Immortalised as
John Blackthorne in
James Clavell's
Shogun, William Adams is the intrepid explorer who caused a cultural
revolution in
Japan, was the first westerner to be accepted by
Japanese society, and, most impressively, is the only white man to ever be made samurai.
William Adams was born in the English county of
Kent on September 24, 1564. Adams father passed away of ill health when Adams was a child of 12, who then got apprenticed to Master
Shipwright and
Pilot Nicholas Diggins at
Limehouse. Adams spent the next 12 years of his life learning shipbuilding,
navigation, and, essential for plying the seas at the time,
astronomy.
He served in the
Royal Navy with
Sir Francis Drake for a period of time, before leaving the service to become a Pilot for the merchant company
Barbary Traders. During his time as Pilot Major, he took part in a 2 year expedition to the arctic circle, trying to find a Northern Passage along the coast of Siberia to the Far East. The expedition was unsuccessful.
In 1598, Adams, then 34, went to
Holland and was chosen as Pilot Major for a five-ship expedition to the Far East.
William Adams led the fleet out of Rotterdam in June, 1598 on the flagship
De Hoop. During the then perilous voyage, which led the fleet via the west coast of
Africa, across to the east coast of South America, through the
Magellan Straits, and up the coastline of Chile, they were scattered and the majority of the fleet was lost. The Pilot Major changed ships, moving from De Hoop to to the
De Liefde (originally called
Erasmus, which is the name of Pilot Major Blackthorne's ship in
Shogun) and waited for the remainder of the
fleet at Santa Maria Island. The only ship that arrived was Adams' previous posting, the
De Hoop. It was in the later stages of November, 1599, when the two remaining ships set sail westward for the mythical region of the Japans. The ship De Hoop was claimed by a sudden typhoon in February, 1600. Meanwhile, the crew of the De Liefde were slowly succumbing to
scurvy and other
mal-nutrition related diseases common for
sailors at the time.
The
De Liefde sighted land in April, 1600, and made landfall 2 days later at Bungo, now
Usaki City. Only 9 of the remaining 24 crewmembers could actually stand, and they were all soon taken in custody after claims by Portuguese
Missionaries, the only western influence in Japan at the time, that they were
pirates and the vessel was seized. They were imprisoned in
Osaka Castle under orders of the present Shogun,
Tokugawa Ieyasu (the basis for the character of
Toranaga in Clavell's novel).
However, Ieyasu began having
conversations with Adams, whom the Japanese dubbed Anjin-san (Honourable Pilot). Through the course of their discussions, Adams informed Ieyasu about modern warfare, weapons and seafaring, intriguing him greatly. Eventually, William Adams was made a revered diplomatic and trade
advisor and gave him many privileges of the Empire that were denied Westerners. In 1604, Ieyasu asked Adams to build an 80-ton ship with his sea-faring knowledge, in Western style, at
Ito. This was completed to Ieyasu's delight, who then ordered Adams to build a 120-ton vessel.
Tokugawa Ieyasu's
gratitude for Adams' service was such that he gave him incredibly generous
rewards, including a large house in the new capital of
Edo and 20 servants. However, the best was yet to come. Adams received two swords, the badge of rank for
samurai, and was dubbed
Hatamoto, one of the highest ranks a samurai could achieve. Adams is the first and only Westerner to achieve this.
The sword and companion sword,
katana and
wakizashi, not only transformed Adams into samurai, he was reborn, and renamed
Miura Anjin. Ieyasu was not yet done, granting Anjin a sizeable fief at Hemi, near present-day
Yokosuka. He granted Anjin a sizeable stipend salary, and the means to marry Oyuki, by all accounts a beautiful woman, the daughter of Magome Kageyu, a noble samurai and official of
Edo Castle, which stood in present day
Tokyo.
Anjin and Oyuki made their home in Hemi, having two
children, Joseph and Sussanna. Adams, however, found it difficult to stay in one place long, and was soon roaming the countryside. In vain, he tried to organise an expedition to the Northern Passage that so eluded him more than a decade ago. The idea never got into the planning stages. He helped the
Dutch East India Company set up a trading mission in the predominantly Portuguese port of
Nagasaki, who soon established a monopoly. Under contract from the East India company, Adams sailed to
Indochina,
Thailand, and
Okinawa.
William Adams, now Miura Anjin, died happily of old age at Hirado, north of Nagasaki, on May 16, 1620. He was 56. Adams had a wife and children in
England, but Ieyasu had forbidden the Englishman to leave Japan. In a true stroke of wisdom, the Shogun decreed that William Adams was dead and that Miura Anjin, a samurai, was born. This made Anjin's wife in England, in effect, a
widow, and "freed" Anjin to serve him on a permanent basis. Also, only as a samurai, was he eligible to marry a samurai's daughter. It's said that by the end of his life, he had no desire to return to England, his home.
Adams surely had the greatest impact on
feudal Japan, opening their eyes fully to the outside world, which, in turn, led to their near-
xenophobic attitude to outsiders, and, eventually, the chilling, near revolutionary battle cry of "
Sonno joi" ('Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarian') more than 200 years later.
Expanded upon from the writings at http://hsv.com/writers/jeffog/wa-hist.htm, and various other sources.