Why Did a Samurai Travel Across the World to Meet the POPE?

In November 1615, a samurai stood before Pope Paul V. His name was Hasekura Tsunenaga. To reach Rome he had crossed the Pacific, walked across Mexico, and sailed the Atlantic. He came home almost seven years later with a portrait, a parchment in gold, and a Christian name — and almost none of what his lord had asked for. Twenty-five years after that, officials in Sendai locked the portrait and the Roman citizenship away for more than two centuries. This episode follows the whole route: why Date Masamune sent him, what Spain and the papacy actually granted, and what happened to the people who stayed behind. This is the story of the Keichō Embassy (1613–1620): what Date Masamune hoped to gain, why Spain and the papacy welcomed the samurai with honors and granted almost nothing, and what happened to Hasekura, the friar Luis Sotelo, and the companions who never went home. CHAPTERS 0:00 A samurai before the Pope 0:29 Confiscated in 1640 0:54 Japan closes its door 1:44 Date Masamune's plan 2:50 The San Juan Bautista sets sail 3:24 Across the Pacific to Acapulco 3:58 Crossing Mexico 4:58 Across the Atlantic to Seville 6:30 Madrid and King Philip III 7:28 Baptized Felipe Francisco 8:03 The road to Rome 8:41 Before Pope Paul V 9:16 A letter that arrived first 9:49 A reply that granted nothing 10:26 Home to a closed Japan 10:53 What happened to Hasekura and Sotelo 11:23 Locked away for 230 years 12:02 Why the mission failed 12:34 The Descendants families of Coria del Río 13:05 Half the world ABOUT THE EVIDENCE: Scenes are illustrated editorial reconstructions, not portraits drawn from life. Routes on the maps are schematic. Several key moments come from interested witnesses. Scipione Amati, who wrote the embassy's history in 1615, was Sotelo's friend and wrote in its praise. Sotelo's own baptism numbers were far higher than those recorded by Chimalpahin. Some dates differ between sources: the day of arrival in Acapulco, the entry into Seville (21 or 23 October 1614), the month of the return to Sendai (1620), and the year of Hasekura's passed away (1621 or 1622). The surname in Coria del Río appears in local records by 1647. A link to the embassy is plausible and widely believed in the town, but no published study has proven descent. SOURCES: Read in full: • UNESCO Memory of the World nomination 2012-69, "Materials Related to the Keicho-era Mission to Europe (Japan and Spain)" (2012). https://media.unesco.org/sites/defaul... • Marcos Fernández Gómez, "La Misión Keicho (1613-1620): Cipango en Europa. Una embajada japonesa en la Sevilla del siglo XVII", Studia Historica. Historia Moderna 20 (1999), pp. 269–295. https://revistas.usal.es/index.php/St... Consulted through quotations or summaries: • Chimalpahin, Nahuatl diary (17th century), ed. and trans. Miguel León-Portilla, "La embajada de los japoneses en México, 1614", Estudios de Asia y África 16(2), 1981. DOI 10.24201/eaa.v16i2.684 (cited via the Embassy of Japan in Mexico). • Scipione Amati, Historia del Regno di Voxu del Giapone (Rome, 1615), as cited by Fernández Gómez. • Jonathan Batts, Circling the Waters, PhD dissertation, Columbia University (2017), abstract. https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/... • R. Mikhlin, "Papal Politics and the Portrait of a Samurai: Hasekura Tsunenaga in Rome", Harvard Undergraduate Art History Journal. https://sites.harvard.edu/harvard-und... • Nippon.com, "400e anniversaire de l'Ambassade Keichô" (2013). https://www.nippon.com/fr/currents/d1... • Embassy of Japan in France, leaflet on Hasekura in Saint-Tropez. https://www.fr.emb-japan.go.jp/files/... • Inalco study on the 1614 expulsion edict. https://books.openedition.org/presses... • Yokohama Museum of Art, portrait of Date Masamune (iconography of his eye). https://inventory.yokohama.art.museum... • The Local Spain, "The Spanish village where 700 people have the surname Japan" (1 April 2025). https://www.thelocal.es/20250401/the-...