Japan at the turn of the 17th century was a mysterious land. The enigmatic lords of
this Empire allowed very few foreigners into their domain, only out of necessity, and even
then, with begrudging disdain. This makes it all the more remarkable to look upon the
stories of great individuals from foreign lands who defied the odds, became favoured
friends to the Great Daimyos of Japan, and shaped the history of the Land of the Rising
sun. In our last video, we talked about Yasuke, a man from Africa who became a trusted warrior
for Oda Nobunaga. In this video we will tell the tale of William Adams, and explain how
an intrepid English navigator gained the rank of Samurai, becoming an invaluable asset to
Japan’s greatest Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu.
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William Adams was born in the town of Gillingham, in the county of Kent in England, into a family
of wealthy means, and lived his early childhood in relative comfort. This changed at the age
of 12, when his father died. In order for his family to make ends meet, young William
was apprenticed to the Shipyard master Nicholas Diggins to learn the seafaring trade. Adams
spent the next decades under the strict tutelage of his master, learning to build ships, navigate
open oceans, and read the stars. At times, Adams proved to be a rebellious pupil, but
a shrewd and fast learning one. In 1588 a Catholic Armada of Spain had come
to the shores of England with the intent to subdue the Protestant Britons and depose their
Queen, Elizabeth I. By this time, Adams was 24 years old and as strong a pilot as anyone.
He served in the fleet of the daring Sir Francis Drake, captaining a supply ship amidst the
smoke and chaos of battle, defending his island home.
By the time Adams reached his 30s he was a master of the seas, and sought to make his
fortune. Allured by the prospect of riches in the Orient, William travelled to the Netherlands,
along with his brother Thomas, and signed on with a Dutch corporate merchant fleet.
The Dutch and the English were allies; both wished to dismantle the Maritime Empires of
Portugal and Spain, so they could take their place as masters of the oceans.
The company’s mission was to use a stolen Portuguese sea-chart and sail through the
pass of Magellan to the west coast of South America, plundering any Spanish and Portuguese
possessions on the way. They would trade with the locals for silver, returning back with
spices from the East. So, in June of 1598, Adam’s fleet of five merchant warships set
out from the Netherlands. The fleet first made its way southward, down
the west coast of Africa. There, a fierce storm separated two of the ships from the
main fleet, not to be seen again. The rest managed to continue across the Atlantic, and
made it through Magellan’s pass. By the time they reached the Ecuadorian coast, a
third vessel had been blown off course and lost.
Only two vessels remained now: Hoope, and Liefde, which Adams piloted. Trade in the
new world went poorly. The crew did not endear themselves to the locals, and were attacked.
Twenty sailors were killed, including William’s brother, Thomas. The survivors fled back to
their ships. The loss of his brother was hard on Adams,
but the stoic pilot was not one to give up on his mission. Realizing that their hope
for survival in the New World was slim, the Englishman convinced his remaining Dutch compatriots
to go west, to Japan. And so, they began the great crossing.
The journey across the Pacific Ocean was long and treacherous. At some point, Adam’s journal
states their ships made landfall on a chain of tropical Islands, which was most likely
Hawai’i. According to him, eight sailors deserted on these Islands, but were captured
and eaten by the natives. The rest of them sailed on. In February, a typhoon sunk the
Hoope, damning all aboard to a watery grave. The crewmen of the Liefde were exhausted and
afflicted with scurvy. One poor soul was so deranged that during a storm, he attempted
to fire the ship’s powder magazine, to put them all out of their misery. This attempt
was foiled by Adams, who berated his crew for their cowardice.
After a two-year voyage, the Liefde made landfall in eastern Kyushu, in southern Japan, in April
of 1600. Of five ships, only one remained. Of over 500 crewmen, only 23 survived, among
them only 9 strong enough to stand, one of which was Adams. At great cost of human lives
and spirit, he had made it, and was the first Englishman to reach Japan.
At the time of Adam’s arrival, Japan was in a state of a fragile, delicate peace. Back
in 1587, Japan was unified under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi began life as a lowborn,
thus could not be Shogun, so he became the Kwampaku - Imperial Regent. For a time, there
was stability, until Hideyoshi died in the year 1598.
The Kwampaku mandated that his young son be his only true heir. However, he appointed
a council of five most influential Daimyo to rule until his son was of age. It was clear
that tensions between the Regents would soon escalate into war, for they did not trust
one another, and all desired greater power. Of all five, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Lord of Edo,
was the most powerful, and he was ready to strike.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese had had a presence in Japan for decades. Based in their trading
port of Nagasaki, they had made a fortune as intermediaries in the silk trade between
Japan and China. Among them was the Society of Jesus, known also as the Jesuits. Where
Portuguese traders went, they followed, spreading the Catholic message. Portugal's crucial role
in the silk trade meant that the lords of Japan were forced to tolerate this foreign
religion spreading amongst its people, but with Adams’ arrival, this was soon to change.
William Adams and his nine fit crewmembers first disembarked at a village called Bungo.
