While researching my previous post on the history of Christianity in Ofunato, I learned of the San Juan Bautista Museum in Ishinomaki, which features a full-sized replica of the ship that Date Masamune, feudal lord of Sendai domain, sent on a diplomatic mission to Rome in 1613. The English-language literature offered more insight into the history of Christianity in this region.
The ship was originally named the Date Maru but was later rechristened the San Juan Bautista (Saint John the Baptist). The original ship was sold to the Spanish armada in the Philippines after the failed mission.
In November 1611, Date Masamune and an entourage of over 2,000 foot soldiers were on their way to a monastery in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) when they encountered the Spanish captain, Sebastián Vizcaíno, and his party. Masamune ordered his men to welcome Vizcaíno with two musket shots, which spooked their horses and ignited pandemonium, with riders and parcels getting thrown into the air. Instead of being upset by this, both Masamune and Vizcaíno reportedly broke into fits of laughter– they hit it off immediately, with Masamune offering to help Vizcaíno’s delegation and inviting them to Sendai.
Vizcaíno was impressed by Masamune’s hospitality, which he called the finest he had ever experienced in all of Japan. Masamune was apparently well-versed in Western ways; he was diplomatic, with a cosmopolitan perspective that may have been influenced by his previous encounters with European traders and missionaries in Kyoto and Kyushu.
Animatronic depiction of (l to r) Date Masamune meeting with the Jesuit missionary, Luis Sotelo, and Captain Sebastián Vizcaíno.
Masamune had been hoping to set up a trading port within his domain, so Vizcaíno’s arrival may have been just what he was looking for. He commissioned the Vizcaíno party to survey the Sanriku coast, providing whatever ships, supplies, and manpower the captain needed. The party traveled northwards from Sendai and reached Ofunato, where they found many harbors suitable for the task.
from freevectormaps.com
On December 2,1611, the Great Keicho Tsunami struck the region, destroying all settlements along the coast. Vizcaíno and his men survived, as their ship was far enough out at sea, off the coast of Otsukirai in Ofunato. They were taken in by families whose homes had escaped damage and learned firsthand of the hospitality and kindness of the people of this region.
The suspicion of foreigners that emerged in other parts of Japan seemed to be absent in the territories under Date Masamune. Vizcaíno’s party, which included the Jesuit missionary, Luis Sotelo, would even be approached by citizens and their children, asking for a blessing as the group walked the streets.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, as no detailed records of his motives exist, Masamune organized the Keicho Envoy Mission. He ordered the construction of a ship, the Date Maru AKA the San Juan Bautista, and appointed Vizcaíno as captain, Friar Luis Sotelo as senior envoy, and his retainer, Hasekura Tsunenaga, as deputy envoy. The mission was to deliver a letter that Masamune had written to the Pope, in the hopes of establishing trade with Mexico. The envoy departed for Mexico on October 28, 1613, and continued onward to Spain and Rome.
Construction of the vessel took around six months. The Sant Juan Bautista set sail from the port of Tsukinoura in October 1613, arriving in Acapulco, Mexico in January of 1614.Hasekura Tsunenaga served as the deputy envoy on the Keicho Mission. The senior envoy was Friar Luis Sotelo (on the right).
In his letter, Masamune stated that he would welcome more Christian missionaries to Sendai domain, and he appealed to the Pope to intercede with the King of Spain for his approval in establishing trade relations between Mexico and Sendai.
Masamune’s motives are unknown: some speculate that Masamune was seeking to profit from trade with Christian nations; others argue that Masamune may have been trying to lay the groundwork for becoming the emperor of Japan, shoring up support from overseas allies and possibly gaining access to more advanced European weapons technology in a bid to seize control of Japan from the Tokugawa shogunate.
A more recent theory posits that Masamune may have been trying to establish trade relations with Mexico in an effort to rebuild Sendai domain after its coastline had been devastated by the 1611 earthquake and tsunami.*
Mural depicting Luis Sotelo (in blue) and Hasekura Tsunenaga (in white) meeting with Pope Paul V, presenting a letter from Date Masamune.
