photo #2067073

Foreign Samurai, Miura Anjin, (William Adams) died on This Day, May 16, 1620.Having lived in Japan for 20 years, and serving Tokugawa Ieyasu as an advisor and interpreter, William Adams died while on a business related visit to Hirado, north of Nagasaki on May 16, 1620, aged 55. He was buried in Nagasaki, where his grave marker remains. Within ten years, only two of Adams's shipmates from 1600 remained in Japan. Melchior van Santvoort (D. 1641) and Vincent Romeyn lived in Nagasaki, until being expelled along with all foreigners from Japan in 1639, by orders of the Shogun.William Adams was the Pilot-Major of the Liefde, a Dutch ship of 300 tons with a crew of 110 that arrived in Japan in April of 1600. The Liefde was one of five ships that had set out two years earlier in the hopes of reaching Japan to commence trading. Only Adams' ship reached the shores of Japan. Adams, who was to spend the rest of his life in Japan, was treated as personal advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu in a number of matters. Ieyasu took a liking to Adams due to his intelligence and understanding of mathmatics and nautical engineering. Although Adams had a wife and children in England, Ieyasu forbade him to leave Japan. Instead, Adams became an advisor on western issues and later became the shogun’s official interpreter. In return for his loyalty, Ieyasu granted many privileges.Adams was provided with the two swords of the samurai, an exalted position as a direct retainer, or Hatamoto (bannerman) and an estate valued at 250 koku (One koku was defined as the amount of rice sufficient to feed one person for one year) with a staff of over 80. In doing so, the Shogun Ieyasu announced that the Englishman, William Adams, was dead, and Miura Anjin, (三浦按針) a samurai, was born.Following his death, Adams' son, Joseph, kept the title of Miura Anjin, as confirmed by the second shogun, Hidetada, and continued to engage in trade until Japan banned foreign trading in 1635, after which he and his sister disappeared from historical records.