Arai Hakuseki
The next year, in 1709, he was taken to Edo and questioned directly by Japanese politician and Confucian scholar Arai Hakuseki. Hakuseki was impressed by Sidotti's demeanor and his level of scholarship, and developed a great deal of respect for him. The feeling was mutual, and Sidotti grew to trust Arai. Here, for the first time since the beginning of "sakoku" in the previous century, was a meeting between two great scholars from the civilizations of Japan and western Europe. Among other things, Sidotti explained to Hakuseki that, contrary to what the Japanese believed at that time, Western missionaries were not the vanguards of Western armies.