When Tokugawa outlawed Christianity in Japan in 1614, less than a year after the Keicho Envoy Mission left, Masamune submitted to the shogun and commenced with the persecution of Christians in his domain, though he did not seem to pursue this in earnest, as evidenced by his leniency towards Christians such as Juan Goto and the history of hidden Christians in this region. (Both of these points were covered in the previous episode.)
The number of passengers on board the San Juan Bautista amounted to over 180, including some Japanese Christians. When they learned of the violent persecution that began in their homeland after their departure, seven Christian samurai declined to return to Japan and chose to remain in Spain, where, to this day, around 700 of their descendants can be found, bearing the surname Japón.
Hasekura Tsunenaga’s attempts to negotiate with the Pope and the King of Spain on behalf of Masamune were foiled because news of the persecution of Japanese Christians had hit Europe. The King refused to trade with Sendai because of this, along with the fact that Masamune had not been baptized, and the Pope, who had initially expressed joy at Masamune’s invitation to send more missionaries to Sendai, became more ambiguous on the matter when he learned that Masamune would not formally become a Christian.
Masamune could have garnered the support of both the Pope and the kingdom of Hispania had he elected to be baptized, but he did not, though his retainer, Tsunenaga, was baptized in the presence of the King, and Masamune’s own wife and daughter are also said to have been baptized. There are reports that Date Masamune himself could be seen wearing a white robe and a cross while at his private residence with his wife, but never out in public.
Masamune’s loyalty to Tokugawa would seem to have outweighed any desire to secure wealth, political allies, and access to weaponry via a strategic alliance with Christian kingdoms, but at the same time, he did not appear to fully support Tokugawa’s harsh crackdown on Christians in Japan. According to one brochure obtained at the museum, “there is a view that relations between Masamune, who accepted Christianity, and the shogunate were unstable because of the ban (on Christianity).”
When Tsunenaga returned to Japan after seven years of unsuccessful negotiations, he is rumored to have been ordered to renounce Christianity by Masamune, but no records exist of such an encounter. (If Masamune did indeed ask this of Tsunenaga, it is not implausible that he made a proposal similar to the one he offered Juan Goto.) Tsunenaga died of an unspecified illness only two years after returning to Japan.
Tsunenaga’s two sons, Tsuneyori and Tsunemichi, along with their followers, were later beheaded for being guilty by association of being Christian. The Tsunenaga family status was revoked, but later restored to Tsuneyori’s children.
Hasekura Tsunenaga was baptized into the Catholic Church and took the name Felix. He spent seven years attempting to negotiate on behalf of Date Masamune. His mission ended in disappointment.
We may never know what Date Masamune’s true motives may have been, but I find all of this fascinating because it supports the theory first brought up by two of my tai chi students: that the harbors of Ofunato may have been used to smuggle imported goods from Nagasaki, the only port allowed to remain open to international trade under Tokugawa’s isolationist policies, and might also have served as a safe haven for hidden Christians who were fleeing persecution elsewhere in Japan.
I now know for a fact that Sebastián Vizcaíno had surveyed the Sanriku coast on behalf of the Christian-friendly feudal lord, Date Masamune, and found harbors suitable for trading ports in Ofunato. I also know that Vizcaíno spent time living with tsunami survivors in what is now Ofunato, and that the people there were not shy about asking for a blessing from the Christian visitors in their midst.
I believe that God has been working in Ofunato for centuries, and that greater things are yet to come for this beautiful city and its beautiful people. The words of Scipione Amati, interpreter for Hasekura Tsunenaga and the Keicho Envoy Mission, still ring true today:
“The people of Sendai (domain) are all hardworking and gentle. And they behave honestly when the other party has such a personality. On the other hand, they show no leniency when they find that the other party is malicious or treacherous. They are sincere. They place courtesy above all else.”
Bust of Date Masamune, feudal lord of Sendai Domain, whose manner, according to Sebastian Vizcaino, “surpasses manners found in all countries of the world.”
