A map from 1707, showing Japan and (in the bottom right corner) commemorating his meeting with Tokugawa Ieyasu. Adams was asked why he had come so far. ‘I answered, We were a People that sought all friendship with all nations, and to have trade of merchandise in all countries, bringing such merchandises as our country had, and buying such merchandises in strange countries, as our country desired; through which our countries on both sides were enriched.’
THE Englishman soon became Ieyasu’s trusted confidant, and a tutor to his officials.* He was created a Samurai, named Miura Anjin, and granted an estate ‘like (he wrote) unto a Lordship in England.’ But to his lasting grief Will was forbidden to return home to his wife and two children. Ieyasu married him off instead to Oyuki, a well-to-do Japanese girl; they had two children, Joseph and Susanna.
In 1613, on Adams’s initiative, the British East India Company in Indonesia established a factory next to the Dutch on Hirado Island near Nagasaki. Both location and wares were ill-chosen, but the Company ignored Adams’s warnings; only his own trading ventures, to Siam and Cochinchina,* kept the struggling factory alive, and it folded three years after he died on May 16th, 1620, aged fifty-five. But Japan remembers Adams fondly; every August at the Miura Anjin Festival in Ito, fireworks crackle and taiko drummers play as glowing lanterns sail down the Matsukawa River to sea in his honour.
Based on Adams’s letters in ‘Hakluytus Posthumus Or Purchas His Pilgrimes’ Vol. 2, by Samuel Purchas. With acknowledgements to ‘Briton is Japanese tradition: Shizuoka town honors 17-century navigator William Adams’ in the Japan Times.
Adams became fluent in Japanese, and after the British established their factory on Hirado Island he did not seek out their society. On the other hand, he was able to use his influence at court to reconcile Ieyasu to the Spanish and Portuguese Jesuits in Japan, whose missionary activities had caused offence, thus (he remarks) ‘recompensing their evil unto me with good.’
That is, Thailand and southern Vietnam.
Précis
Adams built several ships, teaching Japanese shipwrights European techniques, and the grateful Emperor created him a samurai named Miura Anjin, binding him to live in Japan and take a wife. Some sneered that he had gone native (England’s first trading post there failed after his advice was scorned) but at Ito Adams is still honoured every year with a festival. (60 / 60 words)
Adams built several ships, teaching Japanese shipwrights European techniques, and the grateful Emperor created him a samurai named Miura Anjin, binding him to live in Japan and take a wife. Some sneered that he had gone native (England’s first trading post there failed after his advice was scorned) but at Ito Adams is still honoured every year with a festival.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, besides, just, may, not, otherwise, ought, whether.
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Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Married. South. Write.
2 Become. Pirate. Standing.
3 Break. Brother. Grant.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
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