Yamada Nagamasa
Yamada Nagamasa ( Japanese山 田長政Yamada Nagamasa , * 1590 in Numazu ; † 1630 ) was a Japanese adventurer who gained considerable influence in Siam ( Thailand ) at the beginning of the 17th century and was the ruler of the Nakhon Si Thammarat province in southern Thailand. He is said to have been the standard-bearer of the ruler of Numazu. He was involved in trading activities with Southeast Asia at the time of the Red Seal ships and settled in the Kingdom of Ayutthaya (now Thailand) from around 1612 .
Japanese settlement in Ayutthaya
Yamada Nagamasa lived in the Japanese quarter of the city of Ayutthaya , home to another 1,500 Japanese (some estimates put as high as 7,000).
The community was granted a kind of enclave outside the city, which was called "Ban Yipun" in Thai. Here they were able to settle under the direction of a Japanese chief appointed by the Thai authorities. The foundation walls of the "Muban Yipun" ( Thai : หมู่บ้าน ญี่ปุ่น ; Muban - roughly: village community, Yipun - Japanese) are still today on the eastern bank of the Mae Nam Chao Phraya ( Chao Phraya River ), south of the Buddhist temple Wat Phanan Choeng zu see. The Japanese themselves called their place "Nihonmachi" (Japan city).
The community appears to have been a combination of traders, Christian converts who fled Japan after persecution by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu , and unemployed former samurai ( rōnin ) who were on the losing side of the Battle of Sekigahara .
“From the years of the Gen'na era (1615–1624) through the years of Kan'ei (1624–1644), the ronin, or warriors, went to rule their masters after the defeat in the Battle of Osaka (1614–1615) or earlier in the battle of Sekigahara (1600), like the defeated Christians of the Shimabara uprising in large numbers to Siam to settle there ” (Senrakoku Fudo-gunki, 17th century, quoted by Uchida Ginzo).
The Christian community appears to be in the hundreds, as described by Father Antonio Francisco Cardim. He reports that he donated the sacraments to around 400 Japanese Christians in Ayuthara in 1627.
The colony was actively involved in trade, especially in the export of deer hides and sappan wood to Japan in exchange for Japanese silver and Japanese handicrafts (swords, lacquered boxes, high-quality paper). They questioned the trade monopoly of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), as their strong position with the king allowed them to buy at least 50 percent of the total production and only leave smaller quantities of inferior quality to the other traders.
Military role and rule
The Japanese colony was highly valued for its military expertise and was organized by the Thai king under a "Japanese Volunteer Division" ( Krom Asa Yipun ). Over a period of 15 years, Yamada Nagamasa rose from the low Thai nobility rank of khun to the high rank of okya . His title was Okya Senaphimuk . He became the head of the Japanese colony and in this position he supported the campaigns of King Songtham - at the head of a Japanese army under the Japanese flag. He fought successfully and was finally appointed lord of Ligor (now Nakhon Si Thammarat ) on the southern peninsula and over 300 samurai in 1630 .
Travel between Siam and Japan
After twelve more years in Siam, Yamada Nagamasa traveled aboard one of his ships to Japan in 1624, where he sold a load of Siamese deer hides in Nagasaki . He stayed in Japan for three years trying to get a Red Seal license . He left Japan with simple foreign ship status in 1627.
In 1626 Nagamasa donated the picture of one of his warships to a temple in his hometown of Shizuoka. The painting was lost in a fire, but a copy still exists today (see right). It is a ship with western rigging, 18 cannons and sailors in samurai equipment. In 1627 Yamada returned to Japan.
In 1628 one of his ships carrying a cargo of rice from Ayutthaya to Malacca was arrested by a Dutch warship blocking the port. However, the ship was immediately released when its owner became known. The Dutch knew that the King of Siam held Yamada in great respect and they did not want a diplomatic conflict. Yamada was also valued by the Dutch as a supplier of deer hides, and they invited him to step up trade with Batavia .
In 1629 Yamada Nagamasa visited Japan with an embassy from the Thai King Songtham . He soon returned to Siam and was embroiled in a war of succession after the death of King Songtham. He was wounded in battle in 1630 and apparently died of poisoning from the wound.
End of relations between Siam and Japan
After Yamada's death, the usurper and new ruler of Siam, Prasat Thong (1630–1655), sent an army of 4,000 soldiers to destroy the Japanese settlement in Ayutthaya, but many Japanese managed to escape to Cambodia . Three years later, returnees from Indochina were able to rebuild the Japanese settlement in Ayutthaya with 300 to 400 Japanese. From 1634 to the shogun refused after he was informed of these facts - which he saw as an attack on his authority - additional licenses for Red Seal ships for travel to Siam.
The King of Siam, interested in resuming trade, sent a merchant ship and an embassy to Japan in 1636. However, the envoys were rejected by the Shogun, which ended direct relations between Japan and Siam. During this time, Japan increasingly began to close itself off from the outside world, which resulted in the time of the "closed country" ( Sakoku ). From now on the Dutch took over the lucrative trade between Siam and Japan.
Nagamasa is now buried in his hometown in the Otani area. The remains of the Japanese quarter in Ayutthuya are still visible to visitors today, as is a statue of Yamada in Siamese military uniform.
Individual evidence
- ^ Polenghi, Cesare: The Japanese in Ayutthaya in the First Half of the 17th Century. 2004. See http://www.samurai-archives.com/jia.html (last accessed September 23, 2009).
- ↑ Ishii Yoneo, Multi-cultural Japan
- ^ Reports from the castle of Batavia, March 1, 1628
See also
literature
- 永 積 洋子: 朱 印 船 . (Nagazumi Yoko: Red seal ships .) ISBN 4642066594
- Satow, Ernest Mason ; Terasaki Son [寺 崎 遜; Ex.]; 山 田長政 事蹟 合 考 [ Yamada Nagamasa jiseki gakkō ]; Tokyo 1896 (宮内 省)
- Donald Denoon, Mark Hudson, Gavan McCormack, Tessa Morris-Suzuki (Eds.): Multicultural Japan. Palaeolithic to Postmodern . Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-00362-8
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Yamada Nagamasa |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese adventurer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1590 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Numazu |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1630 |