Japan ambassador visits Kent samurai's home town

Japan's ambassador to the UK has visited the Medway church where the first and only English samurai was baptised.

Hiroshi Suzuki called in at St Mary Magdalene Church in Gillingham on Thursday to mark the anniversary of former resident William Adams' christening, which took place at the parish on 24 September 1564.

A navigator and merchant-adventurer, Adams was made a samurai by feudal Japan's military ruler, or shogun, after becoming shipwrecked there 426 years ago.

"It's an amazing story of pioneer spirit," said Suzuki.

"I am so glad that today, as a result, Japanese and British people have really close feelings and connections, heart to heart," he added.

A shipwright who had worked at the dockyard in Chatham, Adams was also the first Englishman ever to wind up on Japan's shores, sailing to the Far East on board the Dutch-registered De Liefde while Queen Elizabeth I was still on the throne.

Impressed by Adams' skills in shipbuilding, navigation and gunnery, the shogun - Tokugawa Ieyasu - would also employ him as an adviser, giving him the name Miura Anjinan.

Adams later went on to play a unique role in Anglo-Japanese relations, acting as a conduit between King James I and Ieyasu in allowing the East India Company to open a trading post there.

Adams' tale would also inspire the hit 1980s TV series Shogun, starring Richard Chamberlain, along with a youth exchange programme in the form of the Medway Japan Friendship Association.

Each summer, it sees four students from Japan visit Medway and four English students travel to host towns in Japan.

However, Adams' story could have turned out very differently, according to Nicolas Maclean, Honorary Chairman of the William Adams Association.

"Adams was on a flotilla of Dutch ships, only one of which survived while the others were wrecked," he said.

"He was then accused of being a protestant spy when he got to Japan and was at great risk of being executed, which is what would've happened had the Jesuits got their way.

"But he instead became official advisor to the ruler of Japan for nearly 20 years," Maclean added.

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