John Saris

[1] During this first voyage to Asia, Saris took an interest in Japanese erotic art and began accumulating a private collection of woodblock prints.

William Adams landed in Japan in April 1600 as the navigator of the Dutch ship Liefde (Love), had entered the service of the Japanese shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, and had recently made contact with the English, creating an opportunity to open trading relations.

[3] Saris departed England on the Clove on 18 April 1611, reaching Table Bay in South Africa on 1 August, the Comoros on 26 October, and Socotra on 16 February 1612.

He rendezvoused with Sir Middleton in the Red Sea in April 1612, where their combined fleet spent several weeks engaging in forcible trade with Indian junks.

They departed Hirado on 7 August, travelled to Osaka and Fushimi by boat, and thence to the home of Ieyasu at Sunpu Castle, where they arrived on 6 September.

[3] Saris returned to Sunpu from 29 September to 9 October, and received a Red Seal trading license for the East India Company at the end of this trip, as well as a letter from Ieyasu to James I.

[9] Saris also brought back Ieyasu's reciprocal gifts for King James, in thanks for the telescope, which were stunning paintings, and from the shogun himself, two suits of armour (which are extant).

[10] Shortly after leaving the Company in 1615, Saris married Anne, daughter of the wealthy London merchant William Megges, granddaughter (on her mother's side) of Sir Thomas Cambell, Lord Mayor in 1609–10.

His monument, a large black stone in the floor to the right of the altar, may still be seen in All Saints Church in Fulham, though it is barely legible and partially hidden by the choir-stalls.

AGED 21 YEARESIn his will (a copy of which is in Somerset House), dated 18 April 1643, which was proved 2 October 1646, he left the bulk of his property to the children of his half-brother George, who had died in 1631.

English efforts to develop a trade relationship with China at this time failed as well, and so the Hirado factory was abandoned 'temporarily' ten years later, in 1623.