Across the Pacific to Rome — Date Masamune's Keicho Embassy to Europe
In 1613, Date Masamune sent his retainer Hasekura Tsunenaga across the Pacific and Atlantic to Spain and Rome — the grand Keicho Embassy to Europe. It revealed Masamune's global vision on the eve of Japan's isolation.
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In 1613, Date Masamune sent retainer Hasekura Tsunenaga across the Pacific and Atlantic to Spain and Rome aboard a domestically built galleon, seeking direct trade with Spain. Tsunenaga met King Philip III and Pope Paul V — the first Japanese to be received by a pope. But as Japan’s Christian persecution intensified, no trade pact resulted. Tsunenaga returned in disappointment in 1620, yet the embassy stands as proof of Japan reaching for the world on the eve of isolation.
Portrait of Date Masamune — the visionary who sent an embassy across the Pacific to Rome, directing the Keicho Embassy to Europe
Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Sendai Castle — the seat of Masamune, who dispatched the Keicho Embassy; the Sendai domain had an international outlook even then
Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
Sendai city — Masamune's international ambition became part of the foundation for Sendai's growth as a cosmopolitan city