William Adams: The Real-Life Anjin Behind ‘Shogun
Reading Time: 15 minutes William Adams was a real person who served as the main inspiration for the character of Anjin in the novel Shogun and the television series of the same name. Adams is historically recognized as the first Englishman to set foot in Japan, and his life story is one of extraordinary adventure and cross-cultural exchange. His maritime journey eventually led him to Japan, where he arrived in 1600, not by choice but as a castaway after a harrowing voyage.
Adams’s life in Japan was transformative. In a society that was largely isolated from the outside world and deeply suspicious of foreigners, Adams’s adaptability and skill won him respect. He became a trusted adviser and confidant to the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan’s ruling military government at the time. Adams was granted samurai status, a rare honor for a foreigner, and given a stipend and a fief, marking his rise from a ship’s navigator to a member of the Japanese warrior class. His contributions to Japan included not only his navigational expertise but also his role in facilitating trade between Japan and England, which was crucial for the shogunate’s economic and diplomatic interests.
Early Life of William Adams: Foundations of a Navigator
William Adams was born in 1564 in Gillingham, Kent, a small market town in England. He lost his father at an early age of 12, when Adams was apprenticed to Master Nicholas Diggins, a shipwright at Limehouse, an event which proved to be a turning point in his life.
Adams practiced the science of shipbuilding, astronomy, and navigation, spending most of his time at sea. While working as an apprentice, Adams learned about the art of shipbuilding and the strict discipline that he would later need in his future endeavors.
Launch of English fireships against the Spanish Armada, 7 August 1588
/ National Maritime Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
William Adams began serving in the Royal Navy in the service of the famous Sir Francis Drake. He was known to have participated in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 as the master of the Richard Dyffylde, a supply ship of the English Navy. Following his stint in the Navy, Adams served as a pilot for the Barbary Company.
It is during these years that he is said to have commanded an expedition to the Arctic in search of the Northeast Passage, according to Jesuit sources. The claim, however, finds no mention in the works of Adams himself.
Perilous Journey: The Ordeal Before Reaching the Pacific
By the age of 34, William Adams was seeking a fortune through trade. Dutch trade with India was bringing home big profits, and news of the riches of Chile, Peru, and New Spain to the west could not be resisted. Adams would join a fleet of five ships to be put together by a company of merchants in Rotterdam in an attempt to explore and exploit the South Sea.
It was an intrepid fleet and, as such, a sort of forerunner to the Dutch East India Company. These were tough, well-armed ships. Adams, who was traveling with his brother Thomas, and the others were to pass through the Strait of Magellan on the tip of South America to the west coast. If that failed, then the ships were to proceed to Japan.
The fleet put out from the isle of Texel to find their ships almost immediately short of provisions. Before they had completed the voyage to South America, some of the ships would be in dire straits for food, water, and firewood. After crossing to the coast of North Africa to refresh their water and provisions, Simon de Cordes, one of the expedition’s leaders, was forced to order the rationing of supplies.
They were fresh out of water and fruit. The water-starved and vitamin-deficient seamen were already falling overboard as the fleet, at this stage led by Admiral Jacques Mahu, put into the Cape Verde Islands to forage for water and food. There, they got both and, in the process, unleashed disease upon the men. The admiral was one of the first to die.
As they progressed, inaccurate charts and constant bad weather in the southern hemisphere brought further suffering and misadventure. The fleet was blown miles off course and ended up at Cape Lopez in Gabon. This was a frantic stop that saw a party put ashore on Annobón Island to find supplies. Instead, many more sailors fell ill with dysentery and scurvy.
In fact, in the desperate search for fresh food, some of the sailors turned to eating leather to avoid starvation. Eventually, the sailors crossed the Rio de la Plata and reached the feared Strait of Magellan to face ice and hostility, and had another 200 men die before reaching the Pacific.
From the Pacific to Japan: The Final Leg of William Adams’ Odyssey
Surviving the Strait of Magellan and having finally reached the Pacific Ocean on September 3, 1599, William Adams and the remaining ships now had to brave more dangers. Adams and the other survivors aboard the Liefde were soon challenged by the weather, as a large storm separated the ships. The Trouw and Geloof were forced back into the strait, and Geloof eventually returned to Rotterdam in July 1600, with only 36 of the original 109 on board.
