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YOMIT]RISUNDAY,THE DAITYBOOKSThe earliest Iopan-LJ.K. ties

Adams, who clearly had an aptitude for lan-By Vicki Beyerguages, learned to speak Japanese and hence became an information source for Ieyasu. He also built
sorne trading ships, using the Liefde as a model.
Ieyasu recognizedAdams' skills and importanceto him by rnaking him a samurai and giving him anestate on Miura Peninsula.

Special to The Daily Yomiuri

n a hill overlooking Yokosuka Harbor onMiura Peninsula, a short walk fromAnjintsuka (Anjin's Grave) Station, is agrave marked "Miura no Aniin and wife." InHirado, or a small island off the northwest coast ofKyushu, on a hill that would have a fine view of
Hirado Harbor were it not for a small woods, is agrave marked "William Adams." Nearby is a bit ofstone cut from the gravestone of his wife, Mary,
who is buried in England.
Miura no Anjin is the Japanese name of WilliamAdams. One man, two graves, two wives. Sounds

like an interesting story.

I picked up Samurai WiLIiam thinking that itwould fill in some of the blanks in my knowledge ofWill Adams, better known to most Westerners as
Blackthorne, the shipwrecked pilot of the James
Clavell novel Shogun.
Alas , Sa,murai William is not a book about Will
Adams, although it basically ends with his death.

Rather, it is a well-written book which pulls together the stories of several fascinating and simi-

larly situated men and offers some explanations of
the environment, &t home and in Japan, thatshaped their lives.
The bulk of the book deals with English attempts to trade in the Orient and with the trialsand tribulations of the first English trading post inJapan, which was established by Capt. John Sarisin Hirado in 1613, and headed by Richard Cocks
until it closed in 1623, shortly after Adams' death.
Adams' role in the life of that trading post is described, but it is not the main subject of the book.
Adaffis, an Englishman, arrived in Japan in 1600

aboard the Dutch ship Liefde with 23 fellow

mariners. Milton sets the stage for Adams' journey
and arrival in Japan by first relating the story ofPortuguese traders who had been shipwrecked inJapan inl544 and since that time had been actively lrading and spreading Christianity.
Milton then tells the story of a failed English attempt to reach China by sailing north in the 1580s,
so we can appreciate why Adams' fleet chose thecourse it did across the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Finally, w€ get the story of Adams' 20-month voyage to Japan.

It was a disastrous trip. This makes for very

good reading as we learn how miscalculations andhostile natives resulted in insufficient provisions,
illness and death. Spanish and Portuguese competition, as well as storms in the Pacific-which had
only been first crossed by Europeans in Adams'
lifetime-claimed the Liefde's four sister ships. It
was a severely crippled Liefde that drifted toJapanese shores.

It could be said that Adams was a very lucky
man. He managed to survive a horrific voyage andarrived in Japan at .an opportune time, just as
Tokugawa Ieyasu was making his move to become
the ruler of all of Japan. Ieyasu and Adams somehow managed to hit it off.
Ieyasu saw that Adams could be of use, as Ieyasu. wanted to engage in overseas trade and learn about

the rest of the world but did not trust thePortuguese missionaries who were his primarypoint of contact up to Adams' arrival

Although Adams felt that he could not leave
Japan, he did manage, eventually, to write toagents of the East India Company in Indonesia urging them to try their luck trading in Japan. When
this message reached the directors in London, theyauthorrzeda voyage to Japan to establish a trading
house.
The Engtishmen who made the trip were shocked
when they met Adams. He spoke, dressed and acted

Japanese, and was clearly distressed by the crude
behavior of the English. Nonetheless, his loyalty to
his compatriots compelled him to help them meet
Ieyasu and eventually gain trading privileges.
Milton's descriptions of Adams' horror atvarious
acts by the English will be familiar to any foreigner long resident in Japan who tries to help newcomers adjust to life here.
The English traders seemed, in many instances,
to be completely unable to understand Japanese
ways and, more surprisingly for traders, also
seemed unable to understand the types of goods
the Japanese might want to purchase from them.
Although the English traders learned to live quitecomforfably in Japan, it is no surprise that the trading house failed in less than a decade.
Uttimately, Japanese politics forced the closureof the trading house, but it'is unlikely that it could
have survived for very long without Adams there

to act as a bridge between the English and theJapanese. The culture gap was simply too wide.
BeEer i,s an attorneg who works in Tokgo.