Tenshō embassy
Top, from left to right: Julião Nakaura, Father Mesquita, Mancio Ito.
Bottom, from left to right: Martinão Hara, Miguel Chijiwa.
Mancio Ito (伊東マンショ Itō Mansho), 1570 - 1612, a Japanese nobleman, was the first official Japanese emmissary to Europe.
The idea of sending a Japanese embassy to Europe was originally conceived by the Jesuit Alessandro Valignano, and sponsored by the three Kirishitan daimyos Omura Sumitada (1532 - 1587), Otomo Sorin (1530 - 1587) and Arima Harunobu (1567 - 1612). Mancio Ito was chosen to act as a spokesman for the group dispatched by Otomo Sorin, who was daimyo of the Bungo Province on Kyushu and a close relative to Mancio's father; Shurinosuke Ito. On the 20th February 1582, Mancio Ito left Nagasaki in company with three other noblemen:
- Miguel Chijiwa (千々石ミゲル Chijiwa Migeru)
- Julião Nakaura (中浦ジュリアン Nakaura Jurian)
- Martinão Hara (原マルチノ Hara Maruchino)
They were accompanied by two servants and their tutor and interpreter Diego de Mesquita, and their mentor Valignano, who only accompanied them as far as Goa in India, where he was to take on new responsibilities. On their way to Lisbon, at which they arrived in August 1584, they spent 9 months visiting Macao, Kochi and Goa. From Lisbon, the ambassadors went on to Rome, which was the main goal of their journey. In Rome, Mancio Ito became an honorary citizen and taken into the ranks of european nobility with the title Cavaliere di Speron d’oro ("Knight of the Golden Spur"). During their stay in Europe, they met with King Philip II of Spain, Francesco I de' Medici; Grand Duke of Tuscany, Pope Gregory XIII and his successor Pope Sixtus V.
The ambassadors arrived back in Japan on the 21st July 1590. On their eight year long voyage they had been instructed to take notes. These notes provided the basis for the De Missione Legatorum Iaponensium ad Romanam Curiam ("About the mission of the Japanese Legates to the Roman Curia"), a Macao-based writing by Jesuit Duarte de Sande published 1590.
The four were subsequently ordained as the first ever Japanese Jesuit fathers by Alessandro Valignano.
See also
- Hasekura Tsunenaga, another Japanese embassy to Europe in 1615.
- Christian Samurai, Warlords, and Rebels of 16th - 17th Century Japan
References
- The Christian Century in Japan 1549-1650 C.R. Boxer, ISBN 1-85754-035-2
- Biographical Dictionary of Japanese History Iwao, Seiichi (Tokyo 1978)