The other ships of the expedition, under the command of Simon de Cordes, tried to regroup on the Santa María Island in Chile as directed, but due to a lack of communication, some ships failed to make it to the rendezvous. While on the islands, the sailors had a chance to rest and obtain sheep and potatoes for food, but again, fate had other plans for them.
In early November, during a stop on Mocha Island, native Araucanians murdered de Cordes and 26 others on the expedition. Meanwhile, the Liefde, now with Adams aboard, also suffered during its journey but eventually reached Punta Lavapié near Concepción, Chile, where it repelled the Araucans with another Spanish captain.
Despite the many events and leadership changes Adams had now been stranded on the Liefde, which had now veered a course for Japan. At the end of November 1599, the remaining ships, now fearing the Spanish and lacking supplies, chose to cross the Pacific Ocean in hopes of reaching Japan. The journey was hard, and they may have made a brief landing on some uncharted islands, where some sailors would desert the ships. In late February 1600, Liefde was the only ship left; Hoope was lost with all hands in a typhoon.
The last leg of the journey would be just as treacherous as the first, but this time, fate was a bit kinder to Adams and his crew. After a long journey, they reached Japan in 1600, and William Adams’ saga was just beginning.
Arrival in Japan: William Adams and the Liefde’s Fateful Landing
April 19, 1600 – The worn-out Liefde, with only 23 of the original 100 survivors, after nineteen months at sea, arrived off the coast of Kyushu, Japan. The ship’s occupants were near death, having been on board the Liefde for much of the past nineteen months; they were very ill and exhausted. Trade goods on board included woolen cloth, glass beads, and spectacles, but they also carried an impressive array of iron tools and weapons, bronze cannons, cannon balls, muskets, and chain-shot.
The Liefde was received as a guest of the temporary host in Bungo (modern-day Usuki in Ōita Prefecture). Its crew was given food, and Otomo Yoshimune, the local lord, sent it to Japan’s Council of Five Elders for interrogation about its origins. The crew was then incarcerated, and the Portuguese Jesuit priests who acted as their interpreters reported back to their superiors that the crew had been pirates and should be executed.
Adams and the crew were now in great danger and were placed under the jurisdiction of Ota Shigemasa, the lord of Usuki Castle. They were imprisoned for a time, and their conditions of captivity became increasingly harsh as time passed.
Amidst the crew’s growing discomfort, Adams and the ship’s merchant Jan Joosten were brought to Osaka Castle by the daimyo (military lord) Tokugawa Ieyasu, who would later become shōgun. Adams and Joosten met Ieyasu several times during May and June 1600. They were asked a wide range of questions about the construction of ships and how to navigate them, communicating through the interpreter Suminokura Ryoi.
Adams used a world chart to explain to Ieyasu how he had come to Japan through the Strait of Magellan, which Ieyasu seemed not to believe. Adams’ truthful answers to Ieyasu’s questions about his religion, his country’s disputes with Spain and Portugal, and his reasons for wanting to come to Japan impressed Ieyasu, who overruled the Jesuits’ request that the men be executed.
Adams’ interrogation by Ieyasu would prove to be a life-saving and career-defining experience for the Englishman, setting the stage for his later life in Japan. Adams’ time with Ieyasu was characterized by stark cultural and diplomatic contrasts.
William Adams’ (The Anjin) Service to the Tokugawa Shogunate
Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered Adams and his crew to be released from imprisonment. Adams and his crew were presented an offer. If they agreed to fight in the impending civil war, Ieyasu promised to free them afterward if they could be of assistance. Adams trained Tokugawa’s army in artillery using the Liefde’s cannon and was personally involved in the civil war, fighting in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and other battles, which helped lead to Ieyasu’s victory.
Adams and his crew were generously rewarded by Tokugawa for their assistance in the war, but Tokugawa told Adams he was no longer allowed to return to England. Tokugawa Ieyasu desired Adams to stay in Japan and become a permanent advisor to the shogunate. In 1603, Adams and his crew were each given large estates near Edo with a large house and many housekeepers.
