continually been behind by a few weeks or months.
I'm systematically catching up and I just recently listened to
your Behind the Scenes episode where you were talking about
all the historical dramas in North Carolina and wondered if
those shows existed in other places or not They actually
do kind of. I'm currently a librarian at a performing
arts school in New York City, but my previous career

(37:07):
was in musical theater. One of my first jobs in
my professional theater career was with the historical outdoor drama
in Ohio. At the time, there were several shows of
that type in Ohio, Trumpet in the Land, Bluejacket, Johnny Appleseed,
and Tecumsa. When I was performing there in the early
two thousands, there were four outdoor dramas in Ohio. The

(37:28):
theater I worked at, Trumpet in the Land did two
historically based shows in repertoire with a more standard musical
and a children's show during the summer. The title musical
was written by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paul Green, who
also wrote The Lost Colony. The theater at Trumpet in
the Land is still running after more than fifty years
and has other shows in the outdoor amphitheater during the

(37:51):
non summer months. The other show that Catherine wrote about
is TECUMSA, which we talked about a couple of times
in those earlier listener mails. We talked about this, so
Catherine wrote, ta KEMPSA is celebrating their fiftieth anniversary this summer,
but after doing some initial slothing, it doesn't look like
the other two are around anymore. During my contract at Trumpet,

(38:11):
there was definitely some camaraderie between the casts, and we
each tried to go see the others productions at least
once during the summer. There was also a bit of
competition and rivalry going on with regards to which shows
had the best horsemanship, gunplay, and various other stunts and
special effects.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
I think the.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Early two thousands may have been the heyday of outdoor
drama because there used to be a specific audition for
it yes in North Carolina each spring, where actors could
audition once for representatives from theaters all around the country
that had outdoor performances, regardless of whether or not they
were historical. It looks like that standalone audition does not

(38:48):
exist anymore and is now part of the larger Southeast
Theater Conference SETC Auditions. However, it looks like there is
still an active National Conference on Outdoor Theater under the
satc umbrella. Hearing Tracy mentioned the Lost Colony immediately brought
back memories of friends I made doing other theater contracts
and how they used to rag about how it was

(39:11):
the first and best of all the outdoor historical plays
and they never would let anyone forget that Tony Award
winning costume designer William Ivy Long did the costumes there.
In the years since, there have been some allegations regarding
Long and some of his actions with some of his
college age costuming assistants, so that's not really something they
usually readily bring up now, but back in the day

(39:31):
it was all anyone talked about. Even though this is
almost a year later, I thought i'd provide some backstory
for an interesting topic that I happen to have some
personal experience with. I'm thankful I have the opportunity to
work out a job that confines two things. I love
libraries and performing arts. This way, even though I'm not
a professional singer slash dancer myself anymore, I still feel

(39:52):
connected to it. My undergraduates degrees were in musical theater
and ballet, so I always live hearing Holly's ballet memories
as they prod some of my own things. Thank you
for the fascinating topics. I learn love to learn about
new things as I'm walking outside or just taking me
time to relax, Catherine. Thank you so much for this email, Catherine.
In addition to talking about some outdoor drama stuff that

(40:13):
we did not talk about and listener mail from that
episode originally came out, this reminded me of my days
as a youth going to setc with my high school.
If you would like to send us a note about
this or any other podcast or history podcast at iHeartRadio
dot com, we're all over social media. Missed in History?

(40:36):
That's Rey'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, and
you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you like to get your podcasts. Stuff you
Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, apple pot Podcasts,

(41:00):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows

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