A sculpture on the waterfront of the Japanese city of Ito, depicting ‘San Bueno Ventura’, the ship William Adams built for Tokugawa Ieyasu and which in 1610 embarked on a historic voyage to Acapulco in New Spain (Mexico). The occasion was the shipwreck of 317 Spanish mariners on the Japanese coast; Ieyasu lent them the ship, a considerable sum of money, and a crew that included twenty-two Japanese, believed to be the first to set foot in America. On her arrival, the Spanish authorities promptly impounded the ship in order to hobble Japan’s new maritime economy — but with Will Adams in Edo, it was too late for that.
Episode 1 of 2 in the Series
Japanese History
Introduction
At the end of the sixteenth century, the Dutch were Elizabeth I’s Protestant allies against Europe’s Catholic states and the cruel Inquisition. This made trade with South America and the Far East, where Spanish and Portuguese merchants were already established, a matter of bitter and bloody rivalry.
IN June 1598, Gillingham-born William Adams, a thirty-four-year-old veteran of victory over the Spanish Armada,* and an experienced mariner with Queen Elizabeth I’s Barbary Company, set out in a flotilla of five Dutch merchantmen for the Pacific coast of South America.
The journey was nightmarish: five ships left Holland, but after disease, storms and Spanish galleons, and angry natives in Ecuador, just two remained; they fled east, but only one reached Japan, landing at Usuki on April 19th, 1600. Barely seven crew were still standing.* Will’s brother Thomas was dead. And no sooner had they landed than the Portuguese in Edo called on Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan’s effective ruler, to crucify Adams as a pirate.*
Ieyasu, fortunately, insisted on speaking to him first. Adams’s credentials and his knowledge of shipbuilding and navigation impressed, and far from having Will executed he commissioned him to build at Ito Japan’s first European-style ships, and establish trade with the Dutch East Indies to break the Portuguese monopoly.
See The Spanish Armada. Adams was master of a supply ship, ‘Richarde Dyffylde’. On Elizabeth, the Dutch and the Catholic powers of Europe, see Asylum Christi.
Adams’s own phrase was ‘at which time there were no more than six besides my self, that could stand upon their feet,’ though in a separate letter to his wife in Kent he told her that ‘there were no more but five men of us able to go.’
Edo was the name for what is now Tokyo. The Tokugawa Shoguns (military dictators) ruled from 1603 to 1868, the Emperor having nominal authority but no more than a ceremonial function in practice. At this point, they had not yet instituted the policy of isolation (‘sakoku’, literally ‘closed country’) that from 1635 made the country all but vanish from the map, for over two centuries. It was a Scotsman who help break the ban: see Japan’s First Railway.
Précis
In 1598 English shipwright Will Adams left Holland in one of five ships bound for the Pacific coast of South America. Almost two years later, one battered ship limped into Japan, where Adams was immediately accused of piracy by the Portuguese. However, when the Emperor discovered Adams could design ships, he dismissed the charges and employed him instead. (58 / 60 words)
In 1598 English shipwright Will Adams left Holland in one of five ships bound for the Pacific coast of South America. Almost two years later, one battered ship limped into Japan, where Adams was immediately accused of piracy by the Portuguese. However, when the Emperor discovered Adams could design ships, he dismissed the charges and employed him instead.
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: because, despite, may, otherwise, ought, unless, whereas, whether.
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.
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