Anjin - The Life and Times of Samurai William Adams, 1564-1620
eBook - ePub

Anjin - The Life and Times of Samurai William Adams, 1564-1620

A Japanese Perspective

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Anjin - The Life and Times of Samurai William Adams, 1564-1620

A Japanese Perspective

About this book

The year is 1600. It is April and Japan's iconic cherry trees are in full flower. A battered ship drifts on the tide into Usuki Bay in southern Japan. On board, barely able to stand, are twenty-three Dutchmen and one Englishman, the remnants of a fleet of five ships and 500 men that had set out from Rotterdam in 1598. The Englishman was William Adams, later to be known as Anjin Miura by the Japanese, whose subsequent transformation from wretched prisoner to one of the Shogun's closest advisers is the centrepiece of this book. As a native of Japan, and a scholar of seventeenth-century Japanese history, the author delves deep into the cultural context facing Adams in what is one of the great examples of assimilation into the highest reaches of a foreign culture. Her access to Japanese sources, including contemporary accounts – some not previously seen by Western scholars researching the subject – offers us a fuller understanding of the life lived by William Adams as a high-ranking samurai and his grandstand view of the collision of cultures that led to Japan's self-imposed isolation, lasting over two centuries. This is a highly readable account of Adams' voyage to and twenty years in Japan and that is supported by detailed observations of Japanese culture and society at this time. New light is shed on Adams' relations with the Dutch and his countrymen, including the disastrous relationship with Captain John Saris, the key role likely to have been played by the munitions, including cannon, removed from Adams' ship De Liefde in the great battle of Sekigahara (September 1600), the shipbuilding skills that enabled Japan to advance its international maritime ambitions, as well as the scientific and technical support Adams was able to provide in the refining process of Japan's gold and silver.

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Yes, you can access Anjin - The Life and Times of Samurai William Adams, 1564-1620 by Hiromi Rogers in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2025
eBook ISBN
9781040791738
Topic
History
Index
History

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Half Title Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. Acknowledgements
  8. List of Illustrations
  9. Prologue
  10. 1 The Lure of the East
  11. 2 A Punishing Passage
  12. 3 Life or Death
  13. 4 The Shogun Decides
  14. 5 The Battle of Sekigahara
  15. 6 The Shogun's Adviser
  16. 7 An Exceptional Honour
  17. 8 Samurai Life and Nuptials
  18. 9 The Battle for Naval Supremacy
  19. 10 Trade with the Dutch
  20. 11 A Toehold for the Spanish
  21. 12 Betrayed
  22. 13 A Welcome for the English
  23. 14 An Agonizing Decision
  24. 15 A Political Earthquake
  25. 16 Private Disgrace and Company Debt
  26. 17 War and Death
  27. 18 Epilogue
  28. Afterword
  29. Bibliography
  30. Index