On October 19, 1596, the Spanish ship San Felipe was shipwrecked on Urado in Kōchi on the Japanese island of Shikoku en route from Manila to Acapulco in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade.

At the time, the Japanese desired Chinese goods such as silk and porcelain, but had been prohibited from private trade with China by the Ming dynasty as a punishment for wokou pirate raids.

[6] On July 12, 1596, the Spanish ship San Felipe set sail from Manila to Acapulco under captain Matías de Landecho with a cargo that was estimated to be worth over 1 million pesos.

[9] Having heard of Hideyoshi's hospitality to the friars, the captain felt safe enough to turn down a suggestion from his crew to make their way to the friendly port of Nagasaki, center of the Nanban trade.

[9] The local daimyo Chōsokabe Motochika, however, was unfriendly to the foreigners and forced the disabled ship to his home port of Urado (浦戸; in present-day Kōchi) with 200 armed boats.

[10] Chōsokabe Motochika claimed this was standard procedure, as it was his understanding of the Japanese maritime law that any vessel stranded or wrecked in Japan belonged, with its cargo, to the local authorities.

[10] Chōsokabe Motochika's recommendation proved to be of dubious faith, as Mashita Nagamori saw profit to be made from the situation, and advised Hideyoshi to keep the cargo for the court treasury.

[9] The Jesuits caught wind of the matter and offered to intercede on behalf of the Spanish crew, suggesting the services of another of the five commissioners, the Christian sympathiser Maeda Gen'i; but the Franciscan commissary in Kyoto, Pedro Bautista, refused.

[12][13] When Nagamori reached Tosa, he asked for a monetary bribe from the Spaniards; failing that, he set about loading San Felipe's freight onto a hundred Japanese boats to ship to Kyoto.

[14] Nagamori then inquired about the relationship between Spain and Portugal, and was indignant when the pilot and the ensign of the ship both replied that the two empires shared one king (the Jesuits had long explained to the Japanese that the two countries were different and separate).

The Jesuits made a show of compliance by loading a Macau-bound carrack vessel with ordinary Portuguese in missionary wear, then continued to evangelize in Japan discreetly until Hideyoshi's death in 1598.