The Sakoku Edicts and the Politics of Tokugawa Hegemony By Micha ...

more exotic climes. The most famous account was by Jan Huygen van Linschoten, who (upon returning to the Netherlands) wrote about his time in the Indies in a work entitled Itinerario. Although he did not visit Japan personally, he included a somewhat hyperbolic account of the great store of precious metals obtained by the Portuguese in trade with Japan.²³ Therefore, it is understandable that the Dutch would be enthusiastic about breaking into this lucrative trade.

A fleet of five Dutch ships sailed out of Rotterdam in 1598 but almost immediately encountered difficulty. Space precludes a narrative of the voyage itself, but suffice it to say that after a disastrous journey, only De Liefde limped into harbor in the province of Bungo on the island of Kyushu.²⁴ Adams was one of only about nine people able to walk off the ship on their own power. They were immediately taken to the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu, who took a great interest in the Europeans generally, and Adams in particular. (Adams would later attain great honors in Ieyasu's service.) Adams and his Dutch companions faced a rather precarious situation in Japan, as the Portuguese were not eager to have any European competition that might jeopardize their virtual monopoly on European trade in Japan. Therefore, the Jesuits—who were well educated in the Japanese language—did their best to slander Adams and the rest of the crew, charging them with all manner of crimes. The tension was, of course, all the greater because the Dutch were at war with the Spanish and Portuguese, and one of the primary objectives of the Dutch in the East Indies was to capture as many Portuguese forts and ships as possible.²⁵

Furthermore, the political situation in Japan was extremely precarious. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the warlord who had unified Japan in 1590, died in 1598 with only a toddler for an heir. Although he tried to arrange for a regency for his young son consisting of his five most powerful generals, no sooner had Hideyoshi died than fighting broke out among the group. Matters came to a head in October 1600 when Tokugawa Ieyasu and his allies defeated his enemies and thereby demonstrated supreme military authority in Japan. Ieyasu's position was further strengthened in 1603 when the title of shogun was “bestowed” on him by the emperor, and all other daimyo recognized his ascendency.