Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga (支倉 六右衛門 常長, 1571–1622) was a kirishitan Japanese samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, the daimyō of Sendai.

In the years 1613 through 1620, Hasekura headed the Keichō Embassy (慶長使節), a diplomatic mission to Pope Paul V. He visited New Spain and various other ports-of-call in Europe on the way.

Hasekura Tsunenaga was born in year 2 of the Genki era (1571) in Ushū, Okitama-no-kōri, Nagai-sō, Tateishi-mura (now part of modern day Yonezawa in Yamagata Prefecture.

[2][1] He was a mid-level noble samurai in the Sendai Domain in northern Japan who had the opportunity to directly serve the daimyō, Date Masamune, and received an annual stipend of 1200 koku.

Efforts to expand influence in Japan were met by stiff resistance from the Jesuits, who had started the evangelizing of the country in 1549,[citation needed] as well as by the opposition of the Portuguese and Dutch who did not wish to see Spain participate in Japanese trade.

The San Francisco was severely damaged, losing its mast and leaking water, and later struck a reef nearby the hamlet Yubanda (likely present-day Iwawada, in Onjuku, Chiba).

The captain of the San Francisco, Rodrigo de Vivero, was recognized as a former governor of the Philippines, and was granted an audience with the retired shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Rodrigo de Vivero offered to sail on the Japanese ship in order to guarantee the safety of their reception in New Spain, but insisted that another Franciscan, named Alonso Muños, be sent instead as the shōgun's representative.

[citation needed] In 1610, Rodrigo de Vivero, several Spanish sailors, the Franciscan father, and 22 Japanese representatives led by the trader Tanaka Shōsuke sailed to Mexico aboard the San Buenaventura, a ship built by the English navigator William Adams for the shōgun.

Without waiting for Vizcaíno, another ship – built in Izu by the Tokugawa shogunate under the minister of the Navy Mukai Shōgen, and named San Sebastianleft for Mexico on 9 September 1612 with Luis Sotelo onboard as well as two representatives of Date Masamune, with the objective of advancing the trade agreement with New Spain.

[citation needed] The shōgun had a new galleon built in Japan to bring Vizcaíno back to New Spain, together with a Japanese embassy accompanied by Luis Sotelo.

[citation needed] He named Hasekura to lead the mission: The objective of the Japanese embassy was both to discuss trade agreements with the Spanish crown in Madrid, and to meet with the Pope in Rome.

[citation needed] Date Masamune displayed a great will to welcome the Catholic religion in his domain: he invited Sotelo and authorized the propagation of Christianity in 1611.

Some of them, as well as those from the previous travel of Tanaka Shōsuke, returned to Japan the same year, sailing back with the San Juan Bautista: The embassy stopped and changed ships in Havana in Cuba in July 1614.

Crossing the Pacific aboard the San Juan Bautista—a ship built for the purpose by Masamune—Hasekura traveled to New Spain (now Mexico), arriving in Acapulco and departing from Veracruz.

Due to bad weather, they had to stay for a few days in the French harbour of Saint-Tropez, where they were received by the local nobility, and made quite a sensation on the populace.

[citation needed] The visit of the Japanese Embassy is recorded in the city's chronicles as led by "Philip Francis Faxicura, Ambassador to the Pope, from Date Masamune, Lord of the Sendai Domain, Mutsu Province, Japan".

[citation needed] The Japanese Embassy arrived at Rome on 20 September 1615 and was received by Cardinal Burgecio; the delegation met Pope Paul V on 3 November.

[citation needed] The Latin letter, probably written by Luis Sotelo for Date Masamune, reads, in part: The Pope agreed to the dispatch of missionaries, but left the decision for trade to the King of Spain.

Certain registration documents indicate that some Japanese could have stayed in Spain, which is possible given that they made their last stop in villages near Seville (Espartinas[27] and Coria del Río[28]).

[citation needed] He may also have encouraged an alliance between the Church and Date Masamune to take over the country (an idea advertised by the Franciscans while in Rome), which, in 1620 Japan, would have been a totally unrealistic proposition.

[citation needed] Lastly, hopes of trade with Spain evaporated when Hasekura communicated that the Spanish King would not enter an agreement as long as persecutions were occurring in the rest of the country.

[citation needed] Two of his son's servants, Yogoemon (与五右衛門) and his wife, were convicted of being Christian but refused to recant their faith under torture (reverse hanging, called "tsurushi") and as a result died in August 1637.

[citation needed] In 1637, Rokuemon Tsuneyori himself also came under suspicion of Christianity after being denounced by someone from Edo, but escaped questioning because he was the master of the Zen temple of Komyoji (光明寺).

[citation needed] In 1640, two other servants of Tsuneyori, Tarōzaemon (太郎左衛門, 71), who had followed Hasekura to Rome, and his wife (59), were convicted of being Christians, and, also refusing to recant their faith under torture, died.

[39] There are statues of Hasekura Tsunenaga in the outskirts of Acapulco in Mexico, at the entrance of Havana Bay in Cuba,[40] in Coria del Río in Spain,[41] in the Church of Civitavecchia in Italy, in Tsukinoura, near Ishinomaki,[42] and two in Osato town in Miyagi.

[44] A theme park describing the embassy and displaying a replica of the San Juan Bautista was established in the harbour of Ishinomaki, from which Hasekura initially departed on his voyage.

Yohei survived in hiding to the present day due to magical powers ("After centuries of lethargy, he awakes in a World he does not know"), and accomplishes many adventures in modern Europe as a superhero.

[49] The 2018 French documentary Un samouraï au Vatican, directed by Stéphane Bégoin, chronicles the travels of the diplomatic mission to Europe led by Hasekura Tsunenaga.

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