Adams and his crew were given large salaries and gifts, and his crew also received annual stipends. The Anjin thus became the technical advisors to the shogunate and the person responsible for all things nautical to the Tokugawa. Adams earned the Anjin’s continued trust with his unique knowledge of sailing when he was the pilot of the first Spanish merchant ship to enter Edo Bay, which had just opened as a major trading port.
In late 1604, Tokugawa Ieyasu gave an order that would allow Adams to remain in Japan for the rest of his life, and in 1605, Adams was given the status of samurai. Adams had fully acculturated to Japanese life in this stage of his career. He was a samurai, a direct retainer of the shogun, but also held the title of hatamoto, an even closer retainer. Adams was also granted a fief in Hemi in today’s Yokosuka City. The fief was accompanied by servants and many cho of land.
Adams would eventually die in Japan serving the shogunate. Even though he felt a great love for England, Adams came to hold a deep admiration and respect for Japan, its people, and its culture, finding Japan civil, well-ordered, and religious.
William “Anjin” Adams: Pioneering Navigator and Diplomat in Tokugawa Japan (1603-1611)
By late 1603, the aged Liefde had become no more than a hulk. Adams and Quaeckernaeck supervised her dismantling, and it was at this time that Adams first made his lasting impression on Japan, at the request of Tokugawa Ieyasu the following year. Adams and his crew constructed the first Western-style ship ever built in Japan in Itō on the Izu Peninsula. It was an 80-ton vessel used to survey the Japanese coast. The following year, the Japanese ordered another ship; it was to be 120 tons. Adams was able to bring his skills in shipbuilding to bear, as well as his understanding of Western technology in Japanese society.
By 1604, Adams was a diplomatic middleman. Ieyasu sent Adams and other senior members of the Liefde crew on a diplomatic mission to Southeast Asia to contact the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch were eager to expand into Japan and break the Portuguese trading monopoly. Despite a number of difficulties and detours, the Dutch eventually reached Japan in 1609.
The Dutch established a trading post on Hirado Island, and Adams helped them negotiate with the Japanese. Adams was successful in the negotiations and secured expansive trading rights for the Dutch. This dramatic change in Japanese foreign trade policy and relations reflected not only the international trade savvy that Adams had acquired over his travels, but also the full weight of Ieyasu’s respect and influence.
In 1609, Adams also demonstrated his diplomatic value to the Japanese by assisting in the rescue and rebuilding of the Spanish galleon San Francisco after it ran aground on the shores of Onjuku, marking the first diplomatic relations between Japan and New Spain. The rebuilt ship, the San Buena Ventura, was offered to the Spanish to use for the return trip.
The gift of the ship signified the beginning of a new phase of diplomatic relations, in which Adams was a key participant. Adams continued to gain Ieyasu’s ear, and his growing influence in Japan was underscored by an invitation to visit the shogun’s palace at his convenience.
In the following years, Adams was also involved in some religious and geopolitical intrigue and was often at odds with Catholic Jesuits.
By 1614, his influence, built on his political acumen and the trust Ieyasu had in him, helped the shogunate decide to expel Portuguese Jesuits from Japan and limit Catholic missionary activity. This decision, rooted in the long-standing Japanese paranoia about the Europeans’ attempts at political control by conversion, demonstrated the significance of Adams’s political voice and his impact on Japan’s religious policies.
William Adams made important contributions to naval technology, diplomacy, and international trade between 1603 and 1611 while in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Adams played an important role in connecting Japan to the wider world during the first decades of the 17th century. He is remembered as a man who served as a bridge between Japan and the West and as a trusted advisor to one of Japan’s most powerful shoguns.
William Adams: Bridging Continents and Cultures (1611-1617)
In 1611, William Adams wrote to the English East India Company outpost in Banten, Indonesia, in an attempt to reopen contact with England. Through an English sailor, Thomas Hill, Adams wrote of the riches to be had by English traders in Japan and the restrictions of the Dutch monopoly. These efforts mark the beginning of direct English involvement in Japan, which, in 1613, led to the arrival of Captain John Saris and his crew aboard the Clove.