They were given charity there by the local townsfolk, and fed food and sake. The Lord
of Bungo, a minor Daimyo, soon arrived in the village, with an interpreter in tow- a
Jesuit Priest, who was naturally dismayed to see his English and Dutch enemies on Japanese
soil. The Priest implored the Daimyo to have Adams executed for piracy. Adams rebuked the
priest, resulting in a bout of hostilities that was put down by the Japanese lord, who
then had Adams detained. Soon, news spread far and wide of the arrival
of strange barbarians with golden hair and blue eyes, who came from the Eastern sea.
These were not the dark-haired Portuguese that they were used to; in fact they and the
Portuguese seemed to hate one another. Word inevitably reached Tokugawa Ieyasu, who immediately
realized the value of these foreigners, and requested that they be sent to him.
Adams and his crew were escorted up the Japanese coastline and into the harbour of Osaka. The
Englishmen marveled at the splendor and scale of this thriving city, a metropolis that dwarfed
the cities of Christendom. Upon arrival, they were kept imprisoned within Osaka castle,
for Ieyasu wanted these peculiar foreigners safe, and out of the clutches of his rivals,
who surely would also try to exploit them for valuable information.
In May of 1600, Adams was brought before Tokugawa Ieyasu, and this meeting changed Adams’
life forever. Through a Portuguese interpreter, the Daimyo pressed the Englishman hard for
information on the outside world. Adams’ taught Ieyasu of his country, as well as the
wars it was embroiled in with Portugal and Spain. When asked of religion, Adams declared
himself a follower of God, who created Heaven and Earth. Here Ieyasu learned of Protestantism,
and realized there were Europeans hostile to the Pope in Rome, which the Jesuits had
told him was the ultimate, and only, Christian authority.
Adams met Ieyasu several more times between May and August of 1600, impressing him with
his knowledge of mathematics, navigation and shipbuilding. The more the Daimyo spoke to
the Englishman, the more he realized that Adams may be the key to smashing the Portuguese
monopoly upon Japan, and getting rid of Christianity’s troubling influence for good.
Two months later, tensions between Ieyasu and his rivals came to a boil, and culminated
in the great battle of Sekigahara, where Ieyasu destroyed his rival, Ishida Mitsunari. European
sources claim that Ieyasu employed the use of the muskets and bronze cannons found aboard
the Liefde to break the enemy ranks. In his victory, Ieyasu destroyed the last semblance
of support for the Kwampaku’s heir. The Tokugawa clan was now the sole power, and
Ieyasu assumed a title that had not been used in 30 years- Shogun - a title that would pass
through his descendants for 250 years. As he was now Shogun of all Japan, Tokugawa
Ieyasu returned his attentions to William Adams. Adams wanted to return home to England,
for he had a wife and child there, but Ieyasu refused to allow him to leave Japanese shores,
as he was simply too valuable. The Shogun needed the Englishman’s loyalty, and thus
gave him the status of Samurai. Adams was bestowed the rank of Hatamoto, a high-prestige
bannerman. He was given two ceremonial katanas, eighty loyal servants, and his own fief: a
plot of land in the Miura Peninsula, said to encompass 100 farms.
Adams served the Shogun well. From 1604, he helped construct Japan’s first western-style
warships - an 80 pounder and a 120 pounder vessel. The English navigator became Ieyasu’s
chief advisor on all things Western, and replaced the Jesuit Priests as the Shogun’s official
interpreter. To the Japanese, Adams became known as Miura
Anjin: The pilot from Miura. He became an invaluable asset. Wanting to ensure that Adams
would never leave, Ieyasu officially declared: “William Adams is dead! The Samurai Miura
Anjin is born!” And so, the Pilot began a new life, taking a Japanese wife named Oyuki,
and creating a new family with her. In 1609, Adams negotiated on behalf of the
Dutch East India Company to set up the first Dutch trading factory in Japan, helping to
break the Portuguese monopoly and remove the Shogun’s dependence on them. Ieyasu preferred
the Dutch, for they divorced religion and trade, and did not try to convert the Japanese
like the Portuguese did. In 1614, Ieyasu banished all Portuguese Jesuits from Japan, and ordered
all Catholics in his country to abandon their faith. This decision was made upon Adams’
direct counsel; the Englishman had finally managed to expel his enemies from his new
homeland. Adams died in the year 1620, survived by his
families in England and Japan, both receiving a share of his wealth in his will. In 1633,
the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Iemitsu, closed the borders of Japan to all foreigners.
Only the Dutch were permitted to trade at the port of Dejima largely due to Adam’s
earlier efforts. There is no telling what may have happened
if William Adams and his crew of Dutchmen never landed on Japanese shores. It’s possible
that the Portuguese trade monopoly may never have been broken, and that the Catholic faith
may have spread further and deeper into Japanese territory. It is possible the Tokugawa Shogunate
may never have closed the country. Either way, the story of William Adams has
a lasting legacy in the modern era. In the west, his story was made popular by the author
James Clavell, who wrote a fictionalized version of his tale in a book titled Shogun. In the
east, a version of Adams is the main character in Team Ninja’s triple-A franchise: Nioh.
The brave English adventurer who landed in Japan as a fish out of water, and died there
as a noble lord, is a tale that will endure for years to come.
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