After Saris’s landing in Hirado, the Anjin, acting independently, decided to live with a magistrate, rather than with his English countrymen. This not only demonstrated his assimilation into Japanese culture but also his unique position as both an Englishman and an adopted Japanese. In the interim period before Saris’s arrival, Adams had successfully petitioned the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu for a Red Seal permit, which would allow the English to trade freely throughout Japan. Adams then made arrangements to leave for England with Saris, but instead, while the rest of the crew left for Hirado, Adams remained in Japan to take up a position in the new English factory there.
Over the next couple of years, Adams continued to work for the English East India Company. In 1614, Adams was placed in charge of a trade expedition to Siam on the Sea Adventure. His primary goal was to return to the factory with a cargo of sappan wood and deer skins in order to increase the company’s financial reserves. The journey to Siam was slow due to a typhoon and a lack of welcome from local officials, but in the end, it proved profitable.
Throughout this period, Williams “Anjin” Adams continued to leverage his unique position to influence Japanese foreign policy and trade. His efforts culminated in 1617 with a voyage aboard the Gift of God to Cochinchina, where he aimed to expand trade further. Upon his return, he secured new trading licenses from Shogun Hidetada, further solidifying his role as a pivotal figure in Japanese maritime trade.
Throughout this period, Williams “Anjin” Adams continued to leverage his unique position to influence Japanese foreign policy and trade. His efforts culminated in 1617 with a voyage aboard the Gift of God to Cochinchina, where he aimed to expand trade further. Upon his return, he secured new trading licenses from Shogun Hidetada, further solidifying his role as a pivotal figure in Japanese maritime trade.
William “Anjin” Adams’s activities from 1611 to 1617 highlight his transformation from a marooned sailor to a critical player in international diplomacy and trade. His deep integration into Japanese society and his efforts to connect Japan with global trade networks illustrate his significant impact during this transformative period in Japanese history.
Throughout these years, Adams also found himself at the center of religious and geopolitical intrigue. His staunch Protestant beliefs and close ties with the shogunate made him a significant figure in the political landscape of Japan, often at odds with the Catholic Jesuits. By 1614, his influence contributed to the shogunate’s decision to expel Portuguese Jesuits from Japan and restrict the activities of Catholic missionaries, reflecting the deep-seated concerns about European intentions of political domination under the guise of religious conversion.
The Anjin’s service from 1603 to 1611 under Tokugawa Ieyasu was marked by significant achievements in naval technology, diplomacy, and international trade, making him a key figure in Japan’s engagement with the global community during the early 17th century. His legacy as a bridge between Japan and the West and as a trusted advisor to one of Japan’s most potent shoguns highlights his unique and pivotal role in the history of this period.
The Family, Death, and Enduring Legacy of William Adams
William “Anjin” Adams is remembered as the first Englishman to land in Japan. He had two families, one in Japan and one in England. Before leaving for Japan, Adams married Mary Hyn in 1589 in England. The couple had two children, John and Deliverance. Because Adams never intended to remain in Japan permanently, he left his wife to fend for herself in England. Mary Adams became destitute and eventually received some of Adams’s wages from the East India Company. Deliverance married and had children of her own in England.
In Japan, the Anjin created another family, marrying a Japanese woman whose name is believed to be Oyuki, and she was the adopted daughter of Magome Kageyu. They had two children, Joseph and Susanna. Adams became culturally and professionally assimilated into Japanese life. He never lost contact with his English family and regularly sent them money and provided for them in his will.
Adams died in 1620, in Hirado, leaving behind a large estate and legacy. He wrote a will bequeathing his property, assets and estates in Japan and England to be split equally between his two families. The inheritance for his English family was a delayed payment, and was only fully received after Mary Adams’ death. Adams was laid to rest in Hirado. His grave was lost after foreigners’ gravesites were destroyed by the Japanese during the persecutions of Christianity. The remains of Adams and some other early Englishmen in Japan were moved to a new burial place for safekeeping and are now marked with a memorial stone.
Following Adams’ death, his son Joseph would take over the title of Miura Anjin and continue the work that Adams had done. Joseph, along with his father’s business partners, would also continue to take part in trade voyages throughout Asia. In fiction and cultural references of his life, Adams is a frequently dramatized and well-known character, inspiring a range of literature, TV shows, video games, artwork, re-enactments, and more.
This was helpful in understanding some of Adams’ history but FYI the paragraphs repeat toward the end